With its sensitively modelled figure of Christ, this standing cross elevated on a splendidly ornate base is regarded as a masterpiece of early Vienna porcelain. The commission to model this unique sacred object can only have been entrusted to a sculptor of distinction, an artist who in collaboration with a painter and gilder from the manufactory knew how to exploit the qualities of porcelain as the final material for his design. Elaborating the details of the crucified figure with astonishing accuracy, the artist’s approach recalls that of an ivory carver or the finesse of a Florentine or French small bronze. Cast in moulds, the porcelain figure and its detailing are technically flawless. The outstretched finelimbed body was left white, except for the wounds, painted in precious pinkish-purple in the drastic naturalism of the Baroque, and the few touches in pale cobalt-blue wash on the mouth and feet of the dying man. Nonetheless, the real drama lies in the mute emotion of suffering and surrender expressed in the figure of Christ, shown here crucified with four nails. The very finest details are also rendered in the pain-racked yet dignified facial features that draw the concentrated attention of the beholder. Comparison with Giambologna’s Christ, which displays a similarly delicate form and subtle torsion (Liebieghaus, Frankfurt am Main), suggests that the master of the Vienna crucifix was familiar with the Florentine tradition. With its architectonic construction, bold voluted feet, and ornamental details picked out in purple and gold such as the acanthus leaves, lattice- like perforated cartouche panels, and scallop and palmette motifs, the base (fig. 2) echoes the clock cases made by the Du Paquier manufactory around 1730 (cat. 96). Stylistic parallels can also be found in contemporary models of altars and in furniture designs such as the torchères with Viennese Boulle work from the Princely Collections (fig. 3). The display face and two sides of the base have applied gilt bas-reliefs en miniature inspired by the works of Georg Raphael Donner (1693–1741) and his pupils from around the same time. Following the sequence of the events of the Passion, the left-hand panel depicts the Scourging of Christ, the front panel shows the Lamentation and on the righthand face is the Resurrection. This narrative will have combined with the graceful physique of the crucified Christ, in a format that does justice to porcelain as a material as well as to the purpose of the object, to make Christ’s suffering immediate to the individual contemplating it in the seclusion of a house chapel or before a personal altar in the private chambers of an aristocratic palace. In the Ordentlicher Catalogus of the Vienna porcelain lottery held on 17 March 1735, the prizes offered were described as ‘a standing crucifix of medium size, 150 florins’ and ‘a large very elaborate crucifix with gilding and painted in fine colours with the figures of Mary, St John and the Magdalene, 200 florins’. An account of the latter object was given by the Breslau scholar Johann Christian Kundmann in his publication of scientific novelties.1 Josef Folnesics and Edmund Wilhelm Braun mention a crucifix in the possession of the princes of Esterházy at Esterháza ‘on a base with polychrome Baroque decoration’.2 That was a place where the highest artistic standards held sway, as Johann Friedel writes of a visit he made there in his Briefe aus Wien an einen Freund in Berlin: ‘Here all objects are numerous and so striking that they must perforce make the greatest impression upon even the most insensate and negligent visitor.’3 1 Kundmann 1737, 640–641. 2 Folnesics/Braun 1907, 38–39. 3 Friedel 1783, 485. Detail from fig. 1 43
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