The saint is depicted in a contrapposto: she is standing on her left leg, her right knee is slightly bent forward and her head is gently inclined to her left. She wears a red robe in the latest style, gathered below the bust and trimmed at the hem with a wide band of gold and silver; over this she wears a green cloak, fastened with a narrow ribbon above the bust and trimmed with the same gold and silver band as the dress. Her hair is covered by a headdress artfully crafted from ribbon fabric and ornamented with evenly spaced parallel red stripes; the ends fall in a slight curve from behind the nape of the neck over the left shoulder and down the right of the chest. St Elizabeth wears a crown indicating her royal lineage, as she was born the daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary in 1207.
She holds an open book in her left hand, and with her right hand she lifts the robe up to her knees, revealing a light-coloured undergarment.
The sculpture is the work of a skilled carver who created a solid representation of the saint’s body, dressed in three layers of clothing, each with a distinct character of its own – taking into account Elizabeth’s posture, the cut of the clothes and the properties of the fabric. The sculpture has a subtle quality, emphasised by its silhouette, which is thinner at the top and bottom and slightly wider in the middle. A similar style is evident in works of the younger Villach workshop, which were found in many locations in Carinthia and also south of the Karavanke and Carnic Alps. The statue of St Elizabeth is comparable to the St Catherine from the openwork superstructure of the high altar in the Pilgrimage Church of St Wolfgang in Grades in the Metnitz valley and to the St Ulrich from the crowning of the winged retable (dated 1515) in the Church of the Holy Cross in Kojsko in Goriška Brda.
Provenance:
succursal Church of St Mary Magdalene near Dravograd