ERHART, MICHEL
(ca. 1440/1450–ca. 1520/1530)
Only a few concrete dates are known in the biography
of Michel Erhart, who is always called bildhower (stone
sculptor) in the documents. He is assumed to have been
born between 1440 and 1450. Documented as a master
in Ulm from 1469, he must have married the daughter
of Vinzenz Ensinger, a masterbuilder in Constance,
about this time; this familial relationship supports the
thesis that Erhart probably served as a stone sculptor’s
apprentice in southern Germany. Repeated appearances
as a sponsor for applicants for citizenship in the city of
Ulm suggest that he possessed a position of considerable
trust before the city council. He seems to have died at
about eighty years of age. His son Gregor and at least
one other son followed in their father’s profession.
Of Erhart’s nine works documented in archives be-
tween 1474 and 1516, which include the high altar for
Ulm Cathedral fi nished in 1479, only two are preserved:
a sandstone epitaph for the Abbot Konrad Mîrlin dated
1497 (now Augsburg, Städtische Kunstsammlungen)
and fi ve prophets created between 1517 and 1520 for a
stone Mount of Olives group that originally comprised
thirteen fi gures (Ulm, Ulmer Museum).
These works, together with an over-life-size Crucifi x
at St. Michael’s in Schwäbisch-Hall, which is signed and
dated 1494, serve as the point of departure for numerous
attributions. With fi ve further crucifi xes, including one
over fi ve meters tall at St. Martin’s in Landshut from
1495, a Madonna of Mercy dated about 1480 (Berlin,
Bodemuseum) and an over-life-size standing Virgin
from Kaufbeuren from about 1475–1480 (Munich,
Bayerisches Nationalmuseum) number among the
seventy major works attributed to the master by Anja
Broschek. “The tightly composed fi gural forms” (Miller
1971:51), the radiant beauty of the virgins’ faces, and
the lively representation of details reveal the infl uence
of Hans Multscher as well as Netherlandish sculptors
on Erhart’s aristocratic art.
The authorship of the busts on the end panels of the
choir stalls in Ulm Cathedral between about 1469 and
1474 remains disputed. The high altar of Blaubeuren,
however, is now considered as a joint work of Michel
and his son Gregor, made while the son was active in
the father’s shop.
See also Multscher, Hans
Further Reading
Broschek, Anja. Michel Erhart: Ein Beitrag zur schwäbischen
Plastik der Spätgotik. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1973.
Deutsch, Wolfgang. “Der ehemalige Hochaltar und das Chorg-
estühl: Zur Syrlin- und zur Bildhauerfrage,” in 600 Jahre
Ulmer Münster: Festschrift, ed. Hans Eugen Specker and Re-
inhard Wortmann. Ulm: Kohlhammer, 1977, pp. 242–322.
Miller, Albrecht. “Der Kaufbeurer Altar des Michel Erhart.”
Münchner Jahrbuch der Bildenden Kunst 22 (1971): 46–62.
Müller, Hannelore. “Michel und Gregor Erhart,” in Lebensbilder
aus dem bayerischen Schwaben, ed. Götz Freiherr von Pölnitz.
Veröffentlichungen der Schwäbischen Forschungsgemein-
schaft bei der Kommission für Bayerische Landesgeschichte,
3d series, vol. 5. Munich: Max Hueber, 1956, pp. 16–44.
Roth, Michael, and Hanns Westhoff. “Beobachtungen zu Malerei
und Fassung des Blaubeurer Hochaltars,” in Flügelaltäre des
späten Mittelalters, ed. Hartmut Krohm and Eike Oellermann.
Berlin: Dietrich Reimer, 1992, pp. 167–188.
Schahl, Adolf. “Michel Erhart: Der Meister des Haller Kruzi-
fi xes.” Württembergisch-Franken 47 (1963): 37–58.
Brigitte SchliewenERIK, SAINT (12 century)
Erik was king of Sweden, and son of an unknown Jed-
vard (Edward). He was venerated as a saint in Uppsala
from at least 1198 (the Vallentuna Calendar). In his
legend, the oldest version of which is now dated to the
1180s (Sjögren 1983), he is said to have been killed by a
Danish pretender to the Swedish throne, Magnus, son of
Henrik Skadelår, an offspring of the Danish royal fam-
ily, on Ascension Day, May 18, 1160, at the Mountain
of the Holy Trinity in Uppsala after having heard mass.
The legend characterizes his ten-year reign as model
years of royal justice. But the chronology is erroneous.
Ascension Day fell on the 5th of May in 1160, but on
the 18th of May in 1167, one month after Erik’s son
Knut had slain his competitor for the Swedish throne,
Karl Sverkerson. Thus, the legendary date is rather to be
explained as the day of glorifi cation of Knut’s father as
a saint in 1167. Numismatic evidence from the reign of
Knut (1167–1196) proves that he promoted Erik’s cult
(Sjögren 1983). It must have received episcopal appro-
bation by Stephen, archbishop 1164–1185. The saint’s
name was used as a symbol by aristocratic insurrections
against later dynasties in the 13th century (Sjögren
1986). A rhymed liturgical offi ce was created shortly
before 1300 under Dominican infl uence, and from this
period most of the miracles derive. The full version of
his legend dates from 1344; new parts were composed
for his offi ce by Bishop Nils Hermansson (d. 1391).
St. Erik became a symbol of the Church in Sweden
from the 14th century, and patron saint of Sweden and
Stockholm in the 15th century. Erik konungs lag (“King
Erik’s Law”) became a symbol for “old, good law.” His
relics are still kept in Uppsala cathedral. The feast of
translatio of his relics was celebrated on January 24th,
probably in memory of their transfer to the new cathedral
in 1273 (Carlsson 1944). St. Erik was connected with a
crusade for the propagation of faith to Finland. A Bishop
Henrik, later venerated as a saint in Nousis and the pa-
tron saint of Finland, is supposed to have accompanied
him and been killed at the campaign dated by historians
to 1155/9. But there is no evidence outside the legendERIK, SAINT