Biblical scene

Hans Blanke has presented the biblical scene from the Gospel of Luke innovatively and expressively. In this story, Jesus fasts for forty days in the desert after his return from Jordan. The artist has taken the biblical story literally, placing the figure of the half-lying ascetic in the boundless, sandy African desert. Blanke wanted to draw attention to the fact that Christ's fate is also human fate, so he made the protagonist anonymous. The figure of the extremely emaciated Christ seems to prophetically foretell the future fate of the starving people in the concentration camps of the Second World War. The graphic Passion. Einzelne Figur in der Wüste was made in 1918 using dry needlework on thin vellum paper as part of a series devoted to the Passion of Christ. Hans Blanke was born in 1886 in Magdeburg. The circumstances and time of his death are not known. The last mention of the artist is from 1953. After graduating from the art academy in Munich, he worked as a set designer in Düsseldorf, designing costumes for films and book illustrations. He also created paintings, drawings and graphics on various subjects.

Ewa Gwiazdowska