Hans Leinberger
Hans Leinberger (also spelled Lemberger) was a Late Gothic sculptor from Bavaria who worked in wood, metal and stone. He lived around 1475/80 to after 1531. His exact birthplace and his training are unknown. The first time we hear of him is when he lived in Landshut in 1510, but the location of his workshop there is uncertain. After 1516 he worked for Louis X, Duke of Bavaria, while Louis ruled from Landshut with his brother William IV. Wage records from 1529/30 suggest he held a position like a court artist, but none of those works survive. He may have been the brother of Georg Lemberger, a painter and woodcut artist in Landshut, but this is unclear.
Leinberger’s fame today rests mainly on the high altar of the Church of Saint Castulus in Moosburg an der Isar. Finished in 1514, it is the largest surviving altarpiece in Altbayern, though it was heavily modified in the 18th century by Christian Jorhan the Elder. In the same year he also made a statue of Albert IV for the Hofkirche in Innsbruck, based on a drawing by Albrecht Dürer, showing the high regard in which he was held.
His later works include a Madonna for the Church of Saint Martin (1516–1518) and a seated figure of Saint Judoc for his own church (c. 1525), now in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum. His last known works were altar figures for the Liebfrauenkirche in Polling; two survive—one a Madonna and the other a Man of Sorrows.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 11:30 (CET).