The 7th Day of Creation

Kirchner first addressed the theme of man and horse – a recurring motif in sculpture since antiquity – towards the end of his artistic training in 1932 with the figure of a rider. In the sculpture The 7th Day of Creation in the Burgberggarten from 1963, man is not depicted as a rider, but next to a stallion standing proudly with a waving tail and alert ears. The man’s hands are raised in prayer. The base tells the Christian story of creation in symbolic relief characters, thus integrating the representation of man and horse into the context of Christian Genesis.