Above the two brothers is a scene from one of Aesop’s fables, reputedly set in Greece during the sixth century BCE. The Old Man and his Sons, also called The Bundle of Sticks, was retold in Roman times, with the identification of the man as Scilurus, a king of Scythia in the second-century BCE. The later text was associated with the Roman historian Plutarch, early second century CE. “Scilurus, who left eighty sons surviving him, when he was at the point of death handed a bundle of javelins to each son in turn and bade him break it. After they had all given up, he took out the javelins one by one and easily broke them all, thereby teaching the young men that, if they stood together, they would continue strong, but that they would be weak if they fell out and quarreled” (Plutarch, 1951, p. 27). The LACMA and Princeton panels both show that the man is a king, but portray the bundle as sticks, not javelins.
The moral of strength in unity is appropriate for a panel depicting two brothers. It was a popular citation, however, as it had particular relevance to the Swiss Confederation. The fable appears at about the same time in a panel, dated 1663, from Schaffhausen, attributed to Hans Heinrich Ammann, advocating unity in the ruling council of the city (Princeton University, The Art Museum. 61–52: Raguin, 1987, p. 86; Raguin, 1998, pp. 57–58, 63–65, fig. VII.4; Hasler, 2010, p. 71, fig. 41). In the Princeton panel, which was given by Schaffhausen’s Bürgermeister (mayor) Leonhard Meyer, the story of the dying man is placed in the center and surrounded by the arms of the council members. The text explains: “Unity can increase and make greater, lesser things/ Disunity (can) also destroy greater things. . . . Health to the awaited fraternity/ because unity is your strength.” Earlier, Tobias Stimmer had executed a powerful design focusing on the father’s deathbed (Geelhaar, l984, pp. 416–18, no. 259, fig. 267). A panel, dated 1607, by Werner Kübler the Younger of Schaffhausen shows a similar arrangement of the parable in its central scene (Hasler, 2010, p. 251, no. 61). The inscription above the narrative image explains that the story of the brothers teaches that with unity, there is strength. In the Toggenburg area, Hans Jegli created a panel, dated 1624, on the theme for the couple Hans Bösch and Sara Scherer (Boesch, 1935, p. 50, no. 124, fig. 14).
The family name of Caspar and Hans was written variously in the past as Laser, Loser or Looser, but Looser is the current spelling. The family was known in the Obertoggenburg (canton St. Gallen, East Switzerland) since the fifteenth century. In surveying the stained glass of Toggenburg, Paul Boesch mentions eight panels donated in the seventeenth century by members of the Looser family though Hans and Caspar were not represented among these donors. In the family tree published by Boesch (1935, p. 94), a Hans Loser who lived in Lüpfetschwil married Barbara Hänsberger in 1586. The couple produced four sons; Jacob, Josua, Hans, and Caspar, before the husband died before 1621. Jacob is known as the donor of a panel dated 1624 with the theme of William Tell (Boesch, 1935, p. 51, no. 129). Hans was born in 1603. Caspar, born after 1611, married Elsbeth Bolt before 1631. Thus, the two donors of the LACMA panel are probably the sons of this Hans Loser living in Lüpfertwil, a hamlet of the local community Ebnat-Kappel, in the electoral district of Toggenburg.
Rolf Hasler has suggested an attribution to Abraham Wirth (1616–1681) of Lichtensteig, in the Canton of St. Gallen. Wirth exercised a number of occupations; church and hospital administrator, and in 1649, Schultheiss (mayor), a position he held until his death (Schneider, 1970, p. 491). He also produced numerous panels that were especially popular with clients from Toggenburg. Wirth and his first wife Maria Bridler donated a panel, dated 1655, that also illustrates the Parable of the Bound Sticks (private collection Bidermann-Winterthur; Boesch, 1935, pp. 10, 62–62, fig. 21). The inscription between the two shields begins: “Abraham Wirth, citizen and glass painter”. The design was copied for a signed panel of 1658 for an alliance panel of Hans Ambüel and Elisabeth Wetzler (private collection Cham; Bergmann, 2004, pp. 364–65, no. 154). Earlier, in 1532, he executed a panel for another member of the Looser family, Abraham, that includes Wirth’s signature AW (Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum, SNM 2922; Schneider, 1970, pp. 300–301, no. 547). In 1647, the same date as the LACMA panel, we find a panel donated by Hans Scherer and Anna Fischer showing the Baptism in the Jordan, also signed by the artist (Historical Museum of St. Gallen: Egli, 1927, pp. 68–69, no. 118). A close comparison for Wirth’s style can be found in a panel dated 1649 displaying the couple Jacob Müller and Elizabeth (Elsebeth) Büechler (Boesch, 1935, no. 160). The man’s stance and dress, plumed hat, bloomers, vest, knife (dolch), belt with powder charges, rifle over shoulder and, extended right arm, is almost is almost identical to that of Caspar. The inscription panel below uses the same inset jewel placement of shield, and simple silver-stain molding around the inscription. The background shows the same use of decorative wags and the thin dark ribbon to enliven the uncolored glass. The rounded shape of the woman’s face is typical of Wirth’s productions.
A panel not examined by the author is found in a California Private collection. It was formerly in the collection of James R. Herbert Boon and the Trustees of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore before the present owner purchased it through Sotheby’s auctions (European Works of Art, Arms and Armour, Furniture and Tapestries [sale cat., 22–23 November], New York, 1988; Caviness, 1991, p. 250). The work replicates the precise patterns of mending leads of the Los Angeles panel.
Cited in:
LACMA Quarterly, 1945, pp. 5–10.
Caviness, 1991, p. 250.
Normile, 1946, pp. 43–44.
Hayward, 1989, p.79.
Raguin, 2024, vol. 1, pp. 42, 242–46.
