Statue

This limewood statue representing the head of St. John the Baptist on a charger was made in Tyrol in about 1500. This is closely related to two other pieces of the same subject from the Tyrol of about 1500: one in the pilgrimage chapel of St. John on the Hohn Salve in Brixen-im-Thale, the other from a chapel in Niederau in the collection of Rudolf Kriss, now in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Zweigmuseum Schloss Straubing. Sculptures of this type are known as Johannesschüsseln(St John dishes), a genre popular from the 13th to the 16th century, particularly in Germany and Austria, and one which could have different functions. Such dishes were sometimes placed, for instance, on the altars of churches and chapels dedicated to St. John on the day commemorating his decapitation, and several hundred examples of them were recorded in 1737 and 1816 in the pilgrimage chapel in Brixen-im-Thale.