A Reframing of Tilman Riemenschneider's Materiality: A Carver Across Media

The Annunciation (The Virgin), 1485-1487. Alabaster. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands. 

Art historical memory extols the South German carver Tilman Riemenschnieder as the quintessential figure and authority within the art form during the Late Gothic period. Particularly, scholarship tends to categorize him as a wood sculptor, or at least fixate on his works in lindenwood due to his associations with monochrome sculpture’s beginnings in the region. This paper examines the artist’s use of stone and posits that his place in the art historical record needs to be reexamined, noting not just his tremendous skill in carving woods, but in diverse materials. These materials are often highly regional and include alabaster, limestone, marble, and sandstone, in addition to the widely discussed limewood. Accordingly, I wish to situate him within the proper context of a range of materials, highlighting his extreme resourcefulness and the stylistic influences present. I believe that Tilman Riemenschneider’s business skills, the organization of his workshop, and awareness of surrounding art enabled him to make his mark on art history, as opposed to his originality which is often insisted.