Reorganization and disarray at Calvary

In Early German depictions of the Passion, the prevailing conventions of representation were overruled at the beginning of the 16th century. In crucifixions by Cranach, Altdorfer, Huber, Holbein, Baldung and Grünewald, Christ is pushed from the hieratic position in the centre of the composition, that he occupied for over a thousand years, and into the margins. In other Passion scenes, too, Christ often appears marginalised or distorted in terms of perspective. His body or face are hidden from the viewer's gaze. The images seem to blithely violate the decorum and the precept of fidelity to the Bible. These 'eccentric' Calvary scenes existed - with few exceptions - only in Germany and in the narrow period between 1503 and 1533. In my book project, I investigate the reasons for their emergence, their short-lived success and their disappearance. I illuminate the dynamics of rearrangement and disorder against the background of long-term processes of the development of iconographic conventions. The basic question that moves me is: what induces change, what gives rise to conventions?