Pensive Christ

Development of the image

The first known depictions of the Pensive Christ occur in northern German sculptures from the latter half of the 14th century, taking a pose already found in paintings of the preparations for the crucifixion, where Jesus sits in thought as the soldiers work to raise the cross. Before this, the pose had been used for the figure of Job in Distress, according to typology one of the prefigurements of Christ. Art historians link its appearance with the Devotio Moderna (Latin for "modern devotion"), which stressed the human nature of Jesus, a model for the faithful to follow.

Most of the statues of the Pensive Christ were made around 1500 and in the first quarter of the 16th century, on the eve of the Reformation. Most of them are preserved in the area of northwest Bohemia and Saxony, which were strongly affected by the Reformation. Christ is depicted at a specific moment of his earthly suffering, when he rests while dragging the cross on the way to Golgotha. He is thus presented to the believer in his human nature and invites him to contemplation.

The image became especially popular in Silesia and Pomerania, and then Poland and Lithuania, where it became strongly entrenched in folk art wood carvings by Dievdirbiai (Lithuanian folk carvers; example below).

A related image, the Herrgottsruh ("Repose of the Lord" in German), does not have the chin resting on a hand; Christ sits, often with hands crossed in his lap. This appeared in Italian painting at the end of the 14th century, and soon spread to sculpture in southern Germany and Austria.

Gallery

File:St-Lothain10.JPG|16th century sculpture from the Jura (France) File:Sitting Jesus tottem.jpg|Roadside shrine with a Pensive Christ in Lithuania

In Germany

File:Albrecht Dürer 043.jpg|Job, in his traditional pose, by Albrecht Dürer File:Odpočívající Kristus ze Seebergu (kolem r. 1509).jpg|Pensive Christ of Seeberg (around 1509) File:Hildesheim Kreuzkirche Christus im Elend.jpg|German Herrgottsruh File:Görlitz (Zgorzelec) Kościół Świętej Trójcy (Dreifaltigkeitskirche) Chrystus Frasobliwy.JPG|Statue of a Pensive Christ, Dreifaltigkeitskirche, Görlitz, Germany

In Poland

File:Chrystus Frasobliwy kapliczka przydrozna Kurowice r.1997.jpg|Roadside shrine with a Pensive Christ in Kurowice, Poland File:Chrystus frasobliwy w Szydłowcu.JPG|"Pensive Christ" (Chrystus Frasobliwy) at St Sigismund's Church, Szydlowiec, Poland File:Muzeum Regionalne PTTK w Gorlicach 077.JPG|Chrystus Frasobliwy, 16th c, Muzeum Regionalne PTTK, Gorlice (Poland) File:Ethnographic skansen in Gosławice - 04.jpg|Chrystus Frasobliwy, ethnographic skansen, Gosławice (Poland)

In Russia

File:Христос в темнице. Тотемский музей.jpg|Wooden sculpture, 17th century, Totma File:Pensive Christ sculptures - 19c - Goritsky monastery, Pereslavl museum.jpg|Wooden sculptures, 19th century, Pereslavl-Zalessky File:Христос в темнице XVIII век вторая скульптура Пермская государственная художественная галерея.jpg|Wooden scuplture, 18th century, Perm

Notes

References

• Schiller, Gertrud; Iconography of Christian Art, Vol. II,1972 (English trans from German), Lund Humphries, London,

References

1. Schiller, 84-85
2. Jiří Vykoukal (ed.), Gothic Art in the Cheb Region, Gallery of Fine Arts in Cheb 2009, pp. 192-193
3. "Rupintojelis- Worrying Christ Statue".
4. Schiller, 73