Tree of Jesse Iconography in Northern Europe in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries by Susan L. Green

Author:Susan L. Green
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)

(Size: 95 × 330 × 64 cm) (Photo: ©Christine Krienke 2010, Landesamt für Denkmalpflege Hessen)

The fictive architectural details on the upper corners of the predella painting are decorated with all’antica festoons and putti, which contrast with the painted carvings and relief backgrounds of the shrine. Even so, similarities in technique suggest that they are contemporaneous with the rest of the decoration.35 Above the painting are the initials ‘HP’ and the letters ‘MCCCCCXV’ (1515), which may be the date of completion of the altarpiece and the monogram of the artist.36 Although the style of the painting suggests an artist with knowledge of Italian painting, no artist with the initials HP has been identified, and it was commonplace from 1510 onwards to find an Italianate style, consisting of putti, garlands and other ornaments, incorporated in southern German limewood altarpieces.37

The physical evidence considered so far confirms that the Schöllenbach altarpiece is a fairly typical example of good quality southern German workshop production of the late-medieval period, and that all elements of the work, apart from the over-painting, are original. It is also likely that the earliest date for its commission was 1503, the date of the marriage of Eberhard von Erbach to Maria von Wertheim. However, it might not have actually been received by the church until 1515, if the date on the back on the predella is taken as a terminus post quem. Attribution to a specific workshop has, however, not been possible, although there may be some indication of an Ulm origin.

In 1931 Rudolph Schnellbach specifically mentioned the Schöllenbach altarpiece in his chapter on works of Swabian derivation.38 He suggested that the style of the carving may indicate a Würzburgian workshop, comparing the sculpture of the Madonna and Child in the central shrine to that of Riemenshneider’s stone Virgin and Child in Frankfurt (Figure 4.3).39 However, although general similarities in pose and style can be observed, these tendencies appear to have become relatively standard when depicting the Virgin and Child in southern German altarpieces of the period. A closer comparison, in terms of facial features and the construction of the draperies, can perhaps be made with the work of Niklaus Weckmann, who was based in Ulm in the early sixteenth century (Figure 4.4). Ulm was an important local centre for limewood carving, and although Erbach lies approximately two hundred and fifty kilometres to the north, it is still possible that the altarpiece could have been commissioned from one of the specialised craftsmen in the city.40

The possibility of an Ulm origin is supported by further comparisons with the Blaubeuren altarpiece, a polyptych attributed to the Ulm-based carver Michel Erhart and his son, Gregor. Michel Erhart first appears as Michel, bildhower in the Ulm tax rolls of 1469, and is identified again in 1522, when he receives a charitable pension.41 During this period, he was the most prominent sculptor in the Ulm records, and his workshop was the source of some of the most distinguished wooden carving in the region. The Blaubeuren altarpiece,

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