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- Time
- probably Salzburg/Austria, around 1500
- Material
- carved lime wood mostly original polychrome paint and gilding
- Height
- 42½ in
St. Dorothy is the patron saint of gardeners, florists, brewers and newlyweds and, alongside with Catherine, Barbara and Margaret, she is one of the Virgines Capitales, the four most significant virgin martyrs.
According to legend, St. Dorothy was born at the end of the 3rd century in Roman Caesarea (modern-day Kayseri/Turkey) as the daughter of a Christian senator’s family. After rejecting the marriage proposal of the pagan governor, she was tortured, yet she survived all attempts unharmed. The governor then ordered her beheading, to which Dorothy replied that she looked forward to soon meeting her Creator and picking roses and apples in the Garden of Eden. The scribe Theophilus, who was present, mocked her words, and immediately an angel appeared in the form of a young boy, carrying a basket full of paradisiacal fruits and flowers despite the winter season. Theophilus was converted by this miracle and, like Dorothy, he was beheaded.
The present masterful Gothic sculpture of Saint Dorothy, crafted around 1500 from carved limewood, is in excellent, largely original condition, including its polychrome paint and gilding. The saint is represented with two of her key attributes: the martyr‘s crown and the youthful angel holding a basket of flowers. The figure resembles a Salzburg sculpture of St. Barbara in the collection of the Leogang Mining and Gothic Museum, suggesting that this piece may have originated in the Salzburg region.