Riemenschneider, Tilman

Riemenschneider, Tilman (tĭl`män rē`mənshnī'dər), c.1460–1531, German Renaissance sculptor, who worked in stone and wood. He was in Würzburg by 1483. In 1520 he was made burgomaster, but he was imprisoned in 1525 because of participation in the peasant insurrection, and little is known about his work in later years. He created slender figures with delicately carved, expressive faces, all arranged in clearly ordered, though not static, compositions. His stone tombs of Bishop Rudolf von Scherenberg in the cathedral at Würzburg and of Emperor Henry II and his wife in the cathedral at Bamberg are well known, as are his stone Adam and Eve (Würzburg Mus.) and his wooden altar in Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Examples of his work are in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and in the Metropolitan and Cleveland museums.

---

Riemenschneider, Tilman

(born c. 1460, Heilgenstadt or Osterode, Domain of the Teutonic Order—died July 7, 1531, Würzburg) German sculptor. Son of a mint master, he settled in Würzburg in 1483 and opened a highly successful workshop. He was a city councillor (1504–20) and burgomaster (1520–25), but his sympathies with the revolutionaries in the Peasants' War led to a brief imprisonment. His wood and stone sculpture, characterized by sharply folded, flowing drapery, included monumental tombs and altarpieces as well as independent statues and reliefs, and made him one of the major masters of late Gothic art in Germany.