Original scientific paper
Christ the Saviour, South-German Mannerist from the Museum of Arts and Crafts
Nela Tarbuk
; Muzej za umjetnost i obrt, Zagreb
Abstract
The sculpture of Christ the Saviour from the collection of sacral sculpture of the Museum of Arts and Crafts was purchased in 1884 from the parish church of St Vitus in Vrbovec near Zagreb, during the fi rst acquisition campaign for the Museum’s recently established collection. The statue belonged to the Vrbovec church inventory along with other statues donated to the church in 1859 by the Viennese painter and lithograph Joseph Ritter von Hempel, who had arrived to his estate
in Vrbovec. During his life he had lived and worked in Klagenfurt, Graz, Bolzano, Rome and Vienna; since his activities included art restoration, he is said to have received the aforementioned sculptures in compensation for the restorations of sacral works of art. The sculpture of Christ the Saviour is a rare example of South-German Mannerism of the first third of the 17th century, unique in Croatian cultural heritage, originating from the circle of the so-called Weilheim School of sculpture. The small Bavarian town of Weilheim, distinguished for its rich woodcarving tradition, played a crucial role in the formation and dissemination of this particular style in sculpture. The central fi gure of the Weilheim School was the sculptor Hans Degler. Born in Munich to a family of painters, he moved to Weilheim in the 1590s and soon became the protagonist of the town’s sculptural production. His works are characterized by a sculptural expression which combines the stylistic features of the international courtly Mannerism of Munich and the still predominant German Gothic sculptural tradition. South-German Mannerist style is defi ned by the so-called Gewand fi gure, the »clad fi gure« whose mass and volume are determined by its clothing, which gives the fi gure its spatiality and suggests movement. The figures are characterized by unsteady posture, oval silhouette pronouncedly broadened in its central part, relief-like drapery folds and portions of »metallic« texture with short diagonal cuts. All formal, stylistic and typological characteristics of the sculpture of Christ the Saviour clearly correspond to the sculptural expression of Hans Degler. Due to the fact that Degler’s oeuvre has been considerably reduced over the years, comparative examples are scarce. The sculptures most similar to the stylistic features of the Museum’s Christ are the ones representing Madonna and Child, among which the Madonna dated 1621 from the parish church in Unterhausen (Upper Bavaria) displays identical sculptural treatment. This is revealed in similarly conceived physiognomy of the young oval face framed by densely incised curls, the almond-shaped, half-open eyes gazing into the distance, the form of the nose and the mouth, the cylindrical, slightly broadened neck, the slightly swollen hands, the outline of the fi gure’s narrow shoulders and the drapery folds with characteristic funnel-shaped creases. The sculptures’ polychrome coating and gilding consist of transparent layers of red and green on silver background with large gilt areas, so that the statues shine like jewels, which is one of the characteristic features of German Mannerism. The same technique and treatment were applied on the sculpture from the Museum; only the gilding of its mantle has been consumed over time and altered by subsequent overpainting. There is no record of the possible original setting of the statue of Christ the Saviour, because Joseph Ritter von Hempel did not indicate the place where he had received it. The list of Deglers works, which includes the surviving sculptures as well as those mentioned only by archival sources, does not suggest the existence of a sculpture of Christ the Saviour. The list is summary and does not provide more precise information on individual altar sculptures, which were probably not registered. It can be assumed that the Museum’s Christ originally came from Austria, considering that Hempel spent the major part of his life there, and Degler was active in that region as well. The statue of Christ the Saviour can be included among the master’s best works along with the sculptures of Madonna and Child, and can be dated around 1620-1625. The Museum of Arts and Crafts owns an exceptional work of South-German late Mannerism, unique in Croatia.
Keywords
Museum of Arts and Crafts; sacral sculpture; sculpture of Christ the Saviour; South-German late Mannerism; Hans Degler; Weilheim School of sculpture
Hrčak ID:
188730
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2011.
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