Background
Tilman Riemenschneider was born in 1468 in Osterode, Saxony. Riemenschneider was the son of the mint master of Würzburg and opened a highly successful workshop there in 1483.
(Tilman Riemenschneider war ein deutscher Bildschnitzer un...)
Tilman Riemenschneider war ein deutscher Bildschnitzer und Bildhauer und zählt zu den bedeutendsten am Übergang von der Spätgotik zur Renaissance um 1500. Die Zeit des Bauernkriegs: Der Rat der Stadt führte seit längerem politische Auseinandersetzungen mit dem damaligen mächtigen Fürstbischof Konrad II. von Thüngen, der als Landesherr in der Festung Marienberg direkt oberhalb der Stadt residierte. Der Streit eskalierte 1525 während des Deutschen Bauernkriegs, als sich aufständische Bauern vor der Stadt sammelten und die Würzburger Bürger sich mit ihnen gegen den Bischof verbündeten. Die Festung Marienberg hielt jedoch der Belagerung und den Angriffen aus der Stadt stand. Zur entscheidenden Schlacht kam es am 4. Juni 1525 außerhalb der Stadt, wo die anrückenden Landsknechte des Georg Truchsess von Waldburg-Zeil das Bauernheer vernichteten. Da die Bauern am Vortag von ihrem militärischen Führer Götz von Berlichingen verlassen worden waren, mussten sie führerlos in den Kampf und hatten keine Chance. Innerhalb von zwei Stunden wurden 8.000 Bauern getötet. Als die gut ausgerüsteten und kampferprobten Truppen des Bischofs zum Angriff auf die Stadt übergingen, endete auch der Aufstand der Bürger in ihrer totalen Niederlage und Unterwerfung. Die Anführer des Aufstands unter ihnen alle Würzburger Ratsherren wurden in den Verliesen der Festung Marienberg eingekerkert, gefoltert und zum Teil grausam bestraft. Auch Tilman Riemenschneider war zwei Monate in Kerkerhaft, in der er "vom hencker hart gewogen und gemartert" wurde. August Sperl (1862-1926) war ein deutscher Historiker und Schriftsteller. 1925 erschien zum 400. Jahrestag des Deutschen Bauernkrieges der Roman Der Bildschnitzer von Würzburg, in dem das Leben des fränkischen Holzschnitzers Tilman Riemenschneider literarisch verarbeitet wurde.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071HLYF22/?tag=2022091-20
Tilman Riemenschneider was born in 1468 in Osterode, Saxony. Riemenschneider was the son of the mint master of Würzburg and opened a highly successful workshop there in 1483.
Riemenschneider likely came to Würzburg for the first time at the age of 18 in 1478/9. 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.
His first documented work was the altar for the Münnerstadt parish church (1490–92), which was later dismantled. He had a continuous flow of commissions. Riemenschneider employed numerous assistants on the massive monument, but he executed the dominant life-size figures himself. Other major works are Adam and Eve, stone figures from the Würzburg Lady Chapel; the Altar of the Holy Blood (1501–05), in the church of St. Jacob, Rothenburg; and the Tomb of Henry II and Kunigunde (1499–1513), in Bamberg Cathedral.
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.
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.
He died in Würzburg on July 7, 1531.
(Tilman Riemenschneider war ein deutscher Bildschnitzer un...)
(Paperback single issue journal)
(Hard to find book)
(Hard to find book)
(Hard to find book)
As a civic leader, he was councillor (1504–20) and burgomaster (1520–25). During the Peasants’ War (1524–25), he sympathized with the revolutionaries and was imprisoned for a short time, during which he temporarily lost his civic responsibilities and patrons.
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.
The sculptures and woodcarvings of Tilman Riemenschneider are in the late Gothic style, although his later work show mannerist characteristics. Notably the tomb for Lorenz von Bibra (see below) is considered as one of the pieces marking the transition from Gothic to Renaissance art. His work is characterized by the expressiveness of the figurines' faces (often shown with an inward look, as in the 'self-portrait') 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.
At that time, the statutes of the guild of sculptors required that an apprentice travel to many different workshops to gain experience. Very little is known about this period of his life, but he likely came in contact with the work of Martin Schongauer, whose copper engravings served him later as examples.
In 1494, Riemenschneider's first wife died, leaving him with three stepsons and a daughter. In keeping with the times and his status, he remarried in 1497, Anna Rappolt. She bore him two daughters and three sons, all of whom seem to have inherited their father's artistic talent.
In 1508, Riemenschneider married Margaretha Wurzbach. He married again, in 1520, a woman of whom only the first name, Margarethe, is known.