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Saint Ursula and Pope Cyriacus Leaving Rome

c. 1520
Hans Thoman (German (active Swabia), active 1514–1525)

According to legend, Saint Ursula, seen in the center of this sculpture, was a British princess who was to be married in Armorica, a region of Gaul (now near Brittany, France). She set sail for her wedding attended by 11,000 virginal handmaidens. Instead of traveling to Armorica and marrying, she made a pilgrimage to Rome and sailed for Cologne with Pope Cyriacus. In Cologne, she and her attendants were massacred by Huns.

This sculpture probably belonged to a large carved altarpiece that related the legend of Saint Ursula. Individual carved sculptures such as this would have been mounted together within a case that supported the parts of the altarpiece, called a huche in sixteenth-century German. Many carved altarpieces were produced in Germany during the sixteenth century.


Object Details

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