Isaiah

Kirchner worked as a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich until 1970. After his retirement and conferment of emeritus status in 1971 he soon began his new, monumental works for the Erlangen Burgberggarten. The sculptor felt the installation of his art in the midst of nature as something natural. Isaiah and other sculptures with their trunk-like bodies were intended to fit in with the trees on the site. Kirchner described these late bronze works as brothers of the trees.

In his sculpture of Isaiah, the artist depicts the first prophet of Israel, who proclaimed God’s judgement to Judah and preached about the Messiah. In the end, he paid for his efforts with death and was sawed in half inside a cedar tree. Kirchner forms the prophet with a massive body, from which a thin arm protrudes with an open hand. The head, which sits on a long neck, looks expectantly towards the sky. Just like in the relief of Jonah, the body and head are separated. The bronze sculpture conveys the artist’s religious attitude and is ultimately a monument to Christian virtue and hope.