Carlo Mense

Carlo Mense Deposition from the cross 1914/1915 Painted on and behind glass. 62.6 x 47 cm. Framed. Unmarked. - In good, freshly colored condition. A crack in the glass pane at the top was professionally restored in 2012, the glass corner at the bottom right replaced. Drenker nails 238 The reverse glass painting was part of the Volkswagen Foundation's 2017/18 research project "Reverse Glass Painting as a Technique of Classical Modernism 1905-1955," Museum Penzberg - Campendonk Collection, Penzberg. Provenance Max Nienhaus, Cologne (Mense estate); since then in family possession North Rhine-Westphalia. Exhibitions Bonn 1920 (Städtisches Museum Villa Obernier), Christian Motif and Artistic Contemporary Garb, cat. No. 8; Düsseldorf 2012 (Museum Kunstpalast), El Greco und die Moderne, p. 305, with color illustrations; Penzberg 2017 (Museum Penzberg - Campendonk Collection), Tiefenlicht. Malerei hinter Glas von August Macke bis Gerhard Richter, pp. 11, 71, with color illus. Literature Klara Drenker-Nagels, Carlo Mense. Sein Leben und sein Werk von 1909 bis 1939, Cologne 1993, pp. 46 f.; Natalia C.A. Seggerman, Festigung von flätternden Malschichten an Hinterglasbildern am Beispiel von "Menschen am Fluß," 1913 von Carlo Mense, diploma thesis of the Fachhochschule Köln 2000, pp. 80 f.; Klara Drenker-Nagels, Carlo Mense: Kunstentwicklung zwischen 1915 und 1919, Ausst. Cat. Carlo Mense. Der Fluss des Lebens, August Macke Haus Bonn 2000, p. 92 f., with ill. In the period before and after World War I, sacred themes experienced a renaissance, especially among artists in the predominantly Catholic Rhineland. In this time, marked by shocks and political upheavals, painters such as Heinrich M. Davringhausen and Heinrich Nauen searched for the original and took up old traditions not only thematically, but also in terms of technique, by reviving the woodcut and reverse glass painting. Carlo Mense, who came from the Lower Rhine, was not unaffected by this development. After years of training at the Düsseldorf Art Academy and in Lovis Corinth's studio in Berlin, he also began painting Christian subjects in 1913. Before the First World War, he discovered reverse glass painting for himself, which he also chose as a technique for the impressive "Deposition from the Cross" from his estate. Against a threatening black and gray background, the bright, maltreated body of Christ stands out in the center of the composition. With the help of Mary and the red-robed apostle John, the body is removed from the cross and mourned by the surrounding saints. In contrast to the usual procedure, Mense had painted not only the back of the glass pane, but also the front. Hilltops and halos are given a special plasticity and fascinating effect by the contrast of the rich colors behind the pane with the matte tones of the front. Glass panes painted on both sides are a great rarity not only for Mense. In 2012, Mense's "Deposition from the Cross" was on loan to the large-scale exhibition "El Greco and Modernism" in Düsseldorf. If one compares the "Deposition from the Cross" with compositions from El Greco's late period, such as "Christ on the Cross" from 1613 or "Crucifixion," it becomes obvious how, apart from the overextended figures of the biblical personnel, he also oriented himself on the Spanish master in the choice of color and the direction of light. Also with regard to the expressiveness of the figures, the art of El Greco had an encouraging effect on the development of the Rhenish Expressionist.