Saint Fiacre
England, Nottingham, 15th century
Alabaster; H. 16 in. (40.6 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Cloisters Collection, 1925 (25.120.227)
Former owner: George Grey Barnard, New York
One of several patron saints of gardeners, Saint Fiacre was a seventh-century hermit who established a hospice near Paris. He was believed to have miraculously cleared and turned an entire forest with his shovel in a single day. This figure—once part of a large altarpiece—was originally painted.