The Risen Christ

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The Risen Christ

Artist Andreas Frosch German, active ca. 1517-1520

Place of OriginGermany, Bavaria, Donauworth

Dateca. 1520

Dimensions49 3/16 × 7 1/16 × 12 3/16 in. (125 × 18 × 31 cm)

MediumLimewood with polychromy

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

2018.33

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 16

Published ReferencesBergbau- und Gotikmuseum Leogang, Gotiksammlung Rudolf Leopold, Exh. Cat., Leogang, 2011, no. 49, pp. 160-16.

Of Earth and Heaven: Art from the Middle Ages, dealer exh. cat., New York, Luhring Augustine, 2018, no. 27.

Exhibition HistoryLeogang, Bergbau-und Gotikmuseum, Gotiksammlung Rudolf Leopold, 2011.

New York, Luhring Augustine, Of Earth and Heaven: Art from the Middle Ages, 2018.

Label TextFully carved in the round, this figure has much of its original polychrome (multicolor paint), in particular the well-preserved face with its large brown eyes, high forehead, and shoulder-length hair. Christ’s right hand is raised in a sign of benediction, whereas his left hand once held a flagstaff, now missing, symbolic of his rising from the dead. he also originally would have had a halo affixed to the top of his head. This sculpture, as well as another German work of the same era, today in the collection of the Louvre in Paris, are thought to have been centerpieces of dramatic liturgical performances. After being brought into a church in a formal procession, such a carving was then elevated by ropes or chains through the nave and into the roof, thereby re-enacting Christ’s Resurrection and Ascension. Symbolically alluding to this, in this sculpture Christ stands on an intricately carved base of undercut swirling patterns representing clouds, with fleur-de-lis foliage below. The sculpture is attributed to Andreas Frosch on the basis of stylistic similarity with a group of carvings for a church in Donauwörth, Bavaria.