This book constitutes the first art-historical attempt to theorize the idiosyncratic character of German Gothic sculpture and trace the high and late medieval notions of the ?living statue? and the simulacrum in religious, lay and travel literature. In addressing a range of works, from the oeuvre of the Naumburg Master through Freiburg-im-Breisgau to the imperial art of Vienna and Prague, Pinkus offers a new understanding of the function, production, and use of three-dimensional images in late-medieval Germany.