Hildegard of Bingen

Hildegard of Bingen
Daniel Mauch
Ulm, c. 1477 – 1540 Liège, attributed
Hildegard of Bingen
c. 1520
Carved walnut
Remnants of the original polychromy
Height 44.5 cm

Hildegard von Bingen (Bermersheim 1098 – 1179 Bingen) was a monastery founder, abbess, and mystic. She was also a great naturalist and naturopath who recorded her knowledge of the healing powers of nature in two works, for which she is still famous today as the “first female physician to write”: *Physica* (Natural History) and *Causae et curae* (Causes and Treatments). The latter work was written around 1150–60 and deals, among other things, with creation and the associated connection between body and soul, with the cosmos, with treatises on healthy and sick people, and with healing methods from traditional monastic medicine. Of particular significance is her precise observation of natural phenomena; even women’s ailments are addressed with astonishing detail and candor. Hildegard von Bingen consistently emphasized that she had received her knowledge as divine visions and had been commissioned to write them down.

The mystic is depicted in sculpture extremely rarely; the fact that this figure dates to the Late Gothic period makes it an even greater rarity. This extraordinary, fully rounded carved figure of the saint is particularly expressive due to her facial expressions and gestures. She is shown standing upright, her hands folded in a prayerful gesture before her chest. She looks upward, possibly in the midst of a conversation with God. Her deep-set eyes are framed by short, sharply defined eyebrows. Her almond-shaped eyes are wide open. Her snub nose is centered on her face; her mouth is curved into a slight smile. Her round face is framed by a typical veil over a cloth that covers her hair and neck. A close-fitting cloak is draped over her shoulders, pooling at her feet. Particularly striking are the folds on the sleeves, which are wrapped around her arms in ring-shaped formations. Trough folds stand out beneath them. The cloak is constructed with alternating sections of voluminous, angular folds and close-fitting panels. Ear pleats are shown at the hem. On the left side, V-shaped, irregular bowl pleats are visible, while on the right side, tight pleats are depicted in a sort of wet-look style. This lends the figure an interesting contrast in surface texture that guides the viewer’s eye across the garment. The back of the figure is rendered more simply, suggesting that the figure was designed to be viewed from the front.

Stylistically, the figure bears a strong resemblance to works from Daniel Mauch’s workshop. Mauch, as the last great artist of the Ulm School, holds particular significance. He opened his own workshop in 1503 and worked on numerous late-Gothic altar projects. His works already show hints of the transition from the Late Gothic to the Renaissance. The almost mischievously twisted mouth and the richly draped robe with intricate folds bear similarities to Mauch’s *Anna Selbdritt* from around 1510/15, now in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg (Inv. No. Pl.O.199). The multi-part bowl folds around the neck also correspond to numerous depictions of Saint Anne in the Holy Family (including the Bavarian National Museum, Munich, Inv. No. MA 1880; and the Parish Church of the Assumption of Mary, Tomerdingen).

Bibliography:

Barbara Maier-Lörcher, Masterpieces of Ulm Art, Ostfildern 2004.

Brigitte Reinhardt (ed.), Michel Erhart & Jörg Syrlin the Elder: Late Gothic in Ulm, Ulm 2002.

Susanne Wagini, The Ulm Woodcarver Daniel Mauch (1477–1540), Research on the History of the City of Ulm (Vol. 24), Ulm 1995.

The Great Book of Hildegard of Bingen. Time-Tested Healing Wisdom for Health and Well-Being, Cologne 2017.

LINKS:

https://www.masterart.com/artworks/6551/anna-selbdritt