The Virgin of Mercy, from the Church of Our Lady, Ravensburg

With her gaze fixed in the distance and her left leg forward, Mary is seen spreading her cloak protectively over a group of donors. The principal figures – to the left, a man wearing a tall cap and a short, loose tunic slit at the sides, and, to the right, a woman with a broad wimple – are prominently positioned to the fore, nestling up against the Madonna’s robe. Behind them in tiers are other people of various age and gender. Mary appears to be pausing as she takes a step to the front, which lends her caring gesture a spontaneous air. This figural group is a major work of German Late Gothic sculpture. Tradition had it that it was originally on the high altar retable of the Church of Our Lady in Ravensburg, where an artist’s inscription credited the work on the retable to two Ravensburg artists, carver Friedrich Schramm and painter Hans Keltenhofer. For more than half a century, however, scholars have increasingly tended to associate the Virgin of Mercy with Michel Erhart, who also worked on the choir stalls and high altar retable in Ulm Minster.