Between death and resurrection or: off to new shores.
The pictorial inventions of Albrecht Dürer and other artists of the period around 1500 such as Veit Stoss experienced a notable renaissance during the 17th century. The primarily religious pictorial motifs, disseminated through prints, were taken as prototypes and reinterpreted. Along with their value as “Old Masters,” the targeted recourse to the arts in the service of the church before the schism of the Reformation surely also played a role.
Title:
Dead Christ
Artist:
Zacharias Hegewald (1596 Chemnitz - 1639 Dresden)
Time:
ca. 1630
Christ lies upon an expanse of cloth creased by folds. With the last of his strength he seems to grasp the fabric. Around the fingertips of his left hand small depressions are formed in the cloth.
The skin of the muscular body is strained and tensed
Phoenix, Furienmeister, ca. 1610/20
For the believer who views the sculpture the phase between death and resurrection is imbued with a unique atmosphere. Anguish over Christ’s agonizing death on the cross mixes with the redemptive knowledge of the resurrection.
Hegewald combines with virtuosity different artistic concepts: the harmoniously proportioned body has its origin in Italian influences, whilst the naturalistic rendering of the surfaces and detailed representation of the folds of the loincloth hark back to earlier central European traditions.
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