Florian Eitle-Böhler (edit), Eva Bitzinger (text), Andreas Huber (photogr.) — A Pilgrim as a Memento Mori. Balthasar Permoser.

Starnberg / New York Julius Böhler Kunsthandlung / Blumka Gallery 2018 Softcover, stapled, 36pp;, 23x32cm., ills; in col., in very good condition. This catalogue presents an exceptional Baroque sculpture attributed to Balthasar Permoser, depicting death in the form of a pilgrim. The work is analysed through its artistic execution, iconography and emotional intensity characteristic of late seventeenth-century sculpture. The publication explores themes of mortality, vanitas and spiritual anxiety in the Baroque imagination while situating the sculpture within the broader European tradition of memento mori imagery. The publication examines the sculpture "A Pilgrim as a Memento Mori" attributed to Balthasar Permoser, one of the major sculptors of the German Baroque period. Essays discuss the stylistic relationship between the sculpture and Permoser?s documented works, including comparisons with Florentine and Saxon Baroque sculpture. The catalogue also analyses the symbolism of pilgrimage, death and spiritual transience within seventeenth-century devotional art. Particular attention is given to sculptural technique, emotional expression and the transmission of Baroque artistic models across Europe. Balthasar Permoser was a German Baroque sculptor born in Bavaria who became one of the most influential sculptors active at the Dresden court during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. After formative years in Italy, especially Florence, he developed a dynamic sculptural language combining Italian expressiveness with German craftsmanship. His works are associated with the flourishing of Baroque sculpture in Saxony and had a lasting influence on later German sculptors.