St John Nepomuk

This statuette depicts the martyred Bohemian St John Nepomuk, who was canonised in 1729.

St John Nepomuk had been depicted in numerous paintings and sculptures before he was officially canonised, including the bronze statue on the Charles Bridge in Prague after a model by Matthias Rauchmiller (1645-1686) of 1683. This statue is similar in pose to the present ivory, and indeed served as a prototype for other sculpted representations of the saint, such as the lifesize wood figure by the Mainz sculptor Burkard Zamels (c.1690-1757) in the Museum collection, inv. no. A.14-1957. It is difficult to date the present piece precisely, and so a broad date span is given here. Its style of carving, as well as the initials on the back, means that it is certainly an autograph work by Hencke.