CIRCLE OF TILMAN RIEMENSCHNEIDER (1460-1531), GERMAN, FRANCONIA, CIRCA 1500| SAINT NICHOLAS OF MYRA

Sotheby's London, 4 July 1991, lot 76

This characterful depiction of Saint Nicholas, with its hollow cheeks and lined mouth and eyes, shows influence of perhaps Franconia's most prominent sculptor, Tilman Riemenschneider. Compare to two figures of Saint Nicholas by Riemenschneider, which show the Bishop Saint with similar attributes, but slightly more decorated garb (Lichte, op. cit. vol. I, nos. 37 and 49). Compare the long straight folds of drapery of the present sculpture to that of a Holy Abbot, catalogued as 'Franconia', in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum (inv. no. MA1611, op. cit. no. 167), and further to a Saint Lawrence by Riemenschneider and his workshop, with similar trim to the drapery (Lenssen, op. cit. vol. II, no. 71). 

RELATED LITERATURE

T. Müller, Kataloge des Bayerischen Nationalmuseums München, Die Bildwerke in Holz, Ton, und Stein, Munich, 1959, p. 172; C. Lichte (ed.), Tilman Riemenschneider: Werke seiner Blütezeit, exh. cat. Mainfränkisches Museum Würzburg, Regensburg, 2004, p. 289, no. 37 and p. 307, no. 49; J. Lenssen (ed.) Tilman Riemenschneider: Werke seiner Glaubenswelt, exh. cat. Museum am Dom, Würzburg, Regensburg, 2004, p. 311, no. 71