Marder-Mandorla, Gerhard Altenbourg
Gerhard Altenbourg
Marder-Mandorla
de
Back to top

Gerhard Altenbourg

Marder-Mandorla, 1982 – 1984


Blatt
490 x 340 mm
Physical Description
Gouache, powder paint, watercolour, pencil, Chinese ink over lithograph on cream-coloured wove paper, mounted on laid paper
Inventory Number
17100
Object Number
17100 Z
Acquisition
Acquired in 2011 as a gift from Margarethe and Klaus Posselt
Status
Can be presented in the study room of the Graphische Sammlung (special opening hours)

Texts

About the Work

For this work, Gerhard Altenbourg drew on a print – now a lithograph he had made of two large heads facing one another and enclosed in a subdivided roundish form. He covered this image with tiny, densely placed dots and filigree strokes. To that end, he presumably employed an extremely fine marten-hair brush of the kind otherwise used by, for example, Indian miniature painters. He thus created the effect of a multi-layered, pale golden ornamental picture. His title confronts the “mandorla” otherwise surrounding Christ – a symbol of dignity in medieval Christian art – with the vicious marten whose hairs he had used to execute the artwork.

Work Data

Work Content

Research and Discussion

More to discover

Contact

Do you have any suggestions, questions or information about this work?

Last update

15.11.2024