Dessau Last Supper
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The Dessau Last Supper is the epitaph painting for Prince Joachim of Dessau (1509–1561) in the Johanniskirche in Dessau-Roßlau . It was painted in 1565 by Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515–1586).
description
The motif of the approximately 2.50 × 2.00 meter large panel painting is Jesus' Last Supper , with the most important Central German reformers , including Luther and Melanchthon, as well as various members of the Princely House of Anhalt gathered around the table around God's Son instead of the apostles . The late Prince Joachim kneels in the foreground on the left, a cupbearer is serving drinks on the front right. A closed room with a coffered ceiling , wall paneling , wicker-arched window openings, etc., serves as the setting, allowing a strong emphasis on the perspective of the room . There are various secondary characters in the background of the room.
Centrally in the center of the picture and emphasized by the symmetry of the picture composition like the column running towards him, Christ sits in the circle of his followers at the covered table of the Lord's Supper. To the left of Christ is the Anhalt Prince George III. shown, under which Dessau became an important site for the spread of the Lutheran Reformation. This is followed to the left by the reformers Martin Luther , Justus Jonas , Johannes Bugenhagen and Kaspar Cruciger . To the right of Christ are Philipp Melanchthon , Johann Forster , Johann Pfeffinger , Bartholomäus Bernhardi and Georg Major .
The picture emphasizes the role of Melanchthon, who sits directly next to Christ, while Luther only appears in the second row. In Judas, sitting in isolation with the purse, who appears opposite Melanchthon, Melanchthon's adversary Matthias Flacius Illyricus can therefore be made out.
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The cupbearer depicted in the painting is interpreted as a self-portrait of Lucas Cranach the Younger because his signet ring , which he wears on the index finger of his left hand, shows the winged snake that adorned the coat of arms of the painter family and served as their signature . At the bottom right the picture is again signed with the snake signet and dated 1565.
The person to the left in front of the cupbearer is unclear, who is either a member of the princely family due to the similarity of portraits, but who could also be identified as the humanist Georg Helt († 1545), who was princes Georg and Joachim , due to the visual references taught.
The people in the background on the left of the wall are the five Anhalt Princes Wolfgang , Johann IV. , Carl , Joachim Ernst and Bernhard. The servants in the archway at the back on the right can be plausibly identified as the top servants of the deceased Prince Joachim: Chancellor Johann Ripsch as cook and councilor Hans von Heinitz as the bearer of food.
Provenance
The epitaph for Prince Joachim of Dessau (1509–1561) was donated by his nephews, Prince Joachim Ernst and Bernhard .
The picture was originally in the residential church of St. Marien , today it is exhibited in the Johanniskirche (the Evangelical parish of St. Johannis and St. Maria Dessau). In the Köthener Church St. Agnus is a contemporary workshop copy of the epitaph.
literature
- Joh. Chr. Hönicke (Hrsg.): Documented peculiarities from the ducal castle and town church of St. Maria in Dessau, especially concerning the Anhalt ducal house. Fritsche, Deßau 1833. ( digitized version )
- Oskar Thulin : Cranach Altars of the Reformation , Berlin 1955
- Werner Schade : The Cranach family of painters , Dresden 1974, No. 250.
- State museums in Berlin (ed.): Art of the Reformation period. Catalog for the exhibition in the Altes Museum , Berlin 1983, p. 370.
- Irene Roch-Lemmer : New research on the Dessau image of the Last Supper by Lucas Cranach the Elder. J. (1565). Hans-Joachim Krause on October 25, 2005. In: Tacke, Andreas (Ed.): Lucas Cranach 1553-2003. Wittenberg conference contributions on the occasion of the 450th anniversary of the death of Lucas Cranach the Elder . Leipzig 2007, pp. 313-325.
- Doreen Zerbe : Lucas Cranach the Younger - A painter in the service of the Wittenberg Reformation. In: Christopher Spehr (Ed.): Luther Yearbook , 82nd year 2015: Organ of international Luther research. 2015, p. 199 ff. ( Partial online view )
Web links
References and footnotes
- ↑ Roch-Lemmer 2007, pp. 316/17.
- ↑ Hönicke 1833, p. 46.
- ↑ Thulin 1955, p. 100.
- ↑ Roch-Lemmer 2007, p. 320.
- ↑ Roch-Lemmer 2007, p. 317/18.
- ↑ Photo ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Coordinates: 51 ° 50 ′ 13.7 " N , 12 ° 14 ′ 34.3" E