Die Deutsche Heilslinie

The largest painting in the Pirelli HangarBicocca’s display symbolically and literally portrays – as the title communicates – the history of German salvation. Set on a rainbow trajectory that connects earth and sky and crosses the entire surface, Anselm Kiefer transcribes, inserted within a historical-philosophical path running from the thinking of Illuminists to Karl Marx, the names of German philosophers who supported the idea of salvation through the actions of a leader. At the base of the painting stands the figure of a man, portrayed from behind as he gazes, solitary and alone, out over a landscape that echoes the romantic paintings by the artist Caspar David Friedrich. All around are set the names of thinkers who supported the idea that salvation can be achieved through the recognition of one’s own individual identity.