RELATED LITERATURE

Europäische Kunst um 1400 : achte Ausstellung unter den Auspizien des Europarates, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 1962, pl. 46

Liebeghaus-Museum alter Plastik: Fürer durch die Sammlungen Bildewerke des Mittelalters I, Frankfurt, 1980 p. 104-112

W. Wixom, ed. Mirror of the Medieval World, 🦄Metropolitain Museum of Art, New York, 1999, nos. 215, 216, 219

The sculptor known as the Master of Rimini is so called for an impressive alabaster Crucifixion altar from Santa Maria delle Grazie in Rimini, now in the Liebieghaus, Frankfurt.  Accompanying the central grouping of the crucified Christ and two thieves are small figures of the twelve apostles, in pairs.  The rhythmic folds of drapery, sharp facial features and thin fingers of the present figure are close to the style seen in that group.  Few other works are attributed to the highly skilled sculptor, including the "Madonna dell'Acqua", a Pietà in the Tempio Malatestiano in Rimini; however the quality and range of the known examples in his distinctive syle suggest a workshop in the Southern Netherlands or Northern France producing alabaster for export.  A group of slightly later apostle figures of very similar heights and the same general form as the present figure and those of the Rimini altar can be found in the Robert Lehman collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Wixom op. cit., no. 219).