Transformations in wood: Between sculpture and painting in late medieval devotional objects

Late-medieval wooden objects along the Lower Rhine are uniquely characterized in their transformative quality, transitioning from sculpture to painting and vice versa. Being neither painting nor sculpture, these objects are in a perpetual state of “becoming” or metamorphosis, from two-dimensional to three-dimensional representation. Earlier studies classified them as mixed-media objects, restricting their understanding to formalist and aesthetic aspects alone. Following the medieval differentiation between painting (imagine) as knowledge of the divine archetype, and sculpture (simulacrum) as the corporeal and material body, this article explores the interrelationship of the two media in these transformative objects as a transition from essentia to forma, from knowing to matter, and from idea to a real living body. The popular Schreinmadonna, Ursula Busts, and multimedia panel painting, all produced around Cologne, will serve as case studies for interrogating this so-called medieval paragone.