by Peter Hecker (1884 - 1971)
from the Vatican Church, Expo Brussels 1958, Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, Penance
Photos: Max Schulz 2019
The triptych presents, under the title of ‘Penance according to the Bible’, images that vary the themes of forgiveness and reconciliation. The sacrament of penance is today often called the sacrament of reconciliation.
Center: The Healing of the Paralytic and Jesus’ words to the scribes, with the embedded Latin quote from Matthew 9:5: ‘Which is easier: to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Get up and walk”?’" [Quid est facilius dicere: Dimittuntur tibi peccata: an dicere: Surge, et ambula?]
Left: The Good Shepherd – based on Psalm 23: ‘The Lord is my shepherd’ and Jesus' words in John 10:12: ‘I am the good shepherd.’"
Right: Parable of the Prodigal Son – based on Luke 15:11–32; today often called the Parable of the Father's Love.
In the paintings one can see an avant-garde individuality in the depiction of religious themes. After all, Hecker had painted not only biblical motifs and saints, but also something like Death as the Grim Reaper sitting on a war bomber, as seen in the 1953 wall painting in a chapel in Arnoldsweiler.
Characteristic of many of Hecker's works are "a graphic, two-dimensional style, an increasingly rigorous approach to composition and line, a bolder rhythmization of the planes, strength of expression through the condensation of content, and a spiritualized expression of the figures in physiognomy and gesture", according to De Gruyter’s Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon.
Photo: © Cologne Cathedral Builder's Archive, A. Wolff/koelner-dom.de
Hecker became known for large-scale expressionist wall paintings, particularly for Rhineland churches. This includes Cologne Cathedral: the 1964 decoration of the vault on the underside of the singer and organ gallery in the northern transept of Cologne Cathedral depicts Cardinal Frings with his violin, reminding us that the archbishop was also a musician himself.
Currently, Hecker’s triptych in the Liebfrauen Kulturkirche in Duisburg is not accessible.
References:
Roth, C.: Peter Hecker, in: DeGruyter Allg. Künstlerlexikon, vol. 70, 2011, p. 517 f.
https://www.erzbistum-koeln.de/news/Historisches-Archiv-bekommt-Nachlass-von-Kuenstler-Peter-Hecker (Jan. 18, 2018, retrieved Oct. 4, 2019).
http://www.koelner-dom.de/rundgang/ausstattung/peter-hecker-deckengemaelde-1964/info (retrieved Oct. 4, 2019).
