Nosseni epitaph
It was made in 1616 before Nosseni's death and stood in the Sophienkirche until it was severely damaged during the air raids on Dresden in 1945.
In 1910, the epitaph consisted of two side reliefs with consoles and crowning as well as a central niche in front of which stood the sculpture of the Ecce homo.
At the beginning of World War II, the sculpture was stored in the cellar of the Dresdner Frauenkirche, which was considered bombproof.
While the epitaph was severely damaged in the destruction of St. Sophia's Church and the partially preserved reliefs are now in the Dresden City Museum, the Ecce homo was considered a war loss.
It was only during the demolition of the Frauenkirche on April 7, 1994 that the sculpture was rediscovered in the collapsed western main vault of the church.
[8] Further fragments of the epitaph, including pieces of the coronation, are stored in the Saxon State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in the Ständehaus in Dresden.The design of the Busmann Chapel Memorial (today: DenkRaum Sophienkirche) by Gustavs and Lungwitz, a memorial for the Sophienkirche, also provided for the reconstruction of the Nosseni epitaph.
The plan was to use the space of the chapel for events and devotions, with visitors generally looking at the Ecce homo of the epitaph, which "stands for the suffering of the city, but also promises redemption".
On the left side of the Ecce homo was a kneeling male figure in alabaster relief, depicting Nosseni himself.
The inscription gave the dates of Nosseni's life and his activities: JOHANNES MARIA NOSENIUS / Luganensis Italus natus / Aō.
Fragi / litatis humanæ memor in / spem beatae resurrectionis / vivens sibi e tribus uxoribus.In 1912 Robert Bruck found it remarkable that Nosseni was named in the inscription as an architect ("architectus") but not as a sculptor.
Christ is depicted with a crown of thorns, his left hip is pushed out from the viewer and his torso is tilted to the right.
The central sculpture is considered to be "one of the rare free-standing statues of monumental format created by Germans at the time"[13] and shows clear, albeit exaggerated, echoes of Michelangelo's sculpture The Risen Christ in Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in Rome.
XXIV.So it is writtenand so Christ had to suffer and rise fromdeath on the thirdday and preach repentance and forgivenessof sins in his name amongall people.
On the right-hand side of the Ecce homo, a relief depicts Nosseni's three wives in a kneeling position.
She wears a death shroud and looks upwards, her hands folded in prayer.Nosseni's second wife, Christiane Hanitsch, who died in 1606, is depicted in the center.
[13] The woman depicted on the right is Nosseni's third wife, Anna Maria von Rehen, whom he had married in 1609 and who survived him.
Like Christiane, she is depicted as rather youthful, but is not wearing a death veil, but a ruff, a hood and a fur coat with a chain of grace.All three women are kneeling on cushions and were composed next to each other in a confined space.
In 1900, Cornelius Gurlitt referred to Gottlob Oettrich and, like him, attributed the Ecce homo to Sebastian Walther and Zacharias Hegewald.
"[4] By comparing styles, he attributed the Ecce homo to Zacharias Hegewald and the alabaster reliefs on the sides to Sebastian Walther.
[17] Walter Hentschel suspected that Sebastian Walther did most of the work on the epitaph, as Hegewald was only 20 years old in 1616 and thus comparatively inexperienced in the craft.
