The fall of the damned into hell
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| The fall of the damned into hell |
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| Peter Paul Rubens , around 1620 |
| Oil on oak |
| 288 × 225 cm |
| Old Pinakothek |
The Fall of the Damned is a painting by Peter Paul Rubens in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich . It was created around 1620 during the Thirty Years War .
Image description
The painting is about the fall of hell , a traditional motif of Christian art. Archangel Michael rushes out of a ray of light between dark clouds and hurls down large amounts of naked bodies. In contrast to comparable representations, Christ as the judge of the world with the perspective of salvation is missing. The almost abstract merging of the colored surfaces is also unusual.
history
On behalf of Duke Wolfgang Wilhelm von Pfalz-Neuburg, who converted to Catholicism, Rubens had created The Great Last Judgment for the Neuburg Jesuit Church in 1617 and the Small Last Judgment in 1619 , both of which are also in the Alte Pinakothek. Probably around 1620 he received the order for the fall of hell from the count, who was looking for a picture for his palace chapel. According to other information, however, the picture is said to have been in Rubens' workshop in 1628.
Elector Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz acquired the picture for his Düsseldorf picture gallery. After a varied history of the collection, it was brought to the Alte Pinakothek in Munich via the Mannheim gallery.
vandalism
The painting was the subject of vandalism in 1959 . On February 26, shortly after 11 a.m., the philosopher and adventurer Walter Menzl from Constance poured a furniture remover over the picture. The caustic liquid flowed down the painting about half a meter wide and severely damaged the left half of the picture in particular. Menzl turned himself in to the police on the morning of the following day. During the interrogation he described himself as a scientist and writer. Actually, he wanted to destroy Dürer's The Four Apostles , but because of religious inhibitions he did not do this. The offender was sentenced by the Munich Regional Court for “damage to property” to a prison term of three years and to the payment of damages in the amount of DM 800,000. The painting was successfully restored.
Trivia
Australian metalcore band Parkway Drive used part of the painting for the artwork of their 2018 album Reverence.
The image is a recurring motif in the second and third seasons of the Netflix series Dark .
Web links
- Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640): The fall of the damned into hell. In: bavarikon. Bavarian State Library, accessed on July 24, 2015 .
- Article with a picture of the damaged painting: The red coloration of Lake Constance. In: volkverlag.de. Volk Verlag Munich, accessed on July 24, 2015 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Stadtchronik 1959. Remarkable, curious and everyday things. In: muenchen.de. The official city portal. State capital Munich, accessed on April 8, 2013 : "Punishment for the attack on a Rubens painting"