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Before Matthias Rauchmiller went to work in the Rhineland around 1670, he went on his journeyman travels to Holland and Antwerp where he came into contact with Rubens and his circle. Shortly before he settled in Austria, he designed the tomb of Karl von Metternich in Trier in 1675. This powerfully expressive work suggests a completely new approach to memorial sculpture under the German High Baroque. The figure of the deceased reclines with his sightless eyes apparently having just read a book, in a composition which seems to enhance the sense of immediacy in the scene. The forehead is wrinkled in a frown, the hair falls casually abut the head. The veins stand out on his hands, and the pages of the book seem to have been flicked over.
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