Crucifix (Ignaz Günther)
The crucifix by Ignaz Günther is an ivory work from around 1760 in the holdings of the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg .
description
The ivory crucifix shows Christ on the cross, covered with wounds, with arms bent at steep angles and legs crossed. His gaze is directed into the distance, his loin region covered by a double-knotted loincloth. Above his head is a wooden plaque with the inscription INRI.
The crucifix is considered a preliminary work for Paul Egell's porcelain crucifix for the Cecilia chapel of the Max III residence in Munich . Josephs . As such, it proves the practice of ivory preparatory work for porcelain work as well as a collaboration between the two artists after Günther's apprenticeship.
Dimensions
The crucifix has a height of 62.7 cm, a width of 35.3 cm and a depth of 8.9 cm.
Provenance
The object served only as preparatory work and was never in sacred use. After delivery to Egell, it probably remained in his workshop and came into private ownership when the Egell workshop was closed. In the late 19th century it is recorded in a private collection in southern Germany from which the collector WK Roentgen acquired it. Roentgen's collection was auctioned by Hugo Helbing in Munich in 1930 . In the following years the crucifix came into the possession of the American manufacturer Myers, who bequeathed it to the collection of the University of Wisconsin in 1954 . According to the usual conditions in the USA at the time, a value of the property was negotiated, which Myers could deduct from tax over several years. In the 1960s there were a number of criminal cases against donors because the value of the objects was often too high and the tax authorities demanded additional taxes. During one such process in 1963, the negotiated value of the crucifix was reduced from $ 25,000 to $ 1,800, resulting in back taxes of around $ 10,000 for Myers. The University of Wisconsin reduced its holdings in the 1980s and also sold the crucifix again. It came back to Germany via the art market and became the private property of a collector from Ingolstadt , who loaned it to the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in 1994. There it bears the inventory number Pl. O 3186.
literature
- Klaus Pechstein: Kruzifixus , in: Anzeiger des Germanisches Nationalmuseums 1994 , Nürnberg 1994, p. 156/157.
- Gerhard P. Woeckel: The large porcelain crucifix . To research the oeuvre of Ignaz Günther , in: Weltkunst, 57th year, issue 13, 1987, pp. 1816–1818.