Tilman Riemenschneider ( 1460 – 7 July 1531) was a German woodcarver and sculptor active in Würzburg from 1483. A master in limewood and stone, he was one of the most prolific and versatile sculptors of the transition period between the Late Gothic, to which he essentially belonged, and Northern Renaissance art. He was also a local politician in the council of Würzburg.
Most of his subjects are religious, including several very large and spectacular carved wood altarpieces, as well as tombs in stone, and statues. He was largely forgotten soon after his death, but rediscovered by art historians in the 19th century.
thumb|Holy Blood Altar in [[Rothenburg ob der Tauber, 1501–05]]
thumb|right|Limewood carved figure of Saint George Fighting the Dragon, c. 1490 ([[Bode Museum, Berlin)]]
Biography
Tilman Riemenschneider was born around the year 1460 at Heiligenstadt im Eichsfeld in present-day Thuringia.
When Riemenschneider was about five years old, his father was involved in a violent political conflict, the , so the family had to leave Heiligenstadt and all their possessions. They resettled in Osterode, where his father became Master of the Mint (a good position at that time) and where Riemenschneider spent his childhood years. In 1490, the town council of Münnerstadt ordered an retable for the altar of St Mary Magdalene, the parish church, which included a carving of Mary Magdalene with six angels. It was set up in 1492. In 1491, the town council of Würzburg ordered two life-sized stone figures of Adam and Eve for the south portal of the council's church, the Marienkapelle (erected in 1493). Between 1501 and 1517 he had twelve apprentices registered, more than any other in Würzburg, and in 1508 he stated three stone sculptors would work for him. For that timespan alone at least a dozen retables are known to have been made by Riemenschneider's workshop.
In November 1504, Riemenschneider became a member of the sub-council (') of the town of Würzburg, an office he held until 1525. Together with the rest of the council, Tilman was set free after two months, with loss of most of his property. The only order he is known to have received after this was work in 1527 for a Benedictine nunnery at Kitzingen. It is assumed he learned stone and alabaster carving first and only later turned to wood carving. Some wooden figures, though unmistakably his own work, show some signs of less-than-perfect choice of wood or handling. The reasons for shifting to a new type of art, where the wood remained visible, are still debated by art historians.