Saint Andrew (c. 1515–20): Art, History and Details

Saint Andrew (c. 1515–20) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Master of Elsloo (Netherlandish).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Apostle figures such as this were made in large numbers in the eastern Netherlands during the early 1500s. This figure of Saint Andrew, identified by his X-shaped cross, was undoubtedly a single figure from an apostle series. It may have been used above a choir stall in a church, or else part of an apostelbalk, a wooden beam with a figure of Christ at the center. These beams were mounted high above the interior of the church to separate the nave (used by lay people) from the sanctuary, accessible only to the clergy. The artist is named after a multicolored group of Saint Anne with the Virgin and Child, now in the Augustinuskerk in Elsloo, the Netherlands. The sculptor is probably Jan van Oel, who was working in and around Roermond in about 1500–1520. Most of the sculptures attributed to this master are in churches in Belgium and Dutch Limburg and in the neighboring German region.

Object facts

• Title: Saint Andrew
• Date: c. 1515–20
• Creator attribution: Master of Elsloo (Netherlandish)
• Culture: Netherlands, Elsloo, 16th century
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: oak with traces of paint
• Dimensions: Overall: 70.8 x 27 cm (27 7/8 x 10 5/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Gothic
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1938.169

A detail from the museum

Traces of paint found on this sculpture suggest that at one point it was painted.

Collection credit

Gift of John D. Rockefeller Jr.

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Brummer Gallery Records. Cloisters (Museum), n.d.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.