Austrian sculptor in Vienna who continued the tradition of Sluter, which he combined with the ornamental exuberance of the late Gothic. He was active at Heilbronn, Brno and Vienna. His masterpiece is the pulpit in the Vienna Cathedral.
The elevation of the status of the artist in the course of the Gothic period does not mean that the Romantic notion of artistic self-expression was born at this time. It meant that artists, as they attained a higher status, took on the trappings and symbols of courtly life. The self became an object of representation - artists included themselves as producers within the works they created. They thus became another type of internal viewer like the donor or patron, except that more often they look out at the viewer as if to stand between the image and the reality outside. This is the case with Anton Pilgram, who twice represents himself in the St Stephen’s cathedral. On the large carved pulpit he opens a window and looks out from within his work, holding his compass. (The other representation is under the great organ loft.)
