One of the earliest items of German sculpture in the Hermitage is the monumental terracotta Pieta (c.1410) by an unknown Czech-Austrian sculptor.
A number of works from the late 15th to early 16th centuries were created under the influence of the remarkable sculptor, Tilman Riemenschneider: Madonna with Child by a late 15th-century sculptor from the Upper Rhineland, Mary Magdalene by an early 16th-century sculptor from the Franconia-Swabia region. The head of St Anne, on which the polychromy is still well preserved, would appear to be part of a composition fashioned in Reiemenschneider's workshop.
The Lamentation of Christ dating from the 1520s, is an extremely rare signed piece by the Master I.P., who worked in Salzburg and its environs.
16th-century German bronze sculpture is exceedingly rare, particularly outside Germany, and thus the five examples of small-scale Renaissance bronze sculpture are of great importance. Among them are Striding Woman (1530-1540) by the Master of the Abundancia in Budapest, Standing Dog (1530-1550) by an unknown sculptor from Nuremberg, Cupid (1650) from the workshop of Hans Peyser.
Alongside this group is a small wooden figure of a wine-grower (c.1570) by Johann Gregor van der Schadt, made as a model for later casting.
