Tilman Riemenschneider (c. 1460-1531) and Workshop Germany, Würzburg, 1520-30

Ludwig of Bavaria

Overall the condition of the bust is good, with some loss to surface. There is some wear consistent with age and minor splitting consistent with age and material, particularly to the top of the head. There are some minor chips to the surface and larger chips to both sides of the hood and the proper left side of his truncation. There is a nick to the nose. There is worming (some filled), which is particularly visible at the back and there are three small wormholes to the forehead.
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Tilman Riemenschneider was born in Heiligenstadt, Thuringia around the year 1460. Although a profusion of documentation on the sculptor survives, very little of the sculptor's early career is recorded. It is assumed apprenticed a stonemason in Erfurt before training under the guidance of Michel Erhart in Ulm. Riemenschneider settled in Würzburg where he married an affluent woman in 1483. His wife's dowry afforded him a sizeable workshop, a luxury for a newly appointed Meister of the Academy of Saint Luke. The German sculptor's skill and talent won him many commissions from local councils, churches, and private patrons in Saxony and Franconia. His first recorded commission was for an altarpiece in the parish church in Münnerstadt. As master sculptor, Riemenschneider encouraged specialisation, distributing the work among wood-carvers, stone-carvers, and painters.

The stylistic language of sculpture by Riemenschneider is easy to recognize. His figures are smoothly modelled, with broad foreheads, slanted eyes circled by delicately delineated wrinkles, long noses, diminutive lips (the llower one more pronounced) and defined chins.  His figures are mournful, sensitive and are imbued with great physiological awareness. This is evidenced in the Man's delicately modelled faced, where the subtlety of expression is astounding.  Many of the details in the present work are shared by the figure of deacon  in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (see Bruhn, p. 107), including a similar swollen throat.  To achieve all of these effects, Riemenschneider paid particular attention to detail and took great care with surface treatment. Although it has long been assumed that Riemenschneider left his figures entirely uncoloured, he, in fact, worked with lime wood glazes as well as pigmented varnishes to highlight the lips and eyes and to infuse his surfaces with an even-greater sense of vitality.

Riemenschneider's was not only a popular artist, but also a politician. He was elected to Würzburg's city council in 1504, the upper council in 1509 and mayor of the city in 1520. During the peasant revolt in 1525, Riemenschneider allied himself with the lower classes against the Prince-Bishop, Conrad von Thüngen. As a result of his actions, Riemenschneider was arrested, imprisoned and tortured. Riemenschneider's steadfast empathy during the rebellion is manifest in the soulfulness of his sculpture.  It has been suggested that the present bust of a man, likely part of a larger altarpiece, is portrait of a donor or the artist.

After his death in 1531, interest in Riemenschneider's work waned considerably due to changing tastes as well as reverberations of the Reformation. Since the 19^th century, however, appreciation of Riemenschneider's work has been rejuvenated.  Still, most of his sculpture was destroyed or modified, and works of art attributed to him and his atelier are extremely rare on the market.

RELATED LITERATURE
R. Schmidt, Der Marienaltar in Creglingen von Tilman Riemenschneider, Munich, 1951; M. Baxandall, The Limewood Sculptors of Renaissance Germany, New Haven and London, 1980, pp. 172-90, 259-65; H. Krohm and E. Oellermann, 'Der ehemalige Münnerstädter Magdalenenaltar von Tilman Riemenschneider und seine Geschichte, Forschungsergebnisse zur monochromen Oberflächengestalt', Z. Dt. Ver. Kstwiss., xxxiv, 1980, pp. 16-99; L. Bruhns, Tilman Riemenschneider, Stuttgart, 1988; J. Chapuis, Tilman Riemenschneider: Master Sculptor of the Late Middle Ages, London, 1999