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Georg Petel and the Mystery of his Crucifixion Group
The studio exhibition solves an exciting mystery in the work of the famous Augsburg Baroque sculptor Georg Petel. It presents the spectacular reconstruction of his gilded crucifixion group from a crucifix - previously believed lost - in the Bavarian National Museum in Munich and his masterfully designed thieves from the Bode Museum in Berlin.
Image gallery
Georg Petel, Christus und die beiden Schächer, 1624/1626, Kupferlegierung, feuervergoldet
Unbekannter Künstler, Kreuzigungsgruppe, Detail: Reuiger Schächer zu Christus blickend, Augsburg, Ende des 17. Jahrhunderts, Kupferlegierung
Georg Petel, Sklavenfigur am Sockel des Standbildes Ferdinands I. de' Medici von Pietro Tacca in Livorno, Detail, 1623
In 1927, the Berlin Sculpture Collection acquired two masterfully modeled and bronze-cast thieves figures from Georg Petel (1601/02–1634), the brilliant South German Baroque sculptor. They are the two thieves Dismas and Gestas, who were crucified together with Christ. However, the most important part of the ensemble - the Corpus Christi nailed to the cross - was missing when the piece was purchased. It was thought to be lost at the time.
Discovery of a bronze crucifix
Only recently, a bronze crucifix was surprisingly discovered in the depot of the Bavarian National Museum in Munich, which has numerous analogies to the two Berlin thieves: the material, size, state of preservation of the fire gilding and, last but not least, the breathtaking depiction of the anatomy are so strikingly similar that the Munich statuette was finally identified as the missing center of Petel's crucifixion group.
The attribution, based on art-historical stylistic criticism, was substantiated by complex technical analysis methods (computer tomography and alloy examinations), thus proving that all three figures were created in a common workshop context.
The decision was quickly made to present these new findings to a broad public in an exhibition - a cooperation between the Sculpture Collection and the Museum of Byzantine Art with the Bavarian National Museum in Munich. The small, exquisite exhibition presents the reunited sculpture ensemble of the internationally active and well-connected Baroque sculptor with over a dozen loans from Berlin, Brussels, Weilheim, Vienna and French private collections in its artistic context.
Georg Petel - "German Michelangelo"
Georg Petel was still praised as the "German Michelangelo" in the 18th century and is still considered Germany's first Baroque sculptor today. In fact, he was an exceptional figure among German artists at the beginning of the 17th century. During his years of travel, the artist, who was born in Weilheim and trained there and in Munich, first stopped in Antwerp, from where he traveled on to Paris, Rome and Genoa.
There he was in close artistic contact with the most important artists of the era, such as Peter Paul Rubens, Anthonis van Dyck, François Duquesnoy and probably also Gian Lorenzo Bernini. This artistic exchange had a direct impact on his oeuvre, and his baroque formal language now reached a new intensity of expression. In his adopted home of Augsburg, he became the most successful sculptor of his time, setting new standards with his sculptures in ivory, wood and bronze.
Curatorial team
The exhibition is curated by Hans-Ulrich Kessler, curator of the Sculpture Collection and Museum of Byzantine Art, and Jens Ludwig Burk, deputy director of the Bavarian National Museum, Munich.
Publication for the exhibition
The exhibition catalogue, sponsored by the Ernst von Siemens Art Foundation, has already been published by Sandstein-Verlag, Dresden: 128 pages, with numerous illustrations, ISBN 978-3-95498-794-8.
The exhibition is sponsored by the Reiner Winkler Foundation and the Kaiser Friedrich Museumsverein.
A special presentation by the Sculpture Collection and Museum of Byzantine Art - State Museums in Berlin, and the Bavarian National Museum, Munich
