ANTHONY CARO - THE LAST JUDGEMENT FROM THE W RTH COLLECTION - Kunsthalle Würth
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ANTHONY CARO
THE LAST
20.12.2019
12.07.2020
JUDGEMENT
SCULPTURE
FROM THE
W RTH
COLLECTION
01
Gemäldegalerie, BerlinPREFACE
The exhibition Anthony Caro. The Last Judgement Sculpture from
the Würth Collection marks a culmination in the longstanding,
dependable collaboration of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and
the Würth Collection. This close connection has already produced
a number of high-quality projects. We wish to emphasise here
the Kunstkammer Würth (Würth Art Chamber), which since 2006
has supplemented the holdings of the Bode-Museum with around
thirty works, and the exhibition Moderne Zeiten. Die National-
galerie der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin zu Gast in der Kunsthalle
Würth in Schwäbisch Hall (Modern Times. The Nationalgalerie
Berlin on View at the Kunsthalle Würth in Schwäbisch Hall) in 2014.
Anthony Caro. The Last Judgement Sculpture at the
Gemäldegalerie is now the dazzling opening of a new series of guest
exhibitions from the Würth Collection at the Staatliche Museen
zu Berlin. The Last Judgement was first presented publicly twenty
years ago at the Venice Biennale, and we are pleased to be able
show this major work by the great British sculptor Sir Anthony
Caro in the context of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. This
installation occupies a special place within the Würth Collection,
as the creation of this group of sculptures was followed by the
collector Reinhold Würth from the outset. Its presentation in the
Central Hall, and hence at the very heart of the Gemäldegalerie,
surrounded by the works of the Old Masters, it turns out to be
a special stroke of luck. For the first time, an important contem-
porary work of sculpture can be seen here, one whose particular
qualities causes it to stand out all the more amid the surroun-
ding Old Master paintings. It also draws attention to the great
themes of humanity, about which art always has something new
C. SYLVIA WEBER to say.
Director of the Würth Collection Our sincere gratitude is owed to those involved in the
exhibitions and the accompanying booklet. We are grateful not
AND MICHAEL EISSENHAUER least to the collector Reinhold Würth and his company for their
Director General of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin openness to this project as well and for their constant and gen
and Director of the Gemäldegalerie erous support of our intents.
02 0304 05
INTRODUCTION social and political behaviour‹: ›Europe’s history is thick with
horrors. My Last Judgement is a response to present day atroci-
Many religions share the idea of a divine judgement of humanity ties, although at the end it holds out some hope of a brighter
on the last day. In the Christian conception, the dead are res future.‹ 2
urrected and appear together with the living before Christ as the Setting out from the violent history of the twentieth
Judge of the World. The believers and the just are granted eter- century, The Last Judgement leads to the Last Things: the eternal
nal life, and the unbelievers and the unjust are condemned to eter- and the just, the meaning of creation and life after death. In
nal damnation. In painting and sculpture, in literature and music, an arrangement that recalls the nave of a church, we descend
people in Europe since the early Middle Ages have tried to render into the underworld and step up to the Gate of Heaven; we
that vanishing point of all time, at which human history ends see the curse and blessing of human beings for themselves and
and the realm of God begins. By lending contemporaneous expres- ask ourselves again: What can we hope for? What should we
sion to the coming judgement of the world, they lent form to do? How can we survive now at the end of our days?
hopes and fears and shaped the piety and worldview of both their In its confrontation of our existence with such funda-
contemporaries and descendants. The artistic maturity these mental questions, The Last Judgement is made for an era that
works achieved can be impressively observed in the Gemäldegalerie, has recently begun to seem at risk of its future going astray,
as its collection includes the outstanding painted visions of with massive extinction of species, previously unknown storms,
Fra Angelico (1435–40), Petrus Christus (1452), Lucas Cranach the the melting of the poles and the rising of sea levels seem like
Elder (c. 1520–25) and Jean Bellegambe (1520–25). In the imme harbingers of an approaching apocalypse.
diate vicinity of those masterpieces, moreover, visitors also have
the opportunity to make a leap in art historical time with the
exhibition Anthony Caro: The Last Judgement Sculpture: In the
Central Hall, you can experience the incomparable way in which the
English sculptor Sir Anthony Caro (1924–2013) rendered the
Last Judgement in a large, monumental ensemble.
This group of twenty-five sculptures is one of Caro’s major
works, indeed some even consider it ›a summation of fifty years
work‹.1 He created it from Biblical texts, ancient mythology and the
traditions of modern literature and the fine arts. In the process
he came up with his own formal idiom between representationalism
and abstraction, organic formation and geometric construction.
