(Hadamar 1851–1913 Capri)
The Prior’s Chapel (Crucifix among the Ruins), oil on canvas, 240 x 160 cm, unframed

Provenance:
Acquired from the artist, since three Generations - Private Collection, Italy.

Exhibited:
Capri, Certosa di San Giacomo, Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach, 1851–1913, Dipinti da collezioni private, 21 July - 30 September 1995.

Catalogued and illustrated in:
Giancarlo Alisio, exhibition catalogue, Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach, 1851–1913:
Dipinti da collezioni private, Electa Naples, la Conchiglia ed. 1995, p. 22; Claudia Wagner, Der Künstler Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach (1851–1913) - Meister und Mission, dissertation, Munich 2007, catalogue raisonné, p. 21, WK 3.15.

As an exponent of late German Romanticism, Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach tends to express in his works the typical Romantic intent of reflecting his own spiritual attitudes in nature: his themes, an expression of the sublime, the mysterious, the unknown, and the infinite, are always based on the life of feelings and the relationship between man and nature, individual solitude, and the communion of the universe. By stretching the dimensions of the canvas, Diefenbach also wants to visually render the sense of the supernatural. The large Crucifix is the tangible and permanent sign of God’s presence in nature. It is framed between ancient ruins that indicate the transience of the human element as opposed to the eternity of the divine.