Ceiling Painting of the Palace Chapel in Neuburg upon the Danube, 1543

The Neuburg Palace Chapel contains the earliest example of Protestant monumental painting. The Salzburg artist Hans Bocksberger the Elder (d. 1561) created the fresco cycle in 1543. Over 40 individual representations on the ceiling, in the tympana and on the window flannings are enclosed in pseudo-architecture.

Here can be see the Ascension of Christ (Lk 24, 50–53). The viewer seems to look into the open sky through an architectural framing, as if it were a window. On the right and left are the apostles, who take part in the scene with excitement. In their midst, the Blessed Virgin is praying. Surrounded by a radiant gloriole, Christ is carried to the Heavens by angels. In the left hand, he holds the flag of Resurrection; with the right he blesses the faithful.

The great redemptory picture of the Ascension of Christ is the final point of a central pictorial axis consisting of the depictions of the Fall of Man and of Moses with the law tablets above the altar and the crucifixion of Christ on the altar which together illustrate the Protestant themes of law and grace. The Lutheran-catechetical visual programme illustrates to the viewer the central content of faith: The brethren, strengthened by the two Protestant sacraments, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, as well as by the teaching of Holy Scripture, can hope for redemption through the grace of God.

To the digitised copy