Risen Christ. Attributed to the workshop of Niklaus Weckmann.

Risen Christ, standing in a slight contrapposto, legs crossed, Ulm, Swabia, circa 1490–1510.. The torso is bare, while a mantle is wrapped around the hips and drawn up by the right hand. The treatment of the head corresponds to the formal vocabulary observed in figures of Christ and the Apostles attributed to the workshop of Niklaus Weckmann in Ulm: a heavy upper eyelid, slightly open mouth with sharply incised corners, and a pronounced lower lip. The beard is carved as combed, rhythmic S-shaped locks arranged in layered masses under the chin. The hair is worked into broad ribbon-like strands, each ending in a hooked curl. The drapery further supports the attribution to the workshop of Niklaus Weckmann: it falls in thick, tubular folds broken by sharp V-shaped ridges, alternating angular facets and deeply carved channels.

The crossed bare feet are rendered with restrained naturalism: veins and tendons are not emphasized, unlike the more insistent anatomical treatment that appears after 1510, notably in the work of Daniel Mauch. The sculpture thus belongs to Ulm production at the turn of the 16th century. Modern base, missing arms, age cracks and old worming.
Comparative works supporting this attribution include:
· The “Christ of the Ascension”, Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, Inv. EdR 919
· Christ in Prayer, Musée du Louvre, inv. RF 1381, circa 1500–1520
· Saint John sold at Lempertz, Cologne, “Alte Kunst”, 18 November 2023, lot 2108, formerly Galerie Ekinium Ref.196
References consulted:
· Meisterwerke massenhaft. Die Bildhauerwerkstatt des Niklaus Weckmann und die Malerei in Ulm um 1500. Württembergisches Landesmuseum Stuttgart, ed. Heribert Meurer / Hans Westhoff, 1993.
· Jörg Syrlin der Jüngere und der Bildhauer Niklaus Weckmann. Wolfgang Deutsch, 1966.
· Meisterwerke Ulmer Kunst. Barbara Maier-Lörcher, Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern, 2004.