Saint Eustace

1974

Not on view

In this drawing Kiefer refers to the legend of Saint Eustace, a second-century A.D. Christian martyr who is the subject of a famously large and meticulously detailed engraving by Albrecht Dürer (Saint Eustace, ca. 1501, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fletcher Fund, 1919, 19.73.65). According to his legend, Eustace was a noble officer in the army of the Roman emperor Trajan, who, while hunting one day, encountered a stag. This magnificent animal bore a crucifix between his antlers and addressed the soldier in the name of Christ, converting Eustace to Christianity. Basing his image of the stag on photographs he took of a reindeer he saw during a trip to Norway in 1974, Kiefer replaces the crucifix with a radiant painter's palette.

Artwork Details

Title: Saint Eustace
Artist: Anselm Kiefer (German, born Donaueschingen, 1945)
Date: 1974
Medium: Watercolor and opaque watercolor with traces of colored pencil on paper
Dimensions: 8 1/8 × 10 5/8 in. (20.6 × 27 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: Gift of Cynthia Hazen Polsky, in memory of her father, Joseph H. Hazen, 2000
Object Number: 2000.96.4
Rights and Reproduction: © Anselm Kiefer
Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

More Artwork

By Anselm Kiefer

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Morgenthau Plan, Anselm Kiefer German, Acrylic, emulsion, oil, and shellac on inkjet prints mounted on canvas — Morgenthau Plan
Anselm Kiefer
2012

Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom, Anselm Kiefer German, Gouache, sand, ash and charcoal on two torn and pasted photographs — Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom
Anselm Kiefer
2000

Autumn Forest, Anselm Kiefer German, Watercolor, opaque watercolor, and graphite on papers — Autumn Forest
Anselm Kiefer
1970

Wild Emperor, Anselm Kiefer German, Watercolor and acrylic on paper — Wild Emperor
Anselm Kiefer
1975

Brünnhilde's Death, Anselm Kiefer German, India ink, watercolor, and acrylic on joined paper — Brünnhilde's Death
Anselm Kiefer
1976

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