German, Bavaria, circa 1520

With Kunsthandel Reinhold Hofstätter, Vienna;
From whom acquired by the present owner, private collection, Germany

This sensitively carved limewood figure of Saint Michael weighing the souls shows the influence of the great Bavarian sculptor Hans Leinberger, particularly in his refined facial features. The Saint's pose, dress and hairstyle, with ringlets on the forehead, compare closely to the Saint Michael by the Master of Rabenden - Leinberger's most important Bavarian contemporary - in the Parish church in Gmund (op. cit., p. 91 fig. 3). Further comparison can be made with a pair of Saints in the Parish church in Zell am See near Salzburg (illustrated in Legner, op. cit., nos. K 328 and 329) which bear the stylistic hallmarks of the Danube School. 

RELATED LITERATURE
A. Legner, Spätgotik in Salzburg: Skulptur und Kunstgewerbe 1400-1530, exh. cat. Neues Haus, Salzburg, 1976; F. Niehoff (ed.), Um Leinberger: Schüler und Zeitgenossen, exh. cat. Spitalkirche Heiliggeist, Landshut, 2006