Tilman Riemenschneider

Tilman Riemenschneider – Uncertain study years; success as freelance master in Würzburg

Tilman Reimenschneider was born in around 1460 in Heiligenstadt, Germany. After his father lost their property in the course of the Mainz Diocesan Feud, he fled with the whole family to Osterode where he found work as a mint master. Tilman’s school and journeyman years remain mostly in the dark, but it is assumed that he learned his craft in Strasbourg and Ulm from the successors of the stylistically influential sculptor Niclas Gerhaert van Leyden. He probably also studied the art of Martin Schongauer, whose copperplate engravings he later referenced. Upon his marriage to the widow of a goldsmith, Riemenschneider acquired citizenship of the city of Würzburg, where he enjoyed such great success as a freelance painter that he soon owned several houses, properties and a workshop. As a personality of significance in the city, he was elected to the city’s lower council, to which he belonged for more than twenty years, and his excellent social connections procured him many prestigious commissions. 

Despite tight guidelines, the artist created something completely new

In principle, Tilman Riemenschneider did not sign any of his pieces and worked alongside a great number of colleagues to whom he often supplied only the designs and left the actual execution to them. This has made it a challenge even for experts to differentiate between a work done completely by the master and a production of his workshop and works are thus assigned to the artist himself, his workshop and his circle. One focus of Riemenschneider’s work was altarpieces for which he always was obliged to follow precise specifications and enjoyed little artistic freedom. The great creative individuality that marks Riemenschneider’s work, making it unmistakeable, is all the more impressive. The richly detailed working is one, but even more noticeable is the lifelike expression of the faces of his figures. Many of his sculptures were conceived for pure wood and were first coloured by his contemporary colleague Jakob Mülholzer. Riemenschneider taught a great number of students who are almost impossible to identify today, but they included great names such as Peter Breuer and Philipp Koch. 

A great artistic career ended in the German Peasants’ War

During the German Peasants’ War, Tilman Riemenschneider found himself in the midst of an uprising of the citizens of Würzburg against the influential Prince-Bishop Conrad II of Thuringia and had to pay for his support of the rebelling peasants with imprisonment and torture. He lost half of his wealth, but probably not his hands, as the legends long proclaimed. However, after his release from prison, the artist did not receive any further large commissions and spent the rest of his life with his fourth wife in relative seclusion. 

Tilman Riemenschneider died on 7 July 1531 in Würzburg. Two of his sons trod in their father’s artistic footsteps: Georg Riemenschneider (also called Jörg Riemenschneider) took on his father’s workshop, and Bartimä Dill Riemenschneider made a name for himself as a painter in South Tirol. It was not until the 19th century that his gravestone was discovered by chance, bringing the artist and his work back into the light. In the meantime, a school in Würzburg, a restaurant and even an asteroid have been named after Tilman Riemenschneider, an artist considered by many connoisseurs today to be the greatest carver of the period around 1500.