Tilman Riemenschneider

Tilman Riemenschneider (1468-1531) was the most famous of all German late-Gothic sculptors. His style of carving is beautifully refined, with nervous, crackling drapery folds and superb surface finish of the alabaster, sandstone, or lindenwood with which he worked.

Tilman Riemenschneider was born in Osterode, Saxony. After traveling in the Rhineland and Swabia, he settled in the prince-bishopric of Würzburg in 1483. He became a citizen 2 years later and was mayor of the city in 1520-1521. As a Würzburg councilor, in 1525 he came into conflict with the Church authorities during the Peasants' War—an expression of the Reformation—and was imprisoned and tortured. He died in Würzburg on July 7, 1531.

Like his contemporaries at Nuremberg, notably Veit Stoss, Riemenschneider combined realism with picturesqueness. The figure groups on his altarpieces are crowded and expressively posed, and the folds of their garments are deep-cut and crisp. He developed a highly individual style characterized by a high-pitched sensibility and an intense seriousness. His figures are carefully posed and often seem to affect ungainly attitudes; their expressions are somewhat more restrained than the figures by Stoss.

Riemenschneider's chief early works are the wooden altarpiece of the parish church of Münnerstadt (1490-1492; portions are in Berlin and Munich, the rest are in situ); the stone figures of Adam and Eve carved for the portal of the Marienkapelle in Würzburg (1491-1493), which are among the earliest known realistically treated nude figure sculptures in Germany; and a sandstone Virgin for the Marienkapelle (all three in the Mainfränkisches Museum, Würzburg), of which many variations, generally in wood, made Riemenschneider the most famous sculptor of his day.

Between 1500 and 1520 Riemenschneider carved the superb Assumption of the Virgin wooden altarpiece for the little country church at Creglingen, the stone tomb of Bishop Rudolph von Scherenberg in the Cathedral of Würzburg, and the wooden Altar of the Holy Blood in the Jakobskirche in Rothenburg ob der Tauber (1501-1505). In the center of the Rothenburg altar is the Last Supper; on the wings are the Entry of Christ into Jerusalem and Christ in Gethsemane, brilliantly executed in low relief. Sensing the beauty of the wood itself, Riemenschneider frequently did not polychrome his altarpieces, a novelty at this time.

Riemenschneider's masterpiece of funerary sculpture is the monumental memorial of the emperor Henry II and his wife, Kunigunde, in Bamberg Cathedral (1499-1513), executed in marble. Relief carvings on the sides of the tomb depict legendary events from their lives in a style that reveals a new human understanding.

Further Reading

There is no monograph on Riemenschneider in English. Bernd Lohse and others, eds., Art Treasures of Germany (1958), contains some biographical information on Riemenschneider and reproductions of his works. See also Clara Waters, Painters, Sculptors, Architects, Engravers and Their Works (1899).

Additional Sources

Bier, Justus, Tilmann Riemenschneider, his life and work, Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1982. □

Riemenschneider, Tilman (b Heiligenstadt, c.1460; d Würzburg, 7 July 1531). German sculptor, active in Würzburg, where he settled in 1483. With Stoss, he was the outstanding German late Gothic sculptor, and his workshop was large and productive (his activities are exceptionally well documented for the time). He worked a good deal in stone, but he was primarily a woodcarver, and he was evidently the first German sculptor to leave his wooden figures un-polychromed (although they were not entirely uncoloured, as he used pigmented varnish and picked out details such as eyes and lips in colour). His style was intricate, but also balanced and harmonious, with none of the extreme emotionalism often seen in German art of the period. He held various offices in city government, and in 1525 he was briefly imprisoned and perhaps tortured because he was one of the councilmen who refused to support the use of force against the rebels in the Peasants' War.

Much of Riemenschneider's surviving work is still in the churches for which it was created, a celebrated example being the magnificent Holy Blood altarpiece (1501–5) in St Jacobskirche, Rothenburg ober der Tauber. It formed a kind of giant reliquary for a drop of Christ's blood, and this dictated the iconography, the main scene showing the institution of the Eucharist. Riemenschneider is also well represented in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich, and the Mainfränkisches Museum, Würzburg. Two of his sons, Jörg and Hans, were sculptors, and two others, Bartholomäus (a pupil of Dürer) and Tilman, were painters.

Riemenschneider, Tilman (c.1460–1531). German sculptor, active in Würzburg, where he settled in 1483. With Stoss, he was the outstanding German late Gothic sculptor, and his workshop was large and productive (his activities are exceptionally well documented for the time). He worked a good deal in stone, but he was primarily a woodcarver, and he was evidently the first German sculptor to leave his wooden figures un-polychromed (although they were not entirely uncoloured, as he used pigmented varnish and picked out details such as eyes and lips in colour). His style was intricate, but also balanced and harmonious, with none of the extreme emotionalism often seen in German art of the period. He held various offices in city government, and in 1525 he was briefly imprisoned and perhaps tortured because he was one of the councilmen who refused to support the use of force against the rebels in the Peasants' War. Much of Riemenschneider's work is still in the churches for which it was created, notably the magnificent Holy Blood altarpiece (1501–5) in the Jakobskirche, Rothenburg ober der Tauber. He is also well represented in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich, and the Mainfränkisches Museum, Würzburg. Two of his sons, Jörg and Hans, were sculptors, and two others, Bartholomäus (a pupil of Dürer) and Tilman, were painters.

Tilman Riemenschneider , c.1460–1531, German Renaissance sculptor, who worked in stone and wood. He was in Würzburg by 1483. In 1520 he was made burgomaster, but he was imprisoned in 1525 because of participation in the peasant insurrection, and little is known about his work in later years. He created slender figures with delicately carved, expressive faces, all arranged in clearly ordered, though not static, compositions. His stone tombs of Bishop Rudolf von Scherenberg in the cathedral at Würzburg and of Emperor Henry II and his wife in the cathedral at Bamberg are well known, as are his stone Adam and Eve (Würzburg Mus.) and his wooden altar in Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Examples of his work are in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and in the Metropolitan and Cleveland museums.

Riemenschneider, Tilman (c.1460–1531), German wood-carver and sculptor. In his altar-pieces he secured unity by focusing the design on a central point. In place of colour he achieved his effects by the play of light, the texture of his material, and the highly expressive faces of his figures.