Moses

1968 | Cat. No. 215 | Bronze | Height 240 cm

The Heinrich Kirchner Sculpture Park – Moses
The Heinrich Kirchner Sculpture Park – Moses

In this sculpture, Kirchner devotes himself to the Old Testament figure of Moses, who left Egypt with his people and wandered through the desert for 40 years to reach the land of Canaan. In the Second Book of Moses, the prophet ascends Mount Sinai to receive from God the Tablets of the Law inscribed with the Ten Commandments. The arms of Kirchner’s figure of Moses protrude dramatically upwards and point in a figurative sense to Mount Sinai, although Moses is not holding the Tablets of the Law in his hands. The body is assembled from individual bronze elements to form a bell shape. The surface of the sculpture is marked by incisions, cracks and perforations. This design was made possible by the artist’s experimental approach to bronze casting using the lost-wax method, which he experimented with in his workshop, particularly in the 1930s to 1940s. Kirchner began to pour wax onto lithographic plates in order to achieve suitably large plates for his figures. Just like with other religious figures, the artist has interpreted the biblical figure of Moses very freely and shows him in the complex, broken depiction of a contemporary figure.

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Location of the sculpture