Passion of Chociwel (Crucifixion Group from Chociwel) 

The Crucifixion Group from Chociwel is one of the most important medieval art monuments in Western Pomerania. It is a leading work of a Pomeranian master of the Chociwel Passion of South German origin, the founder of the local sculptural school. The Chociwel Passion consisted of a group of five supernaturally sized figures. Our Lady of Sorrows, John and two rogues crucified together with Jesus accompanied the central figure of Crucified Christ. The source of representations prevalent in late medieval art were descriptions of the climactic moment of Christ's Passion in the canonical and apocryphal gospels. According to the tradition taken from the apocryphal gospel of Nicodemus, Dismas is the good thief who, just before his death, showed remorse and obtained merciful forgiveness of sins. The bad villain who committed cruel acts and maligned and mocked Jesus to the end was called Gestas. In art, he was depicted on the right side of Jesus' cross. In work from Chociwel, Gestas' strong body of athletic build, stretched in a spasmodic movement, testifies to his knowledge of the Renaissance approach to the act. The villain's boastful attitude is expressed by the dynamic positioning of the legs - crossing the injured shins as if trying to free themselves from the restraining rope - and by the tilted head with a ball-shaped outline. The face elements surrounded by a halo of short wavy hair, eyebrows drawn in decorative semicircles, the precisely rendered shape of the ear and marking dentition in the widely parted mouth are worthy of attention.Multi figural late-medieval Crucifixion Groups, rendered in artistic form and natural scale, often in realistic scenery approximating the landscape of Jerusalem, made the hill of Calvary real and gave an opportunity to see the biblical events, participate in them and experience Jesus' martyrdom on the cross.

Kinga Krasnodębska