The Last Judgement is, however, due not least to a great sculptor
grappling with the history of art and culture. Whereas most of
his works are hymns in praise of life sung in the language of sculp-
ture, The Last Judgement is, according to Caro, ›a comment on SARAH SCHÖNEWALD
06 07FROM
FRA
ANGELICO
TO
ANTHONY
CAROTHE LAST JUDGEMENT IN THE GEMÄLDEGALERIE in those of Lucas Cranach the Elder and Petrus Christus. The elect
are being led into Paradise on the left side of the painting and
The earliest representations of The Last Judgement are largely the rejected sent down to Hell on the right. Fra Angelico and
based on Revelation, which St John is said to have written on Bellegambe also depict in vibrant colours the resurrection of the
Patmos.3 Angels blowing trumpets, the battle between divine and dead, approach the court of God together with the living.
satanic forces, and the Last Judgement before the throne of God, The works of Lucas Cranach the Elder, Petrus Christus,
the Revelation of St John presents a dramatic end of the world Fra Angelico and Jean Bellegambe represent four summits of artis-
that has strongly influenced art. The Gemäldegalerie holds a work tic engagement with the theme of the Last Judgement, which
by Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450–1516) that depicts the Revelation. began in the Middle Ages and extends to the present. The pres-
The recto of the painting, St John on Patmos (c. 1500), shows the ent in different variations the classical depiction of the theme,
saint writing down his divine vision. Although at first glance the which notably decreased in significance in the seventeenth cen-
landscape surrounding him seems peaceful, a demonic creature tury. The religious paintings were increasingly replaced by secular
to his life and a burning ship in the background point to the fall visions of the decline and judgement of the world. The visionary
of humanity prophesied by John. horrors of the Last Judgement seem to have been outdone by the
Bosch depicted the Last Judgement itself on a wing from horrors of war, as expressed in deeply moving ways by Francisco
an altarpiece, now in the Akademie der bildenden Künste in de Goya (1746–1828) in the early nineteenth century and Pablo
Vienna. The collection of the Gemäldegalerie owns a copy of it by Picasso (1881–1973) in the first half of the twentieth century. It was
Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553). Christ as Judge of the no longer the future seen with hopes or fears but rather the violent
World is enthroned on a cloud, surrounded by the twelve apostles, present that called for apocalyptic interpretations.
Mary the Mother of God and John the Baptist. Four angels are Anthony Caro’s The Last Judgement enriches the art
blowing trumpets to announce the Last Judgement. Beneath them, history of the Last Judgement, which have been merely outlined
Hell is breaking out on earth; devilish creatures are torturing here, with an imposing installation without precedent in art.
the sinners in a gloomy scene. The left wing shows the lost Para The tympana of Romanesque and Gothic church portals early on
dise; the right wing, the damned in Hell. Only a few blessed lent sculptural expression to the Last Judgement. In Caro’s large
are led to Heaven by angels in a minor scene on the central panel. sculptural ensemble, however, it opens up, in the words of the
The classical pictorial elements of the Last Judgement – art historian Francisco Calvo Serraller, ›like the nave of a basilica
Christ as Judge of the World enthroned in Heaven and four Angels with a row of side chapels‹: ›The viewer of Caro’s work is not a
blowing trumpets – are also found on an altarpiece wing by viewer in the proper sense; he is a wanderer of the earth, a pilgrim
Petrus Christus (c. 1410/20–1475/76). On earth, the archangel whose pilgrimage will take him to the end of time.‹ 4 The twenty-
Michael is battling with the devil; the lower part of the painting five individual groups of the Last Judgement represent the
offers a terrifying glimpse of Hell. stations of a journey. Made of stoneware and concrete, oak, jarrah
The divine judgement that separates the elect from the and ekki wood, brass and steel, most of them stand in boxes
rejected is depicted more clearly in the altarpieces by Fra Angelico that Caro compared to the frames of Giotto’s murals in the chap-
(c. 1395/1400–1455) and Jean Bellegambe (c. 1468/72–1535) than els of Padua and Assisi.5 Several of their titles permit inferences
10 11›THE VIEWER OF
about Caro’s sources of inspiration and points of reference. Where-
as Salomé Dances, Judas and Jacob’s Ladder refer to scenes
and figures from the Bible, Charon, The Furies and Teiresias derive
from Greco-Roman mythology. Other titles evoke memories of
the horrors of the twentieth century in particular, 6 such as Civil War CARO’S WORK IS NOT
A VIEWER IN THE
and Poison Chamber. They can be understood as references to
the motive forces behind the Last Judgement. The war crimes of
the Balkan Wars in the 1990s, which had alarming parallels to
PROPER SENSE; HE IS
the Holocaust for the Jewish artist, in particular became an impe-
tus for his Last Judgement.7
Caro’s sculptural ensemble lacks a portrayal of the divine
A WANDERER OF
judge. It is left to the viewers to assign him a place or even to
adopt the role of judge themselves. Each can find his or her own
way through the Last Judgment and to put the sculptures together
like the pieces of a puzzle to form a whole that ultimately has
personal meaning for them. The following guided tour offers initial THE EARTH, A PILGRIM
WHOSE PILGRIMAGE
impetuses and connections to that end.
