TILMAN RIEMENSCHNEIDER

The progress of the long, fertile and illustrious career of Tilmbn Riemensehneider is well known a rarity in the Middle Ages thanks to the abundance of documents and works that have been preserved. Born at Heibgenstadt in Thuringia towards i4o, journeyman in 1483 and master in i485 at Whrzburg, where he was in charge of a large workshop receiving extensive and numerous commissions, the sculptor held an established position in the city, of which he was mayor in 1520-1521. The conditions of his apprenticeship and first professional engagements, however, are unknown. His first recorded commission, in 1490, for the parish church of Munnerstadt, was the  Mary Magdalene altarpieee installed in 1492 and today dismembered. There followed the sandstone statues of Adam and Eve (i49i-i493) for the gate of the chapel of the Virgin, the tomb of the prince-bishop Rudolph von Seherenberg (1496-i499) at Wurzburg and that of the Emperor Henry II (1499—1513) at Bamberg, as well as many other sculptures in stone, marble, alabaster or wood and ieveral large altarpieces, some still preserved in situ, such as those of the Holy Blood (Heiligh Into/tar) at Rothenburg (1499-1505) and of the Virgin at Creghngen (around io). The stylistic vocabulary of Riemensehneider is easy to characterize. His feminine figures, with some minor variants, all have a slender stature—narrow bust, frail limbs, fine hands—, hair set in peaceful waves, a sweet face with smooth modelling and a broad flat forehead, eyes slanted towards the temples and circled by a fold of skin, a long nose and small mouth with a slight swelhng of the lower lip. The maseuhne faces, built on the same plan, with, of course, thicker and more rugged features, present some distinct types found in many combinations in Riemenschneider’s various works, as witnessed by the apostles of Rothenburg and Creghngen. The play of draperies, animated by uneven folds broken into multiple facets, is compheated but without excessive agitation. The calm features, delicate gestures and tranquil attitudes show a melancholy sweetness even when emotion or pain are expressed.
An extreme care is taken over details and the treatment of the surface. The hmewood is often left exposed and merely accented by a partial polychromy which brings out the iubrlety of the polished volumes and emphasizei the finesse of the varied motifs barely chiselled on the surface of the wood. The process was used, in particular, for the altarpiece of Miinnerstadt, afterwards painted by Veit Stoss between i502 and 1504 (this colouring has now disappeared).