BISHOP, ELEMENTS OF A RETABLE SOUTH GERMANY, BAVARIAN,... Lot 22

BISHOP, ELEMENTS OF A RETABLE SOUTH GERMANY, BAVARIAN, EARLY 15TH CENTURY limewood, monoxyle sculpture H. 100 cm, W. 42 cm, D. 38 cm lacks the crosier in the left hand Provenance Former Wildenstein collection. This enthroned figure of a bishop, with an open book in his right hand and the crook (no longer present) in his left hand, is the work of one of the last great Gothic imagers of the Germanic world. This imposing limewood sculpture, carved in high relief, is full of restrained energy and evokes the art of Tilman Riemenschneider (1460-1531). This artist gave his awakening, preserved in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, an expression comparable to that on the face of our figure (fig. 1). It is marked by the same frown, revealing internalized passions, but differs from it by its smoother features. The clothes are also less elaborate. The very graphic treatment of the drapery is similar to that of the masters of German engraving, from whom the sculptors often drew their sources. The shape of the body, the thighs and knees in particular, is outlined under the stiffness of the fabric thanks to a subtle play of broken folds served by a remarkable finesse of execution. This intelligent use of folds is matched by the seated Christ in the Coronation of Thorns engraved by Martin Schongauer (fig. 2).