The anonymous sculptor at the cathedral in Naumburg, Germany, began producing exceptionally realistic sculptures in the early 1200s, a good two hundred years before Italian Renaissance artists began to produce comparably realistic work. The statue of one woman, Uta by name, was so beautiful that Adolf Hitler promoted her image as the picture of the ideal Aryan woman. Since the sculpture of her husband (Ekkehard) next to her was not so attractive, Hitler promoted another sculpture, known as the Bamberg Rider (possibly by the same artist), to be Uta’s male counterpart.
