The Flight to Egypt

Hans Jakob I. Bair (Bayr) (1564 - 1628), Master around 1603, assay master 1622-1626

Augsburg, possibly Hans IV. Pfleger (Augsburg 1587-1615). Around 1620/30. Silver, gilt. 18,5 x 15,8 cm, ca. 358 g. Assay mark: Augsburg pyr, master's mark: HP. Traces of usage. Rectangular relief featuring a finely chiseled depiction of a scene from the Gospel of Matthew (Mt 2:13), showing the Holy Family in a mountainous forest landscape. Joseph walks ahead, leading the donkey that carries Mary with the sleeping infant Jesus. The depiction is presumably based on an engraving by Johannes Sadeler the Elder after Maarten de Vos. The relief, marked with a Roman ‘X’ on the reverse, likely originates from a series of reliefs depicting events from the life of Christ. An almost identical composition (there framed by a narrow, profiled silver strip) is in the collection of the Württemberg State Museum in Stuttgart (Seling II, fig. 57) - Literature: Seling III, No. 1168; Seling II, fig. 57; Seling III, p. 58 and p. 239, No. 57 - Provenance: Private collection, Hamburg - A goldsmith from Augsburg, whose surviving works include not only figurative silver sculptures and liturgical objects but also a series of reliefs depicting scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary and the Passion of Christ Mus.: Munich, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum; Stuttgart, Württembergisches Landesmuseum; Augsburg, Städtische Kunstsammlungen; Karlsruhe, Badisches Landesmuseum Lit.: Seling I, p. 58, Seling II, fig.50,51, 57-60, Seling III, No. 1168