RIEMENSCHNEIDER, Tilman
(b. ca. 1460, Osterode, d. 1531, Würzburg)

Sts Christopher, Eustace, and Erasmus

1500-05
Limewood, 53 x 33 x 12 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The figures in this relief represent three of the fourteen Helper Saints, venerated as a group since the early 1300s. They became particularly popular in the south of Germany after 1446, when it was believed they appeared in a vision to a shepherd in Upper Franconia. Represented here are St Christopher carrying the Christ Child; St Eustace, a general in Trajan's army who converted to Christianity; and St Erasmus, a Syrian bishop in episcopal regalia.

The figures are carved from a single piece of limewood, with an added piece giving additional depth to St Christopher. The overlapping of figures allowed the three or four groups of saints to be joined with no apparent seam and also created a sense of great depth. The meticulous carving and small scale suggest that the original group was an independent relief in a niche or a shrine. Although St Christopher looks to the left, the general movement of the figures is to the right, indicating that this piece was originally at the left side of the relief. The finely carved details and the decorative punch work, all of which would have been obscured by a layer of paint, are evidence that the sculpture was never intended to be painted.




© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.