A South German Painted Wood Figure of a Female Saint, Attributed to the Workshops of Erasmus Grasser (ca.1450-1518), Circa 1500, Bavaria

standing with her head tilted to the left, her eyes turned down in a calm expression, hair falling in long tresses over her shoulders, wearing a simple blue robe with red collar and waistband, draped in long, slow curves, the reverse partially unpainted, upon integrally carved base.  Hands lacking.

RELATED LITERATURE

P. M. Halm, Erasmus Grasser, 1927, pl. 115.

M. Baxandall, The Limewood Sculptors of Renaissance Germany, New Haven, 1980, pl. 53

Compare the long curve of the drapery and physiognomy of the face with two figures of the Virgin and St. John in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich (Baxandall, op. cit., pl. 53).

First recorded in Munich as a sculptor in 1474, Erasmus Grasser was one of the most popular and successful South German sculptors by the end of the 15th century.  He also worked as an architect and engineer and became one of the wealthiest citizens in Munich.  Baxandall notes that Grasser was "almost of a quality to join the Old Masters of the first generation" of the German Renaissance.  While his documented works are few, Grasser's large commissions around the turn of the century would have required a large workshop and his pupils were prolific.