attributed to Tilman Riemenschneider (1460-1531) and his workshop German, Franonian, circa 1510-1515

Otto Wertheimer Collection, Paris

This lovely relief of an angel has lost his two wings and hands, however the holes where they were once attached remain. There are losses, worming and chips throughout which include a small chip in the drapery at his waist and a larger loss to the swath of drapery at his left side. There are taces of later paint or wash which has led to slight discoloration in some areas, however, it is not distracting. There is a loss to the curl at the front of his hair (see catalogue photograph). The wood is dry and chipped at the bottom of the angel's mantle. On the reverse there are two later hooks for mounting as well as a series of small holes where mounting supports were once attached.
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This exquisite limewood angel by the master sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider and his workshop maintains the spirit of the now-lost retable of the Virgin and Child of which it undoubtedly was once a part.  The angel is depicted in flight, his arms posed to crown the standing Virgin.  It can be assumed that the lost ensemble was similar to the splendid Assumption of the Virgin altarpiece (c. 1505-10) in situ at Herrgottskirche, Creglingen or the equally impressive Virgin of the Rosary (c. 1521-1522) in Weingarten, Volkach.  Prof Dr Helmut Krohm has suggested that the affinities between the present angel and these two commissions suggest a date of circa 1510-15 and closest to the altarpiece in Creglingen.  Standing in contrast to the undulating swathes of drapery and dramatic expressions of his earlier carvings, the present angel's elegant drapery and serene demeanour is indicative of Riemenschneider's mature work. 

Tilman Riemenschneider was born in Heiligenstadt in 1460.  Little is known of the sculptor's early career; although it is likely he was an apprentice to a stone mason in Erfurt, where he developed his skill carving alabaster.  It has been suggested he also trained under the direction of Michel Erhart in Ulm.  Riemenschneider married a wealthy woman in 1483 and settled in Würzburg.  His wife's resources afforded him a workshop and a bevy of studio assistants, a luxury for a newly appointed 'Meister' of the Academy of Saint Luke.  The German sculptor's skill and talent, however, won him many commissions from local councils, churches, and private patrons in Saxony and Franconia.  

As the master sculptor of a large workshop, Riemenschneider divided up the work according to area of expertise (wood-carvers, stone-carvers, and painters).  The surfaces of his sculpture exhibit an obsessive attention to detail, evident in the silken drapery of the angel's robe.  The present relief also exhibits a variety of detailed tooling in the fringe of the robe, the curls of his hair, and in his delicately modelled face.  Although it has long been assumed that Riemenschneider left his figures entirely uncoloured, he, in fact, worked with limewood glazes as well as pigmented varnishes highlighting the lips and eyes to infuse his surfaces with even-greater sense of vitality. 

During his lifetime, Riemenschneider's popularity increased both politically and with women (he was married four times).  He was elected to the Würzburg 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 Thürgen.  As a result of his actions, he was arrested, imprisoned and tortured.  Riemenschneider's steadfast empathy during the revolt is manifest in the soulfulness of his sculpture.

After his death in 1531, interest in Riemenschneider's work waned considerably due to changing tastes as well as reverberations of the Reformation.  Most of his sculpture was destroyed or modified, and works of art attributed to him and his atelier are extremely rare.  Since the 19^th century, however, appreciation of Riemenschneider's work has been rejuvenated.  In 1977 Prof Dr Krohm (who has authenticated the present work), began a research project examining Riemenschnieder's sculpture. His revaluation, together with Michael Baxandall's The Limewood Sculptor's of Renaissance Germany and Julien Chapuis's groundbreaking exhibition in 1999-2000 has restored Riemenschneider to his rightful place as one of the great masters of European sculpture.  

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; J. Chapuis, Tilman Riemenschneider: Master Sculptor of the Late Middle Ages (London 1999)