Hausaltar (house altar or architectural model), J. M. Fischer

Exhibition Label: "Corpus," Apr-2012, Celka Straughn This small-scale religious shrine may have first served as a model for a village church in southern Germany or Austria; however, it seems also to have acquired a second use as a house altar for private religious devotion. Two peasant saints flank the central standing figure of Jesus. On the right dressed in contemporary costume, St. Notberga gestures dramatically, her signature sickle in one hand. A pious housemaid, Notberga refused to harvest on the Sabbath and threw a sickle in the air which remained suspended in the evening sky, resembling the waxing harvest moon. To the left stands her male counterpart, St. Isidore the Laborer, revered for acts of devotion and charity. Called upon to protect harvests, Isidore is often depicted with a farming implement, as here with a spade. Local saints like these acted as beneficial intercessors as well examples of faith and industriousness.