WECKMANN, Niklaus

German sculptor. His name appears several times in the roll book of burghers of Ulm between 1481 and 1526. In 1490 he was commissioned to produce a high altarpiece for St Martin’s church, Biberach, similar in construction and appearance to those at Sterzingen and Blaubeuren. This, his major work, was destroyed during the iconoclasm of 1531. Its eight painted Passion scenes were once thought to be by Martin Schongauer.

The Ulmer Museum, Ulm, has three relief panels by Weckmann: St Catherine of Alexandria (c. 1510) may have formerly belonged to the cloister of Heggbach, while two other high reliefs, a Nativity and an Adoration of the Magi, were once wing panels of the high altar (c. 1515) at Attenhofen parish church, where the predella showing the Twelve Apostles and additional paintings can still be seen. The altars at Biberach and Attenhofen were carved in limewood and originally polychromed. The two Nativity scenes have retained some of their former colour, while the St Catherine panel has had its colours removed. Weckmann was familiar with Flemish scenes of the Adoration of the Magi, and his Virgin embodies the ideal of the period.

Weckmann’s work was formerly attributed to the workshop of Jörg Syrlin the Younger (c.1455-1523) until the restoration of the statue of St Stephen of Gundelfingen revealed his full signature and the date 1528. It is presumed that Weckmann’s workshop was one of the biggest of its kind in Ulm, if not in southern Germany, and that Weckmann was one of Ulm’s leading sculptors. In style his work belongs to the Late Gothic tradition, yet his workshop produced its own characteristics - elongated ear-lobes, bushy hair strands, and highly modelled drapery folds, which already suggest the fashion of the Northern Renaissance. His two sons, Claus Weckmann and Hieronymus Weckmann, worked as painters.