Art Moment: Hans Multscher

Hans Multscher's Model of a tombstone lid for Duke Ludwig the Bearded, 1435. Now in Bavarian National Museum, Munich.

Theodor Muller in his Sculpture in the Netherlands, Germany, France and Spain 1400-1500 says of this sculpture:

"Here we have a supreme example of Multscher's treatment of surface. Even the background is full of incident, since the heraldic emblems of the duke are displayed, as indeed he requested. They are like embroidery in thick raised materials on a curtain. In the lower foreground the duke is presented as an eques Christianus, i.e. with the features not at all life-like, but equipped with all the insignia of his rank and looking up to an image of the Trinity in the upper part of the relief. This is an astonishing spatial arrangement whose magic is enhanced by the fact that the composition juts beyond the narrow projecting frame, thus deepening the latticed background and lending the maximum vividness to the whole presentation." (page 73)

photo from the Bildindex.de image archive.