A Source for Two Gilded Silver Figurines by Hans von Reutlingen

Abstract

acquired a pair of silvergilt statuettes, a standing bishop and a crowned woman (figs. 1, 2). Each repoussé statuette is finely crafted from silver, with gold highlighting the figures’ clothing and decorative elements. The bishop, wearing a miter engraved with flowers, balances a book in his right hand and clasps his left hand around a nowlost object, most likely a crozier. Delicately robed and swaying on her axis, the female figure holds her voluminous dress in her right hand; her left hand is missing. A hole, likely a later modification, pierces her body. The Met purchased both statuettes from the Blumka Gallery in New York, although neither has a recorded provenance before the late twentieth century. A Source for Two Gilded Silver Figurines by Hans von Reutlingen