CIRCLE OF HANS SEYFER (CIRCA 1460-1509) | CRUCIFIXION GROUP
Lot Closed
July 9, 02:30 PM GMT
Estimate
12,000 - 18,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
CIRCLE OF HANS SEYFER (CIRCA 1460-1509)
GERMAN, RHINE-NECKAR REGION, CIRCA 1490-1510
CRUCIFIXION GROUP
limewood, on a later wood base and cross
Christ: 42 by 38cm., 16½ by 15in.
Saint John: 39cm., 15⅜in.
Virgin: 39.5cm., 15½in.
overall: 86.5 by 65.5cm., 34 by 25¾in.
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This finely carved and profoundly introspective Crucifixion group relates to the work of Hans Seyfer, the leading sculptor in the Rhine Neckar region of Germany around 1500. Born and trained in Sinsheim in the Middle Rhine, Seyfer settled and worked in Heilbronn from 1502. A follower of Nikolaus Gerhaert von Leiden, Seyfer specialised in carving lifelike heads and expressive poses which purvey the force of emotion Gerhaert brought to late Gothic sculpture. The mourners' emotive expressions compare particularly well to the figures of John and the Virgin from the Entombment at Worms Cathedral, dating to 1488, as well as the same figures surrounding the Man of Sorrows from the high altar retable of St Kilian's Church, Heilbronn, carved by Hans Seyfer and his workshop in 1498. Comparisons such as these indicate an origin of this intimately sized group among Seyfer's close circle or following.
RELATED LITERATURE
A. Pfeiffer and K. Halbauer, Hans Seyfer: Bildhauer an Neckar und Rhein um 1500, Heilbronn, 2002, pp. 27-29, 74, 80 and 109