''The Passion of Christ'' (french: La Passion du Christ) is a set of ten late 15th-century,

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

religious paintings of the

Passion of Jesus In Christianity, the Passion (from the Latin verb ''patior, passus sum''; "to suffer, bear, endure", from which also "patience, patient", etc.) is the short final period in the life of Jesus Christ. Depending on one's views, the "Passion" m ...

now displayed in the

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

of the

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

part of Old Saint Peter's Church in

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. The set is classified as a

Monument historique ''Monument historique'' () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which National Heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a coll ...

by the

French Ministry of Culture The Ministry of Culture (french: Ministère de la Culture) is the ministry of the Government of France in charge of national museums and the . Its goal is to maintain the French identity through the promotion and protection of the arts (visual, ...

since 1978. For other paintings of the Passion, see

here Here is an adverb that means "in, on, or at this place". It may also refer to: Software * Here Technologies, a mapping company * Here WeGo (formerly Here Maps), a mobile app and map website by Here Television * Here TV (formerly "here!"), a TV ...

History

The

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

paintings, depicting selected scenes from the

, are dated approximately from 1485 or 1488 (note: the given ISBN, 377-0-0019-7806-2 seems incorrect) or around 1490. The artist is generally thought to be one Heinrich Lützelmann (or Henri Lutzelmann in French), active in Strasbourg during these times. According to some scholars, he may be identical with the

Anonymous master In art history, an anonymous master is an Old Master whose work is known, but whose name is lost. Renaissance Only in the Renaissance did individual artists in Western Europe acquire personalities known by their peers (some listed by Vasari in hi ...

Master of the Drapery Studies The Master of the Drapery Studies (german: Meister der Gewandstudien), also known as Master of the Coburg Roundels (german: Meister der Coburger Rundblätter) is the notname given to the "very productive" and "multifaceted" late 15th-century aut ...

" (german: Meister der Gewandstudien), whose attributed work is recorded in the Alsatian capital during that period. The Musée de l’Œuvre Notre-Dame owns a few slightly earlier paintings by that artist, known in French as ''Maître des études de draperies''. The Strasbourg Passion of Christ was originally painted for the new Magdalene Church, which was completed in 1478. That church was almost entirely destroyed by a fire in 1904. The Passion paintings, however, had been sold by the Magdalene

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

to the Saint Peter's parish at some point in the 19th century after the opening of the

Neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

extension and were thus preserved. Most of the ten paintings feature

donor portrait A donor portrait or votive portrait is a portrait in a larger painting or other work showing the person who commissioned and paid for the image, or a member of his, or (much more rarely) her, family. ''Donor portrait'' usually refers to the portr ...

s complete with

coats of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its wh ...

, on a much smaller scale than the main depicted event. The paintings depict the episodes immediately preceding and following the

Crucifixion of Jesus The crucifixion and death of Jesus occurred in 1st-century Judea, most likely in AD 30 or AD 33. It is described in the four canonical gospels, referred to in the New Testament epistles, attested to by other ancient sources, and consid ...

but not actually Jesus hanging from the Cross. In the church, this is represented by an 18th-century

crucifix A crucifix (from Latin ''cruci fixus'' meaning "(one) fixed to a cross") is a cross with an image of Jesus on it, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the ''corpus'' (Lati ...

hung above the centre of the set. The dimensions of the nine first paintings of the set are high and wide. The tenth painting, the Descent from the Cross (or

Lamentation of Christ The Lamentation of Christ is a very common subject in Christian art from the High Middle Ages to the Baroque. After Jesus was crucified, his body was removed from the cross and his friends mourned over his body. This event has been depicted by m ...

) is approximately wide and may not originally have belonged to the same set.

Gallery

StPierreVieuxC15.JPG, The central panels and the 18th-century crucifix StPierreVieuxC08.JPG,

Last Supper Image:The Last Supper - Leonardo Da Vinci - High Resolution 32x16.jpg, 400px, alt=''The Last Supper'' by Leonardo da Vinci - Clickable Image, Depictions of the Last Supper in Christian art have been undertaken by artistic masters for centuries, ...

(detail) StPierreVieuxC32.JPG,

Agony in the Garden The Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane is an episode in the life of Jesus. After the Last Supper, Jesus enters a garden where he experiences great anguish and prays to be delivered from his impending death on the cross ("Take this cup from me") ...

Arrest of Jesus The arrest of Jesus was a pivotal event in Christianity recorded in the canonical gospels. It occurred shortly after the Last Supper (during which Jesus gave his final sermon), and immediately after the kiss of Judas, which is traditionally sai ...

StPierreVieuxC09.JPG, Christ before

Annas Annas (also Ananus or Ananias;Goodman, Martin, "Rome & Jerusalem", Penguin Books, p.12 (2007) , ; grc-x-koine, Ἅννας, ; 23/22 BC – death date unknown, probably around AD 40) was appointed by the Roman legate Quirinius as the first High ...

(detail) StPierreVieuxC34.JPG, Derision of Christ StPierreVieuxC10.JPG,

Flagellation Flagellation (Latin , 'whip'), flogging or whipping is the act of beating the human body with special implements such as whips, rods, switches, the cat o' nine tails, the sjambok, the knout, etc. Typically, flogging has been imposed on ...

of Christ (detail) StPierreVieuxC11.JPG, The

Crown of Thorns According to the New Testament, a woven crown of thorns ( or grc, ἀκάνθινος στέφανος, akanthinos stephanos, label=none) was placed on the head of Jesus during the events leading up to his crucifixion. It was one of the instru ...

(detail) StPierreVieuxC37.JPG, Ecce homo StPierreVieuxC38.JPG, Bearing of the Cross,

Veil of Veronica The Veil of Veronica, or (Latin for sweat-cloth), also known as the Vernicle and often called simply the Veronica, is a Christian relic consisting of a piece of cloth said to bear an image of the Holy Face of Jesus produced by other than human ...

StPierreVieuxC39.JPG, Nailing on the Cross StPierreVieuxC13.JPG,

Descent from the Cross The Descent from the Cross ( el, Ἀποκαθήλωσις, ''Apokathelosis''), or Deposition of Christ, is the scene, as depicted in art, from the Gospels' accounts of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus taking Christ down from the cross after hi ...

(detail)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Passion of Christ, The (Strasbourg) 1480s paintings Monuments historiques of Strasbourg Paintings depicting the Passion of Jesus German paintings Gothic paintings Christianity in Strasbourg Paintings of the Descent from the Cross Paintings of the Last Supper Paintings depicting Christ Crowned with Thorns Paintings in Strasbourg