Tilmann Riemenschneider

His Life and Work

Justus Bier

• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9780813187884
• Topic: Kunst
• Subtopic: Kunst Allgemein

In the hauntingly beautiful sculptures of Tilmann Riemenschneider, the Late Gothic art of Germany achieved its highest expression. Now, for the first time in English, the eminent art historian Justus Bier accords Riemenschneider the extended attention he so richly deserves.

Riemenschneider ( ca. 1460–1531) holds a pivotal place in the development of German art. Rejecting the anonymous soulfulness of earlier Gothic sculpture, he created a style reflecting the deeply spiritual character of his time, yet one that also anticipated the humanism of the Italian Renaissance so soon to revolutionize European art.

Bier crowns a lifelong study with this reconsideration of Reimenschneider's life and work, with emphasis on works in North American museums. More than 140 photographs illustrate 46 of the artist's major sculptures.

COMMENTARY ON THE SCULPTURES

Works in Public Collections in the United States and Canada

PLATE 1. The Virgin with the Christ Child. About 1490–1492.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts. Lindenwood. Height 47¼ in. (120 cm).

The slender group of the Virgin and Child in the Boston Museum is an example of Riemenschneider’s earliest representations of this theme. Though it is probable in this instance that an assistant helped in the actual carving of the figures, the composition is clearly Riemenschneider’s own and the work was undoubtedly created under his supervision. The theme of the Virgin with the Christ Child occupied Riemenschneider through most of his working life, evolving gradually over the four decades from the early 1490s to the end of the 1520s. The Boston figures illustrate some of the special features of mood, composition, and style that distinguish the earlier renditions, particularly those of the early 1490s. Since the loss of the Werbach and Himmelstein Madonnas in World War II, the work has a special significance as one of the few surviving Madonnas from these years.

The Virgin in the Boston group stands tall and straight and with her head held erect, looking out towards the viewer. The pose here is similar to that of the Lawrence, Kansas, Madonna (Plates 3A, B), a figure dated a little later, at the end of the 1490s, though still from Riemenschneider’s early period. In spite of the bulk of the drapery where it falls below the arms of the Virgin, the figure appears particularly slender and upright. The relatively high crown that Mary wears of course intensifies the impression of height and slenderness in the figure, as does the rather contrived narrowing of the drapery around the feet of the Virgin so that it is almost totally encompassed by the sickle-shaped moon on which Mary rests one foot. It is in fact possible that the particularly upright stance of the figure was necessitated by the use of the crown. Like the regal, statuesque bearing of Mary, the crown and the unusually large sickle moon make it clear that Mary appears here in her symbolic role as Queen of Heaven.

There are relatively few instances of Madonnas with crowns by Riemenschneider, and among these the Boston figure stands out in its prominent display of both the crown and the sickle moon. The only other figure that is close in this respect is the Virgin and Child in the Neumünster collegiate church in Würzburg. This again is an early work, important because it bears the date 1493 on its base and is the only definitely-dated statue of this subject from this period. Though the lifeless execution of the figure means that it must have been carved by an assistant, the composition is undoubtedly Riemenschneider’s own, and in its general outline and the design of these particular features it is closely related to the Boston statue.

The arrangement of the drapery in the Boston Madonna is repeated more or less identically in the Neumünster group. In both these figures the mantle of the Virgin is drawn up on either side, and has the complication of a reversed lateral fold running from the Virgin’s right shoulder diagonally down and over her left hip. With some variation, these motifs occur also in another early work, the Himmelstein Madonna of about 1493 (unfortunately destroyed by fire in 1945), and in several later works, including some from the mature period, notably the sandstone Virgin and Child of about 1505 in the Mainfränkisches Museum in Würzburg (Plates 28A, B).

Like the figure of Mary, the Christ Child in the Boston group (in a seemingly unique instance among the early renditions) is shown in a fully frontal position, looking directly out to the viewer. The small figure appears rather sedate despite the playful action of the Child’s right hand clasping his left foot. This is a gesture Riemenschneider borrowed from the mid-fifteenth century Madonna on the central pier of the western portal of the Marienkapelle in Würzburg, and in a slightly different form the same motif appears in the Neumünster group. In a lesser degree, the conflicting nature of the Boston figure recalls the Christ Child of the Anna Selbdritt group of about 1502–1504 in the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore (Plate 5B). The expression in the face and eyes of the Boston Child is greater and livelier, but in both cases the symbolic character predominates. Much the same contrast appears also in a work considered by the author to be Riemenschneider’s earliest representation of the Virgin with the Christ Child, the Madonna from Werbach im Taubertal, of about 1490 (Plate 19). (This statue was also destroyed in 1945.) There, while the Child’s right hand is raised in blessing and his head looks up, the rest of the small figure assumes a relatively natural, playful attitude.

