Stove Tile with a Woman Presenting St. John in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 2018

Stove Tile with Saint John the Evangelist and Samson
late 15th century


Object Details

Maker: Buda Castle Workshop

Date: late 15th century

Geography: Made in Budapest, Hungary

Culture: Hungarian

Medium: Earthenware, lead glaze

Dimensions: 18 11/16 × 15 7/16 × 9 3/4 in. (47.4 × 39.2 × 24.8 cm)
Other (Body of tile): 13 3/8 × 15 7/16 × 7 7/8 in. (33.9 × 39.2 × 20 cm)

Classification: Ceramics-Tiles

Credit Line: Gift of R. Thornton Wilson, in memory of Florence Ellsworth Wilson, 1954

Accession Number: 54.57

The corner tile is from the decorative outer cladding of a closed wood-burning stove in the Chapter House of the Augustinian Abbey at Waldhausen in southern Austria. The abbey was dedicated to Saint John the Evangelist, who appears on the heraldic shield. Behind the shield, Samson strangles the lion. The stove may have been a gift to the abbey from Matthias Corvinus (1443–1490), King of Hungary, who also ruled Austria from 1480.


Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/468463