in the Allgäu, he moved to Ulm by 1427, when he was
accepted as a freeman, married Adelheid Kitzin, daugh-
ter of a local sculptor, and became a citizen. Since he
already owned a house in Ulm, Multscher may have
arrived a few years earlier. Where and with whom he
trained are unknown. Artistic infl uences in his work
suggest he traveled to the Rhineland, Burgundy, and
the Low Countries during his Wanderjahr (year as a
journeyman).
Multscher’s large workshop produced both single
fi gures and complex retables with painted panels. His
name is inscribed on the Karg Altar of 1433 in the ca-
thedral of Ulm, whose statues were destroyed during
the Protestant iconoclasm of 1531. Multscher signed the
painted wings of the large Wurzbach Altar from 1437,
portions of which are in Berlin (Germäldegalerie). This
altarpiece may have been executed for the Church of the
Assumption of the Virgin (St. Maria Himmelfahrt) in
Landsberg am Lech, where the large stone Madonna and
Child remains. Between 1456 and 1459 Multscher and
his workshop prepared the high altar of the parish church
at Sterzing (Vipiteno) in South Tyrol; the remnants of
this altar, which was dismantled in 1779, are divided
among the church and the Museo Multscher in Sterz-
ing, the Ferdinandeum in Innsbruck, the Bayerisches
Nationalmuseum in Munich, and a private collection in
Basel. These works form the basis for other attributions.
Although Multscher is often cited as a painter, there is
little evidence that his personal involvement extended
beyond his roles as workshop head, master designer,
and sculptor of some of the statues.
The artist introduced a greater sense of realism into
southern German art. At a time when the lyrical Soft Style
with its Beautiful Virgins, gracefully curved poses, and
elongated proportions was popular, Multscher developed
solid, more naturalistic fi gures that display the general
infl uence of Netherlandish post-Sluterian sculpture. The
Landsberg Madonna and Child from 1437 still includes
hints of the Soft Style with its swaying stance, yet her
inherent stability, the clear treatment of the deeply cut
drapery folds, and the marvelously animated Christ
Child who squirms in Mary’s grasp reveal Multscher’s
new aesthetic sensibilities. Using this and related works,
scholars have attributed to Multscher several slightly
earlier projects. The most signifi cant of these are the
images of Charlemagne and other fi gures made circa
1427–1430 to adorn the eastern window of Ulm’s city
hall (the originals are now in the Ulmer Museum), the
life-size Man of Sorrows from 1429 above the western
entry to the cathedral of Ulm, and the alabaster Trinity
group from circa 1430 in the Liebieghaus in Frankfurt.
The half-nude Christ evocatively displays his wounds
to all who enter the cathedral. Its spirit recalls similar
Christ fi gures by both Claus Sluter and the Master of
Flémalle. Related to the Man of Sorrows is the slightly
later model for the tomb of Duke Ludwig the Bearded
of Bavaria (1435, now in the Bayerisches Nationalmu-
seum, Munich). Employing fi ne Solnhofen limestone
rather than the coarser sandstone that he typically used,
Multscher devised a highly detailed scene of Ludwig
kneeling before the Holy Trinity. The tomb, intended
for Ingolstadt, was never executed.
In the ensuing decades Multscher and his shop
supplied numerous Madonnas, crucifi xions, and other
religious figures for churches near Ulm. His most
notable creations include the tomb effi gy of Countess
Mechthild von Württemberg-Urach (1450–1455), now
in the Stiftskirche in Tübingen; the bronze reliquary
bust (ca. 1460) in the Frick Collection in New York;
the life-size wooden Palmesel (palm donkey, 1456, Ulm
Museum), which was made initially for the church of
St. Ulrich and Afra in Augsburg, and the now divided
Sterzing High Altar. The latter was made in Ulm and
then transported to Sterzing, where Multscher and sev-
eral assistants spent about seven months erecting the
altarpiece in 1458 and early 1459.
See also Sluter, Claus
Further Reading
Baxandall, Michael. The Limewood Sculptors of Renaissance
Germany. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1980,
pp. 12–13, 245–247.
Beck, Herbert, and Maraike Bückling. Hans Multscher: Das
Frankfurter Trinitätsrelief, Ein Zeugnis spekulativer Kün-
stlerindividualität. Frankfurt: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag,
1988.
Grosshans, Rainald. ‘“Hans Multscher hat das werk gemacht’:
die Flugel des ‘Wurzachet Altars’ und ihre Restaurierung.”
Museums Journal (Berlin) 10 (1996): 78–80.
Reisner, Sabine, and Peter Steckhan. “Ein Beitrag zur Grab-
malvisier Hans Multschers für Herzog Ludwig den Bärtigen.”
In Das geschnitzte und gemalte bild auf den altaren stehen ist
nutzlich und christenlich: Aufsätze zur süddeutschen Skulptur
und Malerei des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts, ed. Rupert Sch-
reiber. Messkirch: A. Gmeiner, 1988, pp. 9–74.
Schädler, Alfred. “Bronzebildwerke von Hans Multscher.” In In-
tuition und Kunstwissenschaft: Festschrift Hanns Swarzenski
zum 70. Geburtstag am 30. August 1973, ed. Peter Bloch.
Berlin: Gebrüder Mann, 1973, pp. 391–408.
Theil, Edmund. Der Multscher-Altar in Sterzing. Bozen: Athesia,
1992.
Tripps, Manfred. “Hans Multscher: Seine Ulmer Schaffenszeit
1427–1467.” Dissertatin, Heidelberg University, 1966–1967.
Weissenhorn: A. H. Konrad, 1969.
——. Hans Multscher: Meister der Spätgotik, sein Werk, seine
Schule, seine Zeit. Leutkirch: Heimatpflege Leutkirch,
1993.
Jeffrey Chipps SmithMULTSCHER, HANS