Tilman Riemenschneider
Tilman Riemenschneider (born Heiligenstadt im Eichsfeld c. 1460, died Würzburg July 7,1531) was a German sculptor active in Würzburg from 1483. He was one of the most prolific and versatile sculptors of the transition period between late Gothic and Renaissance, a master in stone and limewood.
Biography
Tilman Riemenschneider was born between 1459 and 1462 in Heiligenstadt in the German province of Thüringen. When Riemenschneider was about five years old, his father lost his possesssions and had to leave Heiligenstadt due to his involvement in a violent political conflict, the Mainzer Stiftsfehde. The family resettled in Osterode, where Tilman's father became Master of the Mint and where Riemenschneider spent his childhood years.
Around 1473 Riemenschneider learned the trade of sculpting and woodcarving possibly in Strasbourg and Ulm. Very little is known about this period of his life but it is likely that he came in contact with the work of Martin Schongauer, whose copper engravings served him later as examples.
In 1483 he settled in Würzburg where, on December 7 of 1483, he joined the Saint Luke's Guild of painters, sculptors and glass workers as a painter's assistant. On February 28 of 1485 he married Anna Schmidt, a widow of a master goldsmith with three sons. This marriage not only brought him property but it also meant that he could end his apprenticeship and become a master craftsman. She died, after nearly ten years of marriage, leaving him with a daughter. Tilman would marry another three times after this. While his successive wives were directing the large household, Tilman developed both the artistic and business side of his work. The town council of Münnerstadt ordered in 1490 an altarpiece for the altar of St Maria Magdalena, the parish church, which included a carving of St Mary Magdalene with Six Angels while in 1491, the town council of Würzburg ordered two life-size stone figures of Adam and Eve for the south portal of the council’s church, the Marienkapelle.
Around 1500, he had developed an outstanding reputation as an artist and had become a wealthy Würzburg citizen. Not only did he own a number of houses but he also was a landowner with his own vineyards. His flourishing workshop provided work for as many as forty apprentices doing woodcarving, sculpting and painting. In November of 1504, Riemenschneider became councilman of the city of Würzburg, an office he would fulfill for the next twenty years. This office not only brought him social status but it also helped him obtain many large and profitable orders. Between 1520 and 1524 he even was Mayor of Würzburg.
During the Peasants' War, the city council formed an alliance with German peasants in revolt and came into conflict with Konrad von Thüngen, the Duke-Bishop of Würzburg whose residence , the Marienberg fortress, overlooks the city. On June 4 of 1525, the peasant's army was destroyed, with 8,000 killed, outside the city by the troops of Georg, Steward of Waldburg-Zeil and of the bishop. After the city surrendered, the full city council, including Riemenschneider, was incarcerated and tortured in the Marienberg citadel. According to legend, both of his hands were broken during the torturing, which ended his artistic career. Together with the rest of the council, Tilman was set free after two months, with loss of most of his property. He received no more major orders and, till his death in 1531, led a retired life with his fourth wife. His son Jörg from his second marriage continued the workshop after his death.
His Art
The sculptures and woodcarvings of Tilman Riemenschneider are in the late Gothic style and characterized by the expressiveness of their faces (often shown with an inward look, as in the self-protrait) and by their detailed and richly folded clothing. The emphasis on expression of inner emotions sets Riemenschneider's work apart from that of his immediate predecessors. Souren Melikian places his best work, such as the Virgin listening to the Annunciation, in the same league as the oil paintings of Albrecht Durer. Kenneth Clark views the Riemenscheider figures as showing the serious personal piety in Germany in the late fifteenth century and as harbingers of the coming Reformation.
Among his successors and/or pupils were Peter Breuer and Philipp Koch.
Major Works
The largest collection of his work, 81 pieces, can be found in the Mainfränkisches Museum in the Marienberg citadel in Würzburg.
- Hassenbacher Vesperbild church of Hassenbach, around 1490, wood.
- Altar of the Farewell of the Apostles Kleinschwarzenlohe near Nuremberg, Allerheiligenkirche, 1491.
- Altar Piece, Maria Magdalena Münnerstadt, 1490/92.
- Adam and Eve Würzburg, Mainfränkisches Museum, 1491/93, sculpture of Bishop Rudolf von Scherenberg, Cathedral of Würzburg, 1496/99.
- Emperor's Tomb Cathedral of Bamberg, 1499/1513.
- Saint Anne and her three husbands Munich, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, 1505/1510, wood.
- Grieving Maria Würzburg, Mainfränkisches Museum, around 1505.
- Altar of Maria, Creglingen, around 1505/08, wood.
- Altar of the Apostles, Altar of the Church Fathers, and Altar of the Annunciation St.Leo church, Bibra near Meiningen, around 1500, wood.
- Crucifixion St.Nikolas church in Eisingen, Bavaria, 1500 - 1505.
- Holy Blood Altar Jakobskirche, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, 1501-1505, wood.
- Altar of the Apostles, St.-Kilians-Kirche zu Windsheim, 1509, now in the Kurpfälzisches Museum, Heidelberg.
- Crucifixion Altar church of Detwang, 1510/13, now in the Kurpfälzisches Museum, Heidelberg
- Tomb of Bishop Lorenz of Bibra Cathedral of Würzburg, 1520/22
- Madonna of the Rosary, Pilgrim's church of Weinbergen, near Volkach, around 1521/24.
- The Grieving for Christ (Klosterkirche), 1525, Maidbronn near Würzburg
References
- The Limewood Sculptors of Renaissance Germany, Michael Baxandall, 1980
- Tilman Riemenschneider: Master Sculptor of the Late Middle Ages, Julien Capuis et al., 1999
- Tilman Riemenschneider, The Catholic Encyclopedia
Tilman Riemenschneider in Literature
The character Goldmund in the book Narcissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse serves as an apprentice with a socially conservative master sculptor whose character appears to be loosely based on that of Riemenschneider, and who serves as a foil for the unrestrained temperament of Goldmund.