Rare German Protestant Embossed Paper Relief "sitz Der Häretiker", Papierrelief C18th

A rare and unusual German Protestant embossed paper relief (Papierrelief), hand-coloured and dating from the mid-eighteenth century.

The composition depicts Caiphas (Caiaphas) enthroned beneath a cloud inscribed "Sitz der Häretiker" ("Seat of the Heretics"), surrounded by named historical heretics and religious opponents including Arius, Novatian, Cerinthus, Sabellius, Menander and Mahomet (Muhammad). The plaque beneath Caiaphas contains a quotation from John 11:49–50, a passage frequently employed in Protestant theological literature.

Examination of the reverse shows that the entire composition, including the elaborate Rococo border, figures and inscriptions, has been mould-pressed into a single sheet of paper, confirming that it is a genuine embossed paper relief rather than an assembled work.

The style, typography and relief technique are consistent with a mid-eighteenth-century German-speaking origin, most likely South Germany or the Swiss-German region. The subject is a Protestant theological allegory depicting an assembly of heretics under the symbolic presidency of Caiaphas, a considerably rarer subject than the devotional embossed paper reliefs more commonly encountered.

The relief is housed in a later nineteenth-century frame bearing the label of the Geneva framer J. Laurent, indicating that the frame is later than the relief itself.

Embossed sheet: 26.5 × 20 cm.

Frame: 43 × 36 cm.

Good condition.

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