Johann Nepomuk Strixner (1782-1855) After Baccio Bandinelli, Entombment Of Christ, 1810

Johann Nepomuk Strixner (1782 Altötting - 1855 Munich) after Baccio Bandinelli (1488 or 1493 Florence - 1560 ibid.), Entombment of Christ, c. 1810. Lithograph on brownish handmade paper with watermark. 21.5 cm x 33 cm (depiction), 29 cm x 46.5 cm (sheet size), signed “N.[epomuk] Strixner” in the plate lower right and inscribed “Baccio Bandinelli” as Bandinelli's drawing lower left.
- The left wide margin in particular with creases, minimal foxing, otherwise in good condition with a strong impression.  

- Drawn Thoughts -

The Romantic period brought a new appreciation of drawing as a direct expression of artistic genius. In accordance with the Florentine art theory of Bandinelli's time, the disegno was seen as a manifestation of the artistic idea, which was put down on paper with sprezzatura - the unerringly ingenious artistic lightness. Analogous to the emergence of handwriting as an expression of character, drawing in the Romantic period was perceived as the artist's characteristic handwriting. Drawing opened up the artist's pictorial thinking and made it possible to participate visually in the artistic process. Baccio Bandinelli, the eternal rival of Michelangelo and Benvenuto Cellini, created the monumental effect of a funeral before our eyes with just a few strokes of the brush. The descent into the almost unfathomable darkness takes place through the immense opening of the cave, where the cross is carried down in front of the body of Christ as a sign of death and victory over death. The subsequent body of Christ is only hinted at, and yet it unfolds the highest presence in the image, as our imagination, animated by the drawing, brings the image to life, so that we in turn become "artists".    



About the artist

Johann Nepomuk Strixner was one of the pioneers of the lithographic printing process invented by Alois Senefelder around 1800, which opened up completely new possibilities for the reproduction of drawings. While Strixner was still working on the lithographic reproductions of Dürer's hand drawings published by Alois Senefelder, he began to create his own monumental work together with Ferdinand Piloty. Between 1808 and 1815, the two artists created 432 lithographs after hand drawings by old masters. Strixner later became famous for his reproductions of the painting collection of the brothers Sulpiz and Melchior Boisserée and their friend Johann Baptist Bertram, made between 1821 and 1840.