Richard and Erna Flagg's Renaissance treasury - important collection of Renaissance decorative arts and German clocks

Magazine Antiques, Oct, 1999 by Laurie Winters

During the course of six decades Erna and the late Richard Flagg (d. 1995) assembled what is universally acknowledged to be one of the foremost collections in North America of Renaissance decorative arts and German clocks. In 1991 they gave and loaned more than one hundred objects from their collection to the Milwaukee Art Museum. While varied in style and country of origin, the objects in the collection are united in their emphasis on virtuoso craftsmanship, technical innovation, and intricate artistry.

The Flaggs were both born in Frankfurt in 1906 to upper middle-class families. They met at dancing school and very early shared the vision of collecting Renaissance decorative arts. Since Richard Flagg was half Jewish, the couple fled Germany in 1939, fast to the Netherlands, then to Antwerp, the south of France, and Casablanca before sealing in Milwaukee in 1942. The city offered the familiarity of a German heritage and the opportunity to reestablish the family tanning business.

By the mid- to late 1950s the Flaggs were making frequent trips to Europe, combining business and collecting with the object of rebuilding their collection, which had been a casualty of the war. In 1958 they bought from a Swiss dealer a number of clocks from the well-known collection of Nathan R. Frankel (1848-1909), forming the nucleus of their postwar collection.

At a time when it was fashionable for many private collectors in the United States to amass English silver and porcelain, the Flaggs concentrated on the decorative arts of Germany and northern Europe, and, unlike specialist collectors, they selected objects that demonstrated artistry and technical achievement as long as they both liked them.

Among the many intricately tooled metal vessels and tablewares in the collection is the pokal, or banqueting cup, shown in Plate III. It consists of nine sections screwed and bolted together and was probably the masterpiece submitted by its maker for entry into the Augsburg goldsmiths' guild.(1) The pokal was once in the collection of the dukes of Buckingham.(2)

The display platter in Plate I and the majestic cup in Plate II are distinguished for their artistic novelty and technical artifice. These partly sculptural and partly functional objects were never intended for everyday use. They were made as diplomatic gifts or status symbols to impress guests when used as table ornaments at Renaissance banquets.

Two of the rarest and most spectacular works in the collection are the Limoges tazza by Jean de Court shown in Plate VII and the Italian ewer in Plate IV. Vessels by de Court are especially admired for their calligraphic patterns of mannerist decoration and their jewel-like surfaces achieved by successive firings of layers of enamels in grisaille tones. The ewer in the shape of a sailing ship is likewise a tour de force of glassmaking, with its mold-blown hull, delicately tooled latticework, and applied ornamentation. Although the date of the ewer has often been questioned, recent research has turned up a photograph dated 1868 that shows the ewer in the famous decorative arts collection of Karl Thewalt in Cologne.(3) Many historicized versions of the ewer were made in the late nineteenth century, but this photograph significantly reduces the likelihood that the ewer in the Flagg Collection is anything but an exceedingly rare example of sixteenth-century Venetian glassmaking, perhaps one of only three such ewers in the world.(4)

The collection is also rich in inlaid cabinets and caskets, which were made in response to the Renaissance need to safeguard the fruits of its prosperity against theft. Many of these coffers were richly decorated by gold- and silversmiths, lapidaries, ivory engravers, and sculptors. Larger cabinets, such as the one in Plate V, often resembled miniature palaces, and their interiors were frequently fitted with secret drawers and compartments that demonstrated the virtuosity of the cabinetmaker.(5) The panels on this cabinet depict the theological virtues Faith, Hope, and Charity, suggesting that it may have been a safe haven for a woman's valuables. The presence of these allegorical figures may have been a gentle reminder that pleasure and worldly gain must not take precedence over Christian principles.(6) The smaller trunk-shaped coffer in Plate VI is remarkable for its tooled- and gilded-leather covering depicting the chase and capture associated with youthful courtship and marriage. As the owner of a tannery, Richard Flagg must have been delighted with the exceptional quality and condition of this coffer.

Among the outstanding liturgical objects in the collection is the monstrance in Plate VIII, which is nearly four feet tall. A multitude of small parts have been pinned, screwed, and eased into position in this shimmering display of silverwork. The dramatic polychromed wood sculpture in Plate XV was once part of a late Gothic winged altarpiece illustrating the stages of the Passion.(7) Smaller scale devotional objects were made in many forms and mediums. The figure of the crucified Christ in Plate IX is flawlessly executed in its details, eerily conveying agony and death.