DOI Heft:
No. 4
DOI Artikel:Dobrzeniecki, Tadeusz; Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie [Mitarb.]: A Silesian relief of the annunciation in the National Museum in Warsaw
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17160#0137
5. The Saviour among the '^Arma Christi
sitting in the tree, Ulm woodcut, ca 1470
(after W. Mersmann, Der Schmerzensmann)
6. Christ waiting for the Nailing, German
woodcut, ca 1480, Munich, Staatsbibliothek
(after K. Pfister, Die Primitiven Holzschnitte)
An Upper Rhenish woodcut of about 1450/6023 presents the Child sitting in the flowery mea-
dow, turning to the left and spreading out His hands to a chalice with the Host. Above the
chalice the bust of God the Father is seen, who is sending down the Dove. An important ampli-
fication of the idea of the sacrifice, as symbolized by the chalice with the Host, is the Tree of
Life growing on the right of the Child. It is a prefiguration of the Cross and, therefore, of the
Salvation.
A quite new representation based on the third vision of Seth is furnished by a panel of the
altarpiece from Buxheim of the early 16th century, now in Ulm21. Among the branches of a rose
tree the Arma Christi hang and the Infant Christ sitting on the one of the branches reyeals
His longing for the Passion with the following words, written on a scroll: „Ich will rosen bre-
chen und fil liden und mein frund bringen". Under the tree the Sorrowful Mother is standing,
looking at the adult Son, shown on the opposite side as lost in prayer in Gethsemane.
The angel brings Him the chalice.
When looking into Paradise Seth heard the explanation of the angel that the Child in the
Tree of Life would receive His human body from the most immaculate Virgin and would be-
come the promised Oil of Mercy. On the Buxheim panel this Oil of Mercy is symbolized by
Arma Christi, which allude to the Passion, as well as by the rose tree. The artist has accen-
tuated also the maternity of Mary and Her participation in the Passion, being seen by Christ
already at the Agony in the Garden. A woodcut in the Ulm incunable with a treatise Geist-
liche Auslegung des Lebens Jesu Christi (fig. 5) allows to follow further the development of the
soteriological symbolism of the Child in the tree.
23. Kunstauktion XLIV. Eine beriihmłe Sammlung Einblatl-Hohschnitte..., Berlin, 1930, p. 10, pl. X, No 20.
24. R. Berliner, „Arma Chriati", Miinchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, III Folgę, IV, 1955, p. 73—74, fig. 21.
123
sitting in the tree, Ulm woodcut, ca 1470
(after W. Mersmann, Der Schmerzensmann)
6. Christ waiting for the Nailing, German
woodcut, ca 1480, Munich, Staatsbibliothek
(after K. Pfister, Die Primitiven Holzschnitte)
An Upper Rhenish woodcut of about 1450/6023 presents the Child sitting in the flowery mea-
dow, turning to the left and spreading out His hands to a chalice with the Host. Above the
chalice the bust of God the Father is seen, who is sending down the Dove. An important ampli-
fication of the idea of the sacrifice, as symbolized by the chalice with the Host, is the Tree of
Life growing on the right of the Child. It is a prefiguration of the Cross and, therefore, of the
Salvation.
A quite new representation based on the third vision of Seth is furnished by a panel of the
altarpiece from Buxheim of the early 16th century, now in Ulm21. Among the branches of a rose
tree the Arma Christi hang and the Infant Christ sitting on the one of the branches reyeals
His longing for the Passion with the following words, written on a scroll: „Ich will rosen bre-
chen und fil liden und mein frund bringen". Under the tree the Sorrowful Mother is standing,
looking at the adult Son, shown on the opposite side as lost in prayer in Gethsemane.
The angel brings Him the chalice.
When looking into Paradise Seth heard the explanation of the angel that the Child in the
Tree of Life would receive His human body from the most immaculate Virgin and would be-
come the promised Oil of Mercy. On the Buxheim panel this Oil of Mercy is symbolized by
Arma Christi, which allude to the Passion, as well as by the rose tree. The artist has accen-
tuated also the maternity of Mary and Her participation in the Passion, being seen by Christ
already at the Agony in the Garden. A woodcut in the Ulm incunable with a treatise Geist-
liche Auslegung des Lebens Jesu Christi (fig. 5) allows to follow further the development of the
soteriological symbolism of the Child in the tree.
23. Kunstauktion XLIV. Eine beriihmłe Sammlung Einblatl-Hohschnitte..., Berlin, 1930, p. 10, pl. X, No 20.
24. R. Berliner, „Arma Chriati", Miinchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, III Folgę, IV, 1955, p. 73—74, fig. 21.
123