15th-century German school

15th-century German school
“Saint Sebastian.”
Carved wood.
Measurements: 92 x 23 x 15 cm.
The carving features an ornate base upon which rests the male figure of Saint Sebastian, who is depicted semi-nude, revealing his distorted anatomy. The young man, with long, curly hair, is bound by his arms to the stump of a dead tree that towers above him, thus establishing a vertical axis that the figure follows, but which is softened by the position of his feet and a slight curve in his hips, following the postural models typical of classical antiquity. However, the work’s aesthetic takes on the Symbolist sensibility of the classical period, as can be seen in the treatment of the face and the stylized anatomical proportions that adhere to a symbolic rather than a realistic canon.
Clearly, the carving follows aesthetic models associated with the German school. German sculpture of this period moved beyond the short canon and somewhat folk-art style under the influence of the innovative Dutch trend. This influence is evident in the undulating or angular forms of the folds in the clothing, and in the delicate tenderness displayed by certain female figures. But it was not until around 1430 that distinct schools began to emerge in Germanic sculpture, particularly in southern Germany, especially in Bavaria (Nuremberg) and Swabia. The first key figure was Hans Multscher, an Austrian sculptor and painter born in Allgäu who settled in Ulm around 1427 and founded the Swabian school. Another exceptionally gifted master would eventually imprint a stamp of delicate idealism on Germanic sculpture immediately preceding the Late Gothic period. Thanks to this sculptor and to skilled woodcarvers such as Jörg Syrlin (creator of the carvings in the choir of Ulm Cathedral), German sculpture reached a level of maturity evident in numerous statues and altars by the great sculptors of the late 15th century and the first decades of the 16th century—works that, thanks to their innovative approach, are already considered landmarks of the Early Renaissance in the German-speaking world.