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Seated Virgin with Child
Michel Erhartc. 1480
Renaissance and Reformation. German Art in the Age of Dürer and Cranach
This highly refined sculpture by Michel Erhart, the leading sculptor in Ulm in the second half of the fifteenth century, invites close scrutiny. Carved fully in the round, it was likely made as an object for private devotion. The tilt of Mary’s head and her reflective expression give the group an elegiac quality, possibly in allusion to Christ’s future Passion. Mary’s throne of stones may also be a reference to Golgotha.
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Details
- Title: Seated Virgin with Child
- Creator: Michel Erhart
- Date Created: c. 1480
- Physical Dimensions: H: 39 cm
- Technique and Material: Linden
- Provenance: Acquired in Munich in 1882
- Museum: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst
- Inv.-No.: 408
- ISIL-No.: DE-MUS-815614
- External Link: http://www.smb.museum/museen-und-einrichtungen/skulpturensammlung-und-museum-fuer-byzantinische-kunst/home.html
- Copyright: Photo © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinisch Kunst/ Antje Voigt; Text © Renaissance and Reformation: German Art in the Age of Dürer and Cranach, A Cooperation of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, and the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen München, Catalogue of the Exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Nov 20, 2016 – March 26, 2017, Munich: Prestel, 2016; cat. no. 4 / Julien Chapuis
- Catalogue: https://prestelpublishing.randomhouse.de/book/Renaissance-and-Reformation/Stephanie-Buck/Prestel-com/e504919.rhd
- Artist Dates: c. 1440–45–after 1522 Ulm (?)
- Artist Biography: Erhart, first documented as a citizen of Ulm in 1469 (with documented works from 1474 onward), is considered the most important Swabian sculptor after Hans Multscher, on whose oeuvre his own work is based stylistically as well as on the aesthetic of Early Netherlandish painting (Rogier van der Weyden). It is difficult to distinguish his sculptures from those of his son, Gregor Erhart.
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