The intimate gesture of Mary’s right hand lightly holding the foot of the Child that is seen in the Boston figures also appears in the Werbach and Neumünster groups. In the Boston group, however, this informal gesture contrasts markedly with the Virgin’s otherwise rather stiff stance and detached demeanor. In later renditions of the Virgin and Child, as for example the stone Madonna of about 1505 (Plates 28A, B), we find a much more tender and intimate attitude in the figures, with the emphasis on their relationship to each other rather than their symbolic relationship to the viewer.

The compositional similarities noted with other early figures of the Virgin and Child all point to a date in the first years of the 1490s. Stylistic features indicate the same period. The clear articulation of the often intricate forms, the distinct planes and rhythms and strong tactile and linear qualities of the work are all characteristics of Riemenschneider’s style in the years up to 1503. Compared to the Werbach Madonna of about 1490, the greater articulation in the drapery of the Boston figure, together with the fact that the richly moving folds are arranged more on one plane, suggests that the Boston group was created a little later. The group can in fact quite definitely be assigned a more precise date of about 1490–1492 on the grounds of the Virgin’s strong resemblance in facial features and style of hair to the Mary Magdalene of that date from the Münnerstadt Altarpiece (Plates 20A, B) and, to a lesser degree, the figure of Eve from the Marienkapelle in Würzburg, completed in 1493 (Plates 21B, D). The Boston Virgin has the same smooth oval face as these early figures, in distinct contrast to the more angular, more articulated faces of figures from around the end of that decade, such as the Kansas Madonna or the image of Empress Cunegund on the lid of the Bamberg imperial tomb (Plate 40B).

The work was given to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 1941 by the widow of the late Felix M. Warburg of New York, in memory of her husband. The group had previously been in the Warburg collection in Hamburg, Germany. Its earlier provenance is unknown.

Note: One other workshop figure representing Mary with the Christ Child, probably also from the early 1490s, is now in the Detroit Institute of Arts. It is not in the scope of this survey, however, to include all workshop pieces in which Riemenschneider had a hand in the finishing.

PLATES 2A-C. The Three Helpers in Need. 1494.

Cloisters Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York. Lindenwood. Height 21 in. (53.4 cm).

This finely-wrought group of three Helper Saints was only recently identified as a work by Riemenschneider’s own hand. The carving was discovered in a private English collection in 1952. A tentative attribution to Riemenschneider on stylistic grounds was subsequently authenticated, and the work, which was at first unknown in regard to the master’s oeuvre, was identified as a unique fragment of a 1494 commission thought to be totally lost. The group was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for the Cloisters Collection, in 1961; it was first published by this author in 1963.

The figures of this fragment are easily recognized by their attributes, dress, and stance. They represent St. Christopher, St. Eustace, and St. Erasmus, three of the fourteen so-called “Helpers in Need.” The twelve original Helpers (in addition to these three, George, Blaise, Pantaleon, Vitus, Acacius, Giles, Margaret, Barbara, and Catherine of Alexandria) were almost all martyr saints who were believed to have special powers of protection and intercession. Later, St. Dionysius (or Denis) and St. Cyriacus were included. The saint as intercessor and protector was of course a vital belief all through the Middle Ages. This particular association of the Fourteen Helper Saints had been a subject for art since the beginning of the fifteenth century, but reached its greatest popularity after 1446, when a shepherd named Hermann Leicht, from the Cistercian monastery of Langheim in Upper Franconia, reported seeing a vision of the saints asking to have a chapel built there in their honor. The famous Rococo church of Vierzehnheiligen (Fourteen Saints) by Balthasar Neumann now stands on this site.

The figure of St. Christopher is Riemenschneider’s only known treatment of this patron saint of travelers and protector against accidents. He is ingeniously portrayed here in the act of wading ashore from a stream, helped by his gnarled but staunch staff. His left foot is already on firm ground while the right is still immersed in the swirling waters. His back is bent beneath the weight of the Christ Child he carries on his shoulders, and his face, which looks away from the companion figures in the group, shows both the strain of his labors and a sense of unease and mystification. Stance and expression alike imply a burden much greater than that he actually supports. This portrayal, which is a customary representation of the saint, relates to the incident in the legend of Christopher connected with his name, “Christophoros,” meaning bearer of Christ. In his search for the most powerful master to serve, he became a convert to Christianity and was given the task of carrying travelers across a dangerous river. On one occasion, unknowingly, he bore the Christ Child on his shoulders, whose weight half-way over became such an immense burden that he barely succeeded in his task. Only after the crossing did the Christ Child reveal who he was. A confirmed believer thereafter, Christopher was martyred not long after this. The head and right arm of the Riemenschneider Christ Child are missing, following the recent removal of eighteenth-century restorations. It is probable that the Child’s right hand was raised in a gesture of blessing. Also, the orb which he holds in his left hand would originally have had a small cross surmounting it. Christopher’s head is turned attentively to one side as if he were listening to the Christ Child’s instructions.

