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Lot Essay
Michael Pacher was born near Brixon, in the Tyrol region of Austria. He is distinguished among the German sculptors of the period by the fact that he travelled to Padua and was deeply influenced by the artistic trends there, particularly by the newly established rules of perspective and the painting style of Mantegna. He was to introduce many of these practices into his work, and is known to have been one of the most important conduits for the introduction of renaissance ideals to southern Germany.
He soon established himself in Bruneck where he led a successful workshop producing painted and sculpted altarpieces across Southern Germany and Austria. Today, he is perhaps most famous for the elaborate winged altarpiece of the Coronation of the Virgin in the Pilgrimage and Parish Church of St Wolfgang in Salzkammergut, Austria (extensively illustrated in Kahsnitz, op. cit., pp. 86-105). However, the most relevant comparison for the present lot is a group of the Virgin and Child in the church of San Lorenzo in Bruneck. It is one of few remaining elements of an altarpiece by Pacher, executed for the church in circa 1462. In the San Lorenzo group one sees the same rounded face of the Virgin, as well as her solid and relatively square body proportions, with the deep folds of drapery over the knees falling away at a dynamic angle. The Christ Child is perhaps even more similar, with a square face, high forehead and tight curls of hair, along with the same robust physiognomy visible in the Virgin. In both groups he strikes an animated pose, like an excited child barely able to stay on his mother's lap. It seems likely that the author of the present wood group was aware of the altarpiece in San Lorenzo, and was heavily influenced by it.
He soon established himself in Bruneck where he led a successful workshop producing painted and sculpted altarpieces across Southern Germany and Austria. Today, he is perhaps most famous for the elaborate winged altarpiece of the Coronation of the Virgin in the Pilgrimage and Parish Church of St Wolfgang in Salzkammergut, Austria (extensively illustrated in Kahsnitz, op. cit., pp. 86-105). However, the most relevant comparison for the present lot is a group of the Virgin and Child in the church of San Lorenzo in Bruneck. It is one of few remaining elements of an altarpiece by Pacher, executed for the church in circa 1462. In the San Lorenzo group one sees the same rounded face of the Virgin, as well as her solid and relatively square body proportions, with the deep folds of drapery over the knees falling away at a dynamic angle. The Christ Child is perhaps even more similar, with a square face, high forehead and tight curls of hair, along with the same robust physiognomy visible in the Virgin. In both groups he strikes an animated pose, like an excited child barely able to stay on his mother's lap. It seems likely that the author of the present wood group was aware of the altarpiece in San Lorenzo, and was heavily influenced by it.