Masterly figure of a virtue?

Masterly figure of a virtue?
Southern Germany
Around 1700
Lime wood painted white
Height 120 cm

This sculpture of high quality shows an androgynous male figure with long flowing hair. The figure has a playful, dynamic turning movement with a protruding, angled playing leg and a firmly anchored standing leg. He appears to be standing on a rock or a cloud formation. His gaze is tilted downwards, his mouth slightly opened. The complex pleated robe is draped around the body in a sweeping manner. The textile is artfully gathered several times, rolled up at the sleeves and knotted above the knees. Folds of cloth are looped around the lower legs and the upper left arm. The right arm is crossed over the chest, while the left hand seems to have held a now fragmentarily preserved attribute.
The figure could represent the Greek god Apollo, among other things god of the Muses, who is shown as an androgynous beau with long hair, possibly with a lyre, of which a volute-shaped fragment on the left lower leg still survives. Or it may be a virtue holding a banner or similar attribute. The figure, completely painted in white, is typical for the time around 1700 and probably represents an imitation of marble. Sculptures of this kind are found both in church interiors as well as in representative secular buildings – for example on pompous Baroque staircases.
The wind-blown, richly detailed folds show hemlines that have been folded over several times to form ear folds, inviting the viewer to take a closer look. Artificial draperies of this kind, emphasising the body on the one hand but also obscuring it in other places, can be found in late Baroque times both in Austria and in southern Germany. A well-known carver from Austria is Andreas Thamasch (See 1639 – 1697 Stams), who created important sculptures with dramatising folds. The figure presented here is also of the late Baroque period, but is more closely associated with southern Germany, as evidenced by the typical shape of the hair, which is curled at the ears, and the voluminous drapery. Echoes of Mannerism of twisted bodies with elongated limbs are already evident here and later herald the world-famous Bavarian Rococo style.

Bibliography:
Hermann Bauer, Kunst in Bayern, Rosenheim 1985.
Hermann Bauer, Baroque – Art of an Epoch, Berlin 1992.