Dr. Dagmar Preising, Curator Suermondt – Ludwig - Museum Aachen A Neo-Gothic Carver's Collection of Gothic Sculptures. Meaning and Function Collecting Medieval Sculpture - Ards Study Day Paris November 23rd-24th Musée du Louve – Paris www.ards.be

1. Dagmar Preising
Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum Aachen
A Neo-Gothic Carver‘s Collection
of Gothic Sculptures.
Meaning and Function

2. Richard Möst (Moest)
(Horb/Swabia 1841 – 1906 Cologne)
Carver, Restorer, Collector
The widower Möst with his
three children
Möst‘s portrait and letterhead

3. Möst as a carver
two reliefs (90 x 77 cm), from the
former retable on the highaltar of St
John Baptist in Cologne

4. Iustitia and Prudentia, oak, non-
polychromed, 39,3 x 13 cm,
Cologne City Museum
Signature of Möst at
the plinth of Prudentia

5. Möst as a restorer
Antwerp altarpiece, c. 1520
Cologne Cathedral, purchased in
1840/42, restored by Möst‘s
workshop
Antwerp altarpiece, c. 1520/30,
Aldenhoven (Rhineland), parish church St
Martin, 1898/99 restored by Möst‘s
workshop

6. Möst as a collector
The sculpture collection in
his private home, Cologne

7. Views of the sculpture collection in his
private home, Cologne

8. Sculptures of the Möst coll.,
since 1907 in the S(L)M Aachen
I. Cologne:
- 14th
- early 16th century (Master
Wilhelm von Arborch)

9. II. The Low Countries:
- Antwerp, c. 1500, with quality mark
- Mechelen, c. 1500-1510, with quality mark
- Northern Netherlands, 1520-1530

10. III. Ulm
- Master Hartmann, c. 1430, 117 x 48,7 cm
- Hans Multscher, c. 1430/40, 38,8 x 14,8 cm
- Michel Erhart (workshop), c. 1490, 54 x 27,5 cm

11. Ulm:
- Niklaus Weckmann, c. 1520 , 115 x 39 cm
- Daniel Mauch, c. 1510-15, 163 x 52 cm

12. Möst‘s manipulation on medieval sculptures: carved additions
North Brabant ‚ ‘s-Hertogenbosch?,
St Catherine, c. 1525/30,
119,9 x 38,5 cm, SLM Aachen
Position of later added
components
(drawing: Ulrike Villwock)

13. Upper Swabia (Biberach?), Saint Anne with the
Virgin and Child, limewood, 48 x 75,5 cm, SLM
Aachen

14. Upper Swabia (Biberach?) Saint Anne, limewood, polychromy stripped off, details
Copy of the angel/putto Original angel/putto

15. Sculptures of the collection as inspiration
for new sculptural inventions
Kneeling Virgin
Cologne (?), walnut, c. 1400/30,
39,1 x 27,5 cm, SLM Aachen
St. Joseph, Möst, 1870-1900,
oak, 41,6 x 30,3 cm, Cologne
City Museum

16. Carved additions with polychromy
Decapitation of St John
the Baptist,
South Germany
(workshop master of
Rabenden, Munich),
c. 1520,
50 x 49,4 cm,
SLM Aachen

17. Decapitation of St John the Baptist, details
showing Möst‘s additions (both arms of
the executioner, head of St John, plate and
Salome‘s forearms)

18. Mouldings and carved copies
Kneeling Virgin
Cologne (?), walnut, c. 1400/30,
39,1 x 27,5 cm,
SLM Aachen
two mouldings
Cologne City Museum

19. Panel depicting Fides,
c. 1890 (?)
oak, 37,6 x 18,8 cm,
SLM Aachen
Moulding of the panel,
Cologne City Museum

20. Relief of the former altarpiece on
the highaltar of St John the Baptist
in Cologne,
Birth of St John, Möst, 1893
Moulding
Cologne City Museum

21. Example for a late 19th century collection of mouldings:
the atelier of the neogothic sculptor Peter Fuchs, Cologne Cathedral

22. Scaled/downsized copies
Original, c. 1500, oak, 81
x 26,9 cm, SLM Aachen
Copy, 1890ies, oak, 40,2 x 14,2,
Cologne City Museum
Angel with
Arma Christi,
Lower Rhine

23. St Magdalen, Middle Rhine (?),
c. 1500-1510, H 67 cm, ex-coll.
Rautenstrauch Trier, present
location unknown
Copy, Möst, oak, 36,2 x 18,5
cm, Cologne City Museum

24. Reversed/ mirror-inverted copies
Copy, 1898/99 (?), Möst, oak,
17,2 x 8,2 cm
Parish church Aldenhoven,
Antwerp altarpiece
Copy, 1898/99 (?), Möst,
oak, 15,2 x 7,6 cm
Cologne City Museum
Prophet of an
Antwerp altarpiece,
formerly SLM
Aachen, present
location unknown

25. Replacing the original with a copy
Soldier of a crucifixion
scene, Antwerp, from
the retable in
Aldenhoven
(Rhineland),
previously SLM
Aachen, present
location unknown
Original
Copy, c. 1898/99, Möst, oak,
Antwerp retable in Aldenhoven

26. Antwerp altarpiece in Merl
(Moselle), c. 1520
Carved tendrils with prophets
and Jesse are copies.
Fragments of a tendril with prophets, part
of a Tree of Jesse, probably from the Merl
Antwerp altarpiece, c. 1520
Cologne City Museum

27. Ferdinand Langenberg in
Goch / Lower Rhine
as a carver and collector
Langenberg collection in Goch
Draft of an altarpiece as an
example for Langenberg as a
carver

28. The Kramer Brothers in Kempen /Lower Rhine
as carvers and collectors.
Presentation of the Kramer Museum in Kempen by Konrad Kramer himself in 1912

29. Suermondt-Museum in 1910:
Presentation of the sculpture collection, including the Möst collection