STADLER, Veit
(active in Nagyszombat between 1637-1655)



A wood carver in Northern Hungary, Veit Stadler was mentioned as a "local master" in the invoices of Nagyszombat Jesuit church. His masterpiece was the sculptural decoration of the church's high altar, which was executed in 1640 under leading of the charpenter Balthasar Knilling, and for which Stadler was paid 1150 Forints in 1637. The painted and gilded compact wooden statues are set in the niches of the altar's four stories, around the central painting which represents the Baptism of Christ. Their iconography rather comprehensive: above the Old Testament prophets (first story) there stand the apostles and Fathers of the church, than the saints of the Jesuit order, and the holy kings of Hungary with Virgin Mary, the "Patrona Hungariae" at the top of the altar. The four side altars of the church, amongst which the latest one, that of "St. Joseph" and "the Mater Dolorosa" was executed in 1655, can be considered as autonomous works of Stadler.

While working on the Nagyszombat high altar, Stadler carved a little altar of "Mater Dolorosa" for the chapel of Zólyom (Zvolen) Castle. This was attributed to him by Magda Keleti (1976) on the basis of the signature on the altar's Pietà statue (V S 1650).



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Created and maintained by Emil Krén and Dániel Marx; sponsored by the T-Systems Hungary Ltd.