Shield Bearer with the Ducal Arms of Saxony in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 2010

Shield Bearer with the Ducal Arms of Saxony
Honestone, partially polychromed and gilt
German (Augsburg), commissioned (most likely) 1518, delivered 1521

Hans Daucher (act. 1485, died 1538), design and partial execution, and Workshop of Adolph Daucher (ca. 1465-1523/24?)

Accession Number: 1999.29

The boy, originally an angel (as can be determined by holes in the shoulders where wings once were), was commissioned by Duke George the Bearded of Saxony (r. 1500-1539). Clad as a warrior, he originally stood at the top left of the portal frame of the duke's sepulchral chapel in the cathedral of Meissen. The whereabouts of his companion angel on the right, holding a shield with the Polish eagle, the arms of the duke's wife Barbara (died 1534), are unknown. Both sculptures were removed from the portal in the nineteenth century (the computer composites emulate the original appearance.)

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.