Calvary

The sculptor of this Calvary, probably Erasmus Grasser, would have been inspired by Netherlandish retables that were exported as far afield as southern Germany. This account of Christ’s crucifixion on Golgotha is dense with the greatest possible narrative detail, drawing on the entirety of the biblical stories and traditional legends. The liveliness of the scene is heightened by the exceptionally wellpreserved polychromy, which uses a range of sophisticated techniques. The Calvary is said to have been rescued from the ruins of a building in Schwaz known as the Fugger House, when it burned down in 1809. In the late fifteenth century, ore deposits had been found at Schwaz, and it had become one of the most important towns in Tyrol. A new parish church was built there from 1492 to 1503 under the supervision of Erasmus Grasser.