SOUTH GERMAN OR AUSTRIAN, LATE 15TH CENTURY

Saint Florian was a soldier in the Roman army serving in the Empire’s province of Noricum, present day Austria, in the 3rd century AD. He was martyred for his Christian faith under the reign of Emperor Diocletian and, according to tradition, his body is buried in the town of Sankt Florian near Linz. Widely venerated in both Austria and south Germany, in the Middle Ages the saint became associated with protection against fire probably due to a legend that he was able to put out a building’s blaze with a single bucket of water. His feast day, 4th May, is now also International Firefighters’ Day. The earliest surviving representations of the saint with a bucket and burning building are from the late fifteenth century (see C. Gómez-Moreno, Medieval Art from Private Collections, exhibition catalogue, The Cloisters, New York, 1968-1969, no. 61.).