Artworks Catalogue

Location

Germany, Bavaria, Munich

Monastery Church of St Anne in Lehel (Klosterkirche St. Anna im Lehel)

Catholic Parish of St Anne

Artwork

Tabernacle of the High Altar in the Monastery Church of St Anne in Munich-Lehel

Type

Tabernacle

Critical History

Lippert attributed the tabernacle and the pulpit to J. B. Straub, no. 21 and 46. 1The highaltar was created by Egid Quirin Asam in 1738. Giedion-Welcker subsumed that the tabernacle was not made in 1738 but later. Steiner sees a resemblance to the tabernacle of Ignaz Günther in Rott am Inn. A drawing from 1740–1750 exists in the Graphic Collection in Munich (30496; Picture 42). The carving of the angels is very different from the drawing. Compared with the works that Straub executed at the same time for Dießen it is hard to see similarities. Volk compares the angels with works for Schäftlarn in 1755– 1760.2

Construction / Execution

The tabernacle is composed of an underconstruction with a little door in the middle. The tabernacle has three niches that can be made visible by a turning movement. The top of the tabernacle looks similar to roofs of clock towers. Two angels with a censer each are kneeling left and right of the tabernacle. Two cherubs with wings are kneeling in an adoring pose on the roof of the tabernacle. The lamp on the Book with Seven Seals was presented on top of the hole in the tabernacle. A nimbus with small clouds was mounted on the backside. After World War II the lamb and the nimbus were replaced by a pelican feeding its young. The tabernacle seems to be made of wood. The surface of the tabernacle and the sculptures is gilded or silvered. The angels hold metal censers in their hands (silver ?).

Components

Carpentry

Author: Johann Baptist Straub (Wiesensteig ca. 1704 – Munich 1784)

Completed: 1756

Technique(s): sawing, wood carving

Sculpture

Author: Johann Baptist Straub (Wiesensteig ca. 1704 – Munich 1784)

Completed: 1756

Technique(s): wood carving

Polychromy

Completed: 1756

Technique(s): oil gilding, water gilding

Comment

The photo on page 14 in the book of C. Giedion-Welcker (1922) shows, on top of the tabernacle not the pelican feeding its young with his own blood but the Lamp with Seven Seals. The architectural console attachment on top of the tabernacle and the gloriole which was behind the Lamb with Seven Seals are missing. The two putti on top of the tabernacle look smaller than on the historical photo; they might have been reconstructed in younger times. The doors of the tabernacle showing the Last Supper date from the 20^th century. On the historical photo there is a chalice with the host in the centre of the gloriole.

Images

1. The tabernacle of the high altar in the Monastery Church of St Anne, Munich-Lehel (Bavarian State Department for Monuments and Sites, photo by Michael Forstner, 2018)