Cuttings from the Missal of Johann Stantenat

NUREMBERG: DÜRER AND HUMANISM

At some point in the nineteenth century, five cuttings from a two-volume missal were artfully arranged to form this collage. The missal was commissioned by the abbot of the Cistercian abbey at Salem, southwest of Nuremberg. At center, St. Benedict stands within a large initial O that begins the Mass for his feast day. Clad in the black habit of the Benedictines, he holds a crozier and a miraculous glass vase. By adopting the same attributes for the portrait of Abbot Stantenat above, the artist equates him with the saintly model. Below are the arms of Salem Abbey and Abbot Stantenat on either side of a crozier bearing the manuscript’s date.