The Crucifixion (Kreuzigung)

Josef Eberz was a member of the second generation of German Expressionism, artists whose careers began around the beginning of World War I. Eberz rendered this visionary scene of the Crucifixion in his fully-formed Cubo-Expressionist—also termed Cubo-Futurist— style. Skeins of intersecting lines and angular facetted planes plus dramatic shifts of light and dark add a vibrant aura of spirituality to the scene. The dramatic moment of the death of Christ while hanging on the cross is heightened by the presence below of the Virgin, Apostles, and groups of other mourners who are all rendered in contorted poses of anguish and despair. This central group is flanked by graphic depictions of the dying thieves crucified with Christ, an exuberant hovering angel triumphantly blowing the horn of victory, and in the distance, the light-filled Cubistic buildings of Jerusalem. During and immediately after the war, the Expressionists frequently used Christian symbolism and biblical metaphors to convey both disillusionment and hope. Eberz was himself a devout Catholic, and his mysticism was therefore a product both of his religious beliefs and his Expressionist temperament.