High Altar of St Mary (Apostle John)

This is figure of Apostle John from the central part of the open High Altar of St Mary in the Church of St Mary in Cracow.

Factual information concerning the origins and schooling of this sculptor, painter and engraver is entirely lacking; some of his forms of expression suggest contact with Nikolaus Gerhaert. The path by which Sluter’s principles may have come to this German master are obscure, but Sluter’s figure of St John at least can be linked to the Franconian tradition of Nuremberg. Borrowing the powerful and vigorous plebeian types favoured by the Gothic style, Stoss so transfigures them in his generous idealism that the craftsmanlike concern for exactitude and tiny detail is quite submerged in the overall emotional and plastic intensity.