The Kunsthistorische Museum– The Christian Art, Part Two

The Kunsthistorische Museum– The Christian Art, Part Two November 17, 2014

Never say there is no profit in going to an art museum. Here in fact are busts of lots of famous Biblical prophets. kart20kart21

These busts were made of the seven (OT) prophets by the delle Masegne brothers in Venice in about 1400.

There are too many spectacular renderings of various Biblical scenes including especially the passion of Jesus, in too many media, to show them all to you, but here are some of the most impressive… First the archangel Michael beating the daylights (or maybe the nightlights) out of the Devil….
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Almost every medium possible has been used to depict the passion of Jesus, these three examples above are amazingly cast in bronze and the smaller figures carved in ivory, very delicate work as well as the small figure of Christ carved out of wood. And of course stone was also a medium of choice (here used to depict Christ in glory with two female angels…

Speaking of which, the phoenix was of course a famous mythological symbol said to have risen from the ashes back to life, and in the Christian era it became a symbol of the resurrection. Check out this 17th century sculpture…
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The Vienna Coronation Gospels were produced at the court of Charlesmagne and date to the late 8th century. Some of them are now in this Vienna museum…..kart35
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Finally there is the ivory relief of the martyrdom of Sebastian the Roman soldier who was martyred for his Christian faith. This was made out of ten ivory plates, carefully carved.
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