Back Panels of a Choir Stall in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, August 2007

Back Panels of Choir Stalls

From choir stalls made by the cabinetmaker Johann Justus Schacht with the help of twenty-one assistants for the church of the Carthusian monastery in Mainz.
Panels: oak veneered with walnut, boxwood, rosewood, ebony, maple, and other woods, ivory, green-stained horn, and pewter.
Figures: carved and painted limewood
Mainz, 1723-26, with additions from 1787

Accession # 52.120

After the secularization of the monastery in 1787 the choir stalls were sold to the cathedral in Trier. Marquetry panels with scenes of the lives of the Carthusians were replaced by nonfigurative marquetry panels, and the carved figures were added at that time. The choir stalls remained at Trier until 1890, when part of the paneling was sold following the restoration of the cathedral.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.