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Scene Depicting the Crusades (Courage of a Christian Military Commander)

Daniel Chodowiecki

Basic information

ID: Г-IV-1207
Author: Daniel Chodowiecki
Name: Scene Depicting the Crusades (Courage of a Christian Military Commander)
Date of creation: late 18th c.
Country: Germany
Technique: сopper engraving
Material: paper
Dimensions: 9.5 x 5.5 cm (height x width)

Additionally

Type: graphic art
Genre: history painting
Plot: The Crusades
Provenance: Collection of Boleslaw Orzechowicz Transferred by the Lviv State Republican Historical Museum by order of the Ministry of Culture of the Ukrainian SSR in February 1961

Information about author

Author: Daniel Chodowiecki
Artist's lifetime: 1726–1801
Country: Poland, Germany
Biography: Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki (1726, Gdańsk – 1801, Berlin) – a Polish-German artist, printmaker and painter, a master of etching and book illustration, a representative of the academic movement, and one of the leading exponents of sentimentalism in 18th-century German art.
The artist's father was a merchant, a descendant of a noble family. His mother came from a family of Swiss Huguenots. The young Daniel, continuing the family tradition, began working as a merchant. At the age of 17, he went to Berlin for a commercial apprenticeship, where he spent most of his life. Towards the end of his career, he became the director of the Prussian Academy of Arts (Preußische Akademie der Künste).
In the 1750s, the artist developed an interest in painting, and later in printmaking, becoming one of the leading book illustrators. Between 1770 and 1774, together with Johann Bernhard Basedow, the founder of the philanthropic movement in education, he worked on the four-volume publication "Elementary Textbook for Young People" ("Elementarwerk für die Jugend"). Chodowiecki created over 100 illustrations for it using the copper engraving technique, including some dedicated to the Crusades.
In 1781, the artist produced 12 illustrations for a play by Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm Großmann entitled "No More Than Six Dishes" ("Nicht mehr als sechs Schüsseln"). This comedy, with its strongly social-critical undertones, is considered one of the earliest outstanding dramatic works in German bourgeois literature.
Around 2,000 engravings by Chodowiecki on various subjects, executed in the techniques of etching and copper engraving, have survived to this day. One of his contemporaries wrote that, were it not for Chodowiecki's illustrations, countless books would never have found their readers. The artist created a large number of painted and graphic portraits, as well as genre scenes of burgher life, mostly executed in pen and ink. The total number of the artist's surviving drawings amounts to around 4,000.
Daniel Chodowiecki's works are held in Germany – at the Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings) in Berlin, the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig, and the Städel Museum in Frankfurt; in Poland – at the National Museum in Gdańsk; in Ukraine – at Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery, Vasyl Stefanyk Lviv National Scientific Library of Ukraine and the Kharkiv Art Museum, as well as in museums in Washington, Madrid and London.

Object description

The artist depicts an episode that took place during the First Crusade in Asia Minor, in the region of Cilicia, in 1097. The Crusaders' commander, Duke Godfrey of Bouillon, engaged in a fierce single combat with a bear that had attacked a local peasant. The artist theatrically presents this scene.
In the centre of the foreground is the Duke, depicted in armour and a helmet with a plume. He calmly approaches the bear, which offers no resistance, and strikes it with his sharp sword. The scene is set against the backdrop of a dense forest.
To the right of the main figures are the duke's horse and a knight on horseback; to the left are a barking dog and a man fleeing the scene. Judging by the illustration, the artist takes an ironic view of the crusader's "heroic" deed.

Inscriptions

Below the image is the inscription: "Geltener Muth des christlichen Heer-/führers". On the reverse, at the top, are the inventory numbers of the Lviv Picture Gallery; below, in the centre: "Do wypraw Krzyżowych/ Jacob. 945/ E. 945/ 3615/ S.O.". At the bottom left is the round seal of the Lviv State Republican Historical Museum's holdings; on the right – the historical museum's inventory number.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Scene Depicting the Crusades (Courage of a Christian Military Commander)

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