Toedlein

I DID IT!!!!!

This is a work I did for a friend, who has at the same time as me the presentation about THIS piece, called "Tödlein" (=little death). I sculpted it of FIMO, toothpicks and paper.
Size: 32 cm/ 12.6 inch

This is a typical representation of death in the medieval time: the reaper is shown as a hunter, who aims at the life and can shoot the arrow at anytime.
Today this little figure, carved of pear tree, is displayed at the Kunst-und Wunderkammer at Schloss Ambras castle in Innsbruck, Austria.

Description:
"The carved figure shows the death with bow and arrow. The bones can be seen, skin and clothes are hanging shredded from the skeleton. The protruding dynamic body movement indicates, that Hans Leinberger from Landshut, one of the leading carvers at the changing point fom Gothic to Renaissance, was the artist who made that figure. It was most probably ordered by Emperor Maximilian I, who had also imployed Leinberger for statues at his tomb at the Hofkirche in Innsbruck. The small sculpture might have been inherited by Abduke Ferdinand II who displayed it in his Kunstkammer, as the inventory of 1596 mentiones."