Christ at the Column (1756): Art, History and Details

Christ at the Column (1756) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Johann Baptist Hagenauer (Austrian, 1732–1810).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Considered to be one of the masterpieces of his youth, Hagenauer cast this bronze while a student at the Vienna Academy, where he studied between 1754 and 1759. The authorship and date is verified by an inscription found at the base of the stake: IOANNES HAGENAUER SALISBURGENSIS INVENIT ED FECIT 1756. This signature appears on several of Hagenauer's early works.

Object facts

• Title: Christ at the Column
• Date: 1756
• Creator attribution: Johann Baptist Hagenauer (Austrian, 1732–1810)
• Culture: Austria
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: gilt bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 19.6 x 10.2 x 11.3 cm (7 11/16 x 4 x 4 7/16 in.)
• Collection: Sculpture
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1953.286

A detail from the museum

With the energy of the imbalanced composition, Hagenauer emphasizes this heightened moment of the Passion of Christ.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Hans Friedeberger, "Die Jahrhundertausstellung deutscher Kunst 1650-1800, Darmstadt 1914, Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, VIII (1913)
• Biermann, Georg. Deutsches Barock und Rokoko. Leipzig: E.E. Schwabach, 1914.
• Georg Sobotka, "Johann Baptist Hagenauer," Jahrbuch des Kunsthistorischen Institutes, Wien, XIV (1920)

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.