18347 Workshop of Tilman Riemenschneider The Twelve Disciples Germany, Middle Franconia, Abenberg? c. 1510 - 20 Central panel: 33 x 115 cm, Side panels: 30 x 55 cm Provenance By repute from the Marienkapelle in Abenberg, Middle Franconia; Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich (Inv. MA 1797-99); Sold to the Bernheimer Gallery in 1951; Christie's London, 14 December 1999, lot 48. Published Graf, Hugo. Katalog des Bayerischen Nationalmuseums. M. Rieger: Munich, 1896, pp. 72. Weniger, Matthias. Tilman Riemenschneider: Die Werke im Bayerischen Nationalmuseum, Munich, 2017, Fig. 7.16. Description These three masterfully carved panels originally belonged to a predella supporting a monumental altarpiece. Depicting the twelve disciples, the panels are attributed to Tilman Riemenschneider’s workshop or his close circle. They are reputed to come from a church in Abenberg and were housed at the Bavarian National Museum until 1951. The figures of disciples on the long panel are divided into two groups of three. They include Matthias with an axe, Paul with two swords, Peter with the keys, John with a chalice, Thomas with an axe, and James, the son of Alphaeus, with a fuller’s club. The first short panel includes Simon with the saw, Jude with the club, and Andrew with the saltire. The second short panel includes Bartholomew with a knife, Philip with a cross, and St James with the scallop shell on his hat. The figures wear contemporary 16th century dress. The reliefs are set in against a flat background crowned by ornate tracery above. The back of the longer panel supporting the figures appears to have been cut down. Remnants of painting survive on the reverse of the shorter panels, suggesting that these panels acted as wings. Although the paintings are much damaged, they show two saints against a green or red background on each panel. Enough is still visible to identify a bishop saint with a mitre and Saint Agnes holding a lamb (left panel); Saint Agatha holding shears and Saint Christopher with the Christ Child on his back (right SAM FOGG www.samfogg.com panel). A separately carved figure of Christ almost certainly sat between the two groups of figures on the long panel. The presence of a central figure is supported by studying the back of the panel, which has been cut down at some point, and by the fact that the apostles are looking towards the centre, where the figure of Christ would have been. This setup can be compared to the High Altar at the Marienkirche in Zwickau (fig. 1). Hugo Graf, in the Katalog des Bayerischen Nationalmuseums published in 1896, notes that these panels come from a predella which was once in the Marienkapelle (Our Lady Chapel) in ‘Abenberg, wohl in Mittelfranken.’1 The solemn expressions and distinctive facial features, including the shape of the eyes accented by fine lines, the pursed lips, the pinched noses with long bridges, and the tightly curled locks of hair, recall numerous works by Tilman Riemenschneider and his workshop. It is well known that Riemenschneider ran one of the largest and most productive workshops of any German sculptor of his generation but also that he worked closely with journeymen. The disciples’ faces in our panels can be compared to the style of faces from the Last Supper on the Altar of the Holy Blood in St. Jacobskirche, Rothenberg by Tilman Riemenschneider and his workshop (see fig. 2). The panels can also be compared to Riemenschneider’s twelve disciples in the Bayerischen Nationalmuseum in Munich (see fig. 3). The way that each of the disciples from the Nationalmuseum is individualised is analogous to our relief, suggesting that the workshop based these features on a common formula. The figure of St. James in both our relief and the Nationalmuseum ensemble is depicted with a long beard, unruly hair, a hat with a seashell, and a solemn expression. Similarly, the figure of Philip is depicted as a clean shaven Germanic older man with a small narrow nose, shorter wavy hair and a widow’s peak. There are no traces of polychrome on the panels, allowing us to speculate that this may have been a monochrome set of reliefs. Tilman Riemenschneider and his workshop were some of the first sculptors to produce monochrome altarpieces, which would have originally only been covered with a slightly tinted transparent glaze. The eyes and lips may have been pigmented but the wood would have been exposed under the glaze. Although many patrons at the time did not favour this technique, it emphasised the fact that the sculptors in Franconia at this time were developing new ways of seeing and understanding art, and that they were becoming more independent. Related literature Michael Baxandall, The Limewood Sculptors of Renaissance Germany, New Haven, 1980 Julien Chapuis, Tilman Riemenschneider: master sculptor of the late Middle Ages, Exh. Cat. National Gallery, New Haven, 2004. Hugo Graf, Katalog des Bayerischen Nationalmuseums, Munich, 1896 Iris Kalden-Rosenfeld, Tilman Riemenschneider und seine Werkstatt, Königstein, 2001 Matthias Weniger, Tilman Riemenschneider: Die Werke im Bayerischen Nationalmuseum, Munich, 2017 1 Hugo Graf, Katalog des Bayerischen Nationalmuseums (M. Rieger: Munich, 1896), pp. 72. SAM FOGG www.samfogg.com Fig. 1 Michael Wolgemut Workshop (1434 – 1519) High Altar at the Marienkirche in Zwickau c. 1479 Germany, Zwickau Fig. 2 Tilman Riemenschneider Altar of the Holy Blood 1501 - 05 SAM FOGG www.samfogg.com Germany, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Jakobskirche Fig. 3 Tilman Riemenschneider (1460 – 1531) Saint Peter, Saint James and Saint Philip 1505 – 09 Bayerischen Nationalmuseum (nr. MA 1326-MA 1333) SAM FOGG www.samfogg.com .