Saint Elizabeth feeding the sick in a hospital. Oil painting on copper by Adam Elsheimer, Frankfurt am Main c. 1598.

Wellcome Library no. 44650i

Iconography
The subject of the picture is Saint Elizabeth (1207-1231), who was the daughter of King Andor II of Hungary and wife of Louis, Landgrave of Thuringia. After her husband's death on a crusade in 1227, she gave away her worldly possessions and turned the income from her dowry over to the building and running of a hospital in Marburg, in which she personally cared for the sick, the poor and the homeless. This is the the subject of this picture; among other details of hospital life, the painter has placed a painting above each of the beds, and despite his sacred theme, includes such homely details as the slop bucket in the centre foreground and the slippers and chamber pot under the bed in the lower left corner.

Attribution
The painting is believed to be by Adam Elsheimer, who was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1578, went to Italy in about 1598, and died in Rome at an early age in 1610. Elsheimer generally painted in an extremely slow and painstaking way on small sheets of copper, and his compositions are marked by fine details, many figures, skilful integration of the figures with the landscape or interior, and empathy with the characters in the picture. The Wellcome painting, with its awkward perspective and German subject, is considered to be an early work, painted probably at the age of about twenty, while Elsheimer was still in his native city of Frankfurt am Main.

Provenance
Bought by Henry S Wellcome in Amsterdam in 1928.

Further details
Please see the entry in the Wellcome Library catalogue

Last updated: January 2006