Two Standing Apostles (probably Saint John the Evangelist and St. Paul)

c. 1430

Two Standing Apostles (probably Saint John the Evangelist and St. Paul), c. 1430. Master of the St. Omer Apostles (Northern France / Netherlands, Bruges (?) (today’s Belgium), active, c. 1410–30). Alabaster; overall: 23.7 x 9.3 x 5.8 cm (9 5/16 x 3 11/16 x 2 5/16 in.); overall: 23.7 x 10.2 x 5.9 cm (9 5/16 x 4 x 2 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2022.41 The two sculptures come from an altarpiece in the cathedral of Saint Omer in northern France. Four other figures have been preserved there, and possibly one at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The workshop was probably located in Bruges, in what is now Belgium. Sculpture was the leading art genre at that time. The specialized workshops obtained the stone alabaster from distant quarries, in this case from the area of Würzburg in Bavaria (Germany), to form it intricately and deliver it to customers in almost all of Europe. Alabaster is very soft; after 20 minutes of treatment with water the surface will dissolve.