A wooden body of Christ is large (176 × 210 × 30 cm) and on display in the Exhibition Hall 1 of the
Permanent Collection of the National Gallery of Slovenia. Its remarkable and
expressive outlook is a consequence of improper use before its arrival at the
National Gallery; the wood has been stripped of paint, with only modest
fragments remaining. In the exhibition catalogue Gothic Sculpture in Slovenia (1973), Emilijan Cevc wrote: "It
seems that the Crucifix hung outdoors
for a long time, probably on a cemetery cross, where it was beaten by the
weather. Its original place may have been in the triumphal arch of a church
nave."
A close inspection of the sculpture quickly reveals a series of small
details that almost nullify the impression of expressiveness and lead the
observer to admire the silent sadness emanating from the tortured body of the
Crucified One in his last sighs.
If we manage to ignore the damage
done to the wooden plastic by the ravages of time, we realise that we are
looking at a beautifully constructed male body, almost a nude, with only a
tightly wrapped loincloth covering the groin. The body is drawn out. The knees
are straight, the right leg is nailed on top of the left. The arms are almost
horizontal and tense. The solidly built rib cage shows a rib arch and the torso
tapers noticeably at the waist. The small head is inclined to the right and
slightly bent forward; a tuft of heavily curled hair falls on the right
shoulder. The expressive facial features are finely modelled and detailed, the
eyes are almost closed, the mouth slightly open. The carver paid great
attention not only to the hair but also to the chin and moustache, the latter
are absent above the upper lip. The fragile crown of thorns is preserved only
in fragments. The whole surface of the body is life-like, since we can see the
skeleton, muscles, tendons and veins under the skin and wrinkles and folds on
the surface, e.g. around the eyes, on the forehead, on the left hand, around
the knees, above the right heel, etc.
The Master was skilled in his trade: he followed the natural look of the
human body and at the same time achieved the degree of stylisation necessary to
preserve the beauty of the corpus of
the Son of God, which was in keeping with the canon of the time. Albrecht Dürer
(Nuremberg, 1471–1528), a contemporary of the carver of the Crucifix wrote in the draft introduction
to his painting manual that the ancient world considered Apollo to be the ideal
of beauty, while for his contemporaries the image of the body of Christ was
held up as the most beautiful. Undoubtedly, the author of The Crucifix from Dramlje followed this mind-set and aspiration,
which he managed to translate into a virtuoso artistic carving.
For a long time, Slovenian art history considered this sculpture to be
the work of a local (Carniolan) master, and it was supposedly created between
1500 and 1520. It was not until 2016 that Andrej Smrekar suggested the work
might be an import from the South German area, centring its creation around
1515.
The latter has proved to be the case. In reviewing the great crucifixes
in Bavaria, attention was drawn to a series of large-scale crucifixes by the
famous Swabian sculptor Veit Stoss (Horb am Neckar, 1477–1533, Nuremberg). The
master made several large wooden crucifixes for churches and chapels in
Nuremberg, and almost identical works by the same master can also be found in
Kraków (St Mary's Basilica) and in its surrounding area (Iwanowice), as well as
in Florence (Ognissanti). They measure between 147 and 207 cm in height and 154
and 199 cm in width. They are all drawn-out figures, with arms almost
horizontal and outstretched. All of them have their heads lolling to the right
side, where, without exception, a lock of curly hair descends. The skin covers taut
muscles, sinews and veins and does not conceal skeletal forms. In all cases,
the right leg is nailed to the left one. The facial features are almost
identical in all versions; the carefully groomed beard and moustache follow the
same patterns. Today, the crown of thorns varies not only in design but also in
preservation. The carver dared to change only in the design of the loincloth,
which was not bound to the canon. In some cases it fits tightly (perhaps also
because of the finely shaped swirled drapery parts that were later broken off),
but in others it is richer both in the amount of fabric and in the many
artistically tied knots and/or fancifully swirling, plastic finials that
project outwards.
With these features in mind,
Stoss' carving is undoubtedly also recognisable in The Crucifix from Dramlje. Our specimen is close in formal
characteristics to the Crucifix in
the Germanisches Nationalmuseum (1505–1510) as well as this in the Nuremberg
Church of St Lawrence (1516‒1520). The design of the loincloth
is almost identical to that on a miniature carved Crucifix (34.5 × 33 ×6.5 cm) by the same artist, which was intended for personal devotion and
has been part of the collection of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles since 2019
(1510–1515).