Certain features of this figure are particularly characteristic of Riemenschneider’s work. The bearded, expressive face of the saint is a type that appears frequently in his portraits of the Apostles, as for example in the figures of the Last Supper group in the Rothenburg Altarpiece of the Holy Blood (Plate 23B). Christopher also wears the same simple garments that many of the Apostles wear: a belted coat, buttoned in front, partly covered by a plain mantle which is thrown over the shoulders and gathered in rich folds. The same kind of slender, realistic hands, in which even the veins are carved, also occur in many works. Like the intense faces, these hands are a virtual hallmark of Riemenschneider’s style.

Contrasting with the strained figure and face of St. Christopher is the stoic, resolute image of St. Erasmus at the other end of the group. Reputedly a bishop in Syria in the third century, he is shown in his bishop’s robes, wearing gloves and rings on both hands. In his left hand he holds all that remains of his crozier—part of the staff and the sudarium—while the fragment in his right hand is almost certainly part of his attribute, the spindle (or windlass). This really was a misinterpretation of Erasmus’s original emblem as the patron saint of sailors, which was a capstan with a cable coiled around. In inland areas this image was confused with the instrument of his supposed martyrdom by disembowelment and accordingly rendered as a spindle with entrails coiled round it. The loss of the spindle here may have been accidental, or, if the image was offensive to some previous owner, it may have been deliberately removed.

Another statue of St. Erasmus, which Riemenschneider made for a church in Kitzingen, is now in the Staatliche Museen in West Berlin. There are several other bishop-figures by Riemenschneider in existence, including the bust of St. Burchard, the first bishop of Würzburg, now in the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. (Plates 15A, B). The Erasmus of the Three Helpers group, however, is a more venerable figure than either of those two. In certain details of his costume and particularly in his expression of brooding concentration he bears a close resemblance to the effigy of the aged Prince-Bishop Rudolf von Scherenberg on the latter’s tomb-monument of 1496–1499 in Würzburg Cathedral (Plate 22B). The two works were presumably carved within a few years of each other, and in this figure of Erasmus Riemenschneider seems almost to have given us a younger version of the old prelate. (The face of Scherenberg, it is worth noting, may be considered the prototype for most of Riemenschneider’s depictions of old age.)

The middle figure of the group represents St. Eustace. He stands slightly behind the other two and is distinguished by his elegant attire and noble bearing. The legend of St. Eustace is as remarkable as those of his companions. He is reputed to have been a Roman general under Emperor Trajan who was converted to Christianity after seeing a vision of a stag with the figure of Christ on the Cross between its antlers, while out hunting one day. His conversion brought great suffering to his family, and ultimately all were imprisoned in a bronze bull and roasted to death. Eustace appears here as an aristocratic young knight. The gauntlet and breastplate he wears are of the kind used in Riemenschneider’s time and are seen again in the tomb-monuments for the knights Eberhard von Grumbach (about 1488) and Konrad von Schaumberg (after 1502) (Plates 17, 25B). The cuffed leggings with pointed toe (which along with the tunic-like garment and hat are rather oddly combined with the armor) are also late Gothic in fashion. The hat, with its large, fluted, up-turned brim, was probably borrowed from Flemish art; it appears also in a figure in the early Lamentation altarpiece at Hessenthal. The knight’s face, which is again the most fascinating element of the figure, appears withdrawn yet composed. It bears a certain resemblance to the face of Konrad von Schaumberg in his tomb-effigy in the Marienkapelle in Würzburg, and is even closer—especially in the eloquent, melancholy expression about the eyes—to the figure of St. Luke from the predella of the Münnerstadt altarpiece (Plate 20G).

As noted, all the works with which the Three Helpers may be compared are from a relatively early period of Riemenschneider’s career. The earliest is the Münnerstadt Altarpiece of 1490–1492, and the latest is The Last Supper from the Rothenburg Altarpiece of the Holy Blood, of 1501–1502. The Three Helpers group shares with these the same sharply linear design, the complexity of interweaving forms, and all the restlessness and motion of late Gothic art in general. On these grounds alone it would be possible to place the New York group in the decade of the 1490s. However, we can also assign to the group the more precise date of 1494 on the grounds of the documentary evidence, now lost but referred to by Carl Becker in his 1849 monograph on Riemenschneider, of a commission for such a group (of all fourteen Helper Sai...