of a relief originally representing fourteen helper saints,
now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
City (The Cloisters). All these works reveal Riemen-
schneider’s ability to carve refi ned drapery and fl esh
as well to reveal the underlying bone structure. Shortly
after the completion of the Rothenburg altarpiece,
Riemenschneider created the Creglingen altarpiece
(Herrgottskirche, ca. 1505–1510) representing the As-
sumption of the Virgin in a more elaborate and complex
style than the earlier works.
Riemenschneider’s works in stone include the sand-
stone fi gures carved for the Marienkapelle in Würzburg,
including the fi gures of Adam and Eve (1492–1493), and
the nine apostle fi gures of 1500–1506 (all these now in
the Mainfränkisches Museum, Würzburg). Among his
most extraordinary achievements, however, are the few
surviving works in alabaster such as the Angel and the
Virgin Annunciate in Amsterdam of about 1480–1485
(Rijksmuseum), and the St. Jerome with the Lion in
Cleveland (Museum of Art), which probably dates
before circa 1495. Like some of the linden wood
sculptures, these works are sparingly decorated with
polychrome and gilt highlights, but they rely on the
fi neness of the carved surface for their impact.
In addition to altarpieces and architectural sculp-
tures in wood and stone produced for churches in and
around Franconia, Riemenschneider’s career can be
traced through several tomb monuments that attest to
his prestige. As early as about 1488 Riemenschneider
carved the monument of Eberhard von Grumbach (d.
1487) now in the parish church at Rimpar, depicting the
knight in full Gothic armor in relief. The same format
is repeated in the tomb monument of Konrad von Scha-
umberg (d. 1499) in the Marienkapelle in Würzburg.
This work, however, of about 1502 is more mature in
style, more portrait than effi gy. Much grander in scale
is the sandstone and marble monument of Archbishop
Rudolf von Scherenberg (d. 1495) in the cathedral
of Würzburg. Most impressive is the limestone and
sandstone tomb of Emperor Heinrich II and Empress
Kunigunde (1499–1513) in the cathedral of Bamberg.
Below the relief of the imperial couple are a series of six
relief panels illustrating scenes from their lives. Finally,
around 1520 Riemenschneider carved the sandstone and
marble monument of Archbishop Lorenz von Bibra in
Würzburg Cathedral.
Further Reading
Bier, Justus. Tilmann Riemenschneider. 4 vols. Würzburg: Ver-
lagsdruckerei, 1925–1978.
——. Tilman Riemenschneider: Frühe Werke. Regensburg:
Pustet, 1981.
——. Tilmann Riemenschneider: His Life and Work. Lexington:
University Press of Kentucky, 1982.
Peter Barnet
ROBERT DE BORON (fl. 1180s–1190s)
The few facts known about the most important early
Grail poet after Chrétien de Troyes are inferred from the
epilogue of Robert’s Joseph d’Arimathie, also called the
Roman de l’estoire dou Graal, where he names himself
and the nobleman in whose company he was writing,
Gautier de Montbéliard. Montbéliard is in northern
Franche-Comté; Boron is a small village about 12 miles
to the northeast. Robert’s verse bears traces of his east-
ern dialect. Gautier left on crusade in 1201, to remain
in Palestine until his death in 1212; Robert must have
fi nished the Joseph at or before the turn of the century.
Robert’s incorporation of material from Chrétien’s
Conte du Graal indicates that he wrote after the early
1180s. Other evidence suggests that the Joseph might
be dated after 1191: Joseph foretells that the Grail will
be taken to the “vales of Avaron [Avalon]”— that is,
Glastonbury in Somerset; association of the Grail and
of Arthurian matter with the abbey was not widespread
before 1190–91, when the discovery there of a grave
marked as Arthur’s was announced.
Joseph d’Arimathie is a verse romance (3,500 oc-
tosyllables) that recounts the history of the Grail from
the Last Supper and the Descent from the Cross, when
Joseph used it to collect Christ’s blood, through the im-
prisonment of Joseph, whom Christ visits and comforts
with the holy vessel, until the moment when Joseph’s
brother-in-law, Bron (or Hebron), the Rich Fisher, is
poised to take the Grail from a place of exile outside
Palestine to Great Britain. As the Joseph draws to a
close, the narrator announces that he will relate stories
of adventures that Joseph has foretold, including that
of the Rich Fisher, if he has time and strength and if he
can fi nd them written down in Latin; meanwhile, he will
continue with the matter he has at hand.
Robert thus seems to project a complex work con-
sisting of the Joseph/Estoire, the narrative to which he
will pass immediately, and the fulfi llment of Joseph’s
prophecies. The only manuscript to transmit Robert’s
verse Joseph (B.N. fr. 20047) in fact continues with
the fragment of a Merlin romance (504 octosyllables),
apparently the beginning of the second part; no more
of Robert’s original work survives.
However, a prose adaptation of the Joseph, by an
anonymous author referred to as the Pseudo-Robert
de Boron, was executed within a few years, and this is
linked to a Merlin in prose, conjoining the history of the
Grail and the history of Britain, that is found complete in
a large number of manuscripts (forty-six) and fragments.
Two manuscripts also contain a third prose romance,
which portrays the Rich Fisher: the Didot Perceval (so
called because one of the manuscripts was in the Firmin
Didot collection). Unlike the fi rst two romances, the Di-
dot Perceval is never ascribed to Robert de Boron, nor is
there any proof that a verse original of this text existed,RIEMENSCHNEIDER, TILLMANN