Goetheanum | Transformability: The Figurine Group ‹The Representative of Humanity› in the Goetheanum

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Transformability: The Figurine Group ‹The Representative of Humanity› in the Goetheanum

In the Goetheanum stands a monumental figurine group made of glued laminated timber, nearly ten metres high and up to five and a half metres wide. Now, 13 experts from architecture, art, art history, medicine, philosophy, and theology have reconstructed the ten-year creation process.

Hardly any work of Rudolf Steiner is as well documented through research on the ten-year creation period and the motifs of the figurine group. The composition of ‹Representative of Humanity› (Christ Jesus), Ahriman and Lucifer, as well as a rock creature, also called the ‹Angel of Humour›, has been under the monument protection of the Canton of Solothurn since 2011.

Like the development of other anthroposophical ideas, the figurine group is also the work of several people. The craft-artistic implementation since 1915 was in many hands, whether for modelling in plasticine or setting up carrying frames. After the preliminary carving by helpers to about two centimetres before the final surface, Edith Maryon and Rudolf Steiner went into detail. They could not complete the work because Edith Maryon died in 1924 and Rudolf Steiner in 1925. Since then, no further carving work has been carried out. But even independently of that, the whole was a search movement. Manfred von Kries conveyed Rudolf Steiner’s words: "I know that everything we have tried here – the entire building, the ceiling paintings, the stained glass windows – is a modest beginning and, like every beginning, has many flaws that we ourselves know best." This refers to the fact that the figurine group is part of a broader design context. The authors therefore also highlight the motif of the Representative of Humanity in the ceiling painting and the coloured stained glass windows of the Great Hall.

Their contributions are illustrated with numerous drawings and photos. After the restoration of the figurine group in 2009, photographs were taken in 2010/11. Thanks to special perspectives, the figures appear in their transformability, including a series of images of Lucifer, who seems to peer out from his wing covering from picture to picture.

Book by Mirela Faldey and David Hornemann von Laer (editors): In the Field of Tension of World Forces. The Representative of Humanity in Rudolf Steiner’s Sculpture, Painting and Glass Etching, Verlag am Goetheanum 2020, 536 pages, 90 Swiss francs/78 euros