LOCATION, OBJECT
Village of Balsthal, Canton of Solothurn, Roman-Catholic cemetery. Chapel of St Anthony of Egypt (Anthony of the Desert, Antonius Eremita), former charnel house; built early 16th c. (choir), enlarged (nave) and decorated early 17th c., consecrated 1628; interior decorations restored 1948.

EMBLEMS (14)
Context
Choir: frescoed groin vault with eight emblems in oval frames, two in each of the four cells (nos. 1-8). Nave: boarded, seven-part barrel vault, divided into 8x3 panels with tempera decorations showing scroll ornaments and six oval emblems (nos. 9-14). All emblems with Latin mottoes.

Authorship, Date
Apparently by one and the same unknown artist; early 17th c. One of the earliest extant cycles of applied emblems in Switzerland.

Significance
Emblematic representation of the asceticism and saintly virtues of St Anthony of Egypt.

Source
Unidentified; no.4  occurs in Typotius 1601/03: 1.24.

LITERATURE
Kdm SO 3: 32-5; KF 3: 807-808; Graf 1974: 149-50, 162; RDK 7: 1215, 1224; Oberli 2021: 188-89.

Copyright note: Added 2012; revised April 2013. All photos taken by the author, July 2011. Site layout plan reproduced from Kdm SO 3: 15.