Herlin, Friedrich

(active 1459-1499)

   German artist from Nördlingen where he can be traced in 1459. Herlin's name is listed in the city's tax rolls from that date until 1499, save for 1467 when he was in Rothenburg working on an altarpiece for the Church of St. James. The St. George Altarpiece he rendered for Nördlingen's city church in 1462-1465 and the St. Blasius Altarpiece for the Church of St. Blasius in Bopfingen in 1472. These paintings reveal Herlin's debt to the Flemish School, and particularly Rogier van der Weyden. Herlin's strongest work is the Family Altarpiece (1488; Nördlingen, Städtisches Museum), which shows the enthroned Virgin and Child against a brocaded cloth of honor. To their right, St. Margaret presents a female donor and her daughters while, to the left, St. Luke sponsors her husband and sons. In the distance is a cityscape seen through an archway, with every detail clearly rendered. This, the heavy draperies with angular folds, hierarchic proportions, and non-idealized figure types were all borrowed from Flemish examples. The posture of the Christ Child makes specific reference to the art of Hans Memlinc.