WILL TAKE HIM TO THE
END OF TIME‹
— Francisco Calvo Serraller
12 13THE LAST JUDGEMENT
9 11 13
10 12
8 14
28 15
7
16
6 17
27
1 Charon 15 Salomé Dances 5 18
2 Without Mercy 16 Poison Chamber 19
3 Greed and Envy 17 Hell is a City
4
4 Shades of Night 18 Elysian Fields 20
5 Prisoners 19 Judas
6 Flesh 20 Tribunal 26
3 21
7 Civil War 21 Teiresias
8 Jacob’s Ladder 22 Torture Box 2 22
9 The Last Trump 4 23 Unknown Soldier 23
1
10 The Last Trump 3 24 Confession 24
11 Gate of Heaven 25 The Bell Tower 25
12 The Last Trump 1 26 The Door of Death
13 The Last Trump 2 27 Still Life – Skulls
14 The Furies 28 Sacrifice
↖
EntranceANTHONY
CAROS
THE LAST
JUDGEMENT A GUIDED
SCULPTURE
FROM THE
TOUR OF
W RTH COLLECTION
THE
EXHIBITIONFOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS
Visitors enter the Last Judgement through the Bell Tower, the
largest sculpture of the ensemble. It recalls the entry portal and
the sound of a Christian house of God. The bells ring in some-
one’s entrance into a phase of life – for example, a baptism or a
wedding. The bell of death ultimately rings out the end of life.
The English poet John Donne (1572–1631) alluded to it admonish
ingly in his Devotions: ›And therefore never send to know for
whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.‹ 8
IN THE UNDERWORLD
The view from the Bell Tower falls on another door, slightly open:
the Door of Death. It marks the threshold from life to death and
separates this world from the beyond. It can also be understood
as the entrance to the underworld – in Greek myth, the realm
of the dead reigned by the divine couple Hades and Persephone,
from which there is no escape and from which the living are
excluded. ›Abandon every hope, you who enter‹ is the inscription
on the gate to Hell in in Dante Alighieri’s (1265–1321) Divine
Comedy.9 Only the chosen few and demigods manage to violate
the law of death and bear witness to the nethermost region
in which the souls of the dead lead their shadowy existence.10
In the sculptures Charon, Teiresias and The Furies, Anthony
Caro made explicit the reference to the underworld of ancient
myth, as passed down not least by Dante’s Divine Comedy. In the
latter, the poet and his guide, Virgil, meet the ferryman Charon
on their way through Hell.11 In exchange for a coin, Charon ferries
the souls of the dead across the river of the dead into the realm
of Hades. Caro presents him as an uncanny figure with a head
resembling a death’s head. Three souls next to him peer anxious-
ly over the bow of the ship. The ferryman’s rudder pierces the
18 19frame of the sculpture and looms down to the floor into the room,
so that it seems as if we were standing on the bank ourselves.
In Greek myth, Teiresias, the blind seer and herald of
disaster, demonstrates his gift of prophecy even in the underworld.
Homer has Odysseus descend into Hades to seek advice on his
journey home from Teiresias.12 In Dante’s Divine Comedy, by
contrast, we encounter Teiresias as a magician who can change
his sex: ›See Tiresias, who changed semblance when from male
he became female, transforming all his members.‹ 13 The chang-
ing of his sex was illustrated by Caro as well, as is evident from
the breasts of Teiresias, who is hidden in a dark chamber.
The Furies takes its name of the subterranean goddesses
of vengeance in ancient mythology who punish every crime
against the unwritten moral code. Dante memorably described
their terrifying raging: ›Each was tearing her breast with her
nails; and they were beating themselves with their hands, and
crying out so loudly that in fear I pressed close to the poet.‹ 14
Caro captured their rage in expressive forms. The attributes with
which they have often been identified since antiquity – wings,
snakes for hair, riding boots, whips and torches – are, however,
not found in his sculpture.
20 2122 23
OF SINS AND SINNERS
In several groups, Caro illustrated human sinfulness. For example,
with Judas he included in his Last Judgement the apostle who,
according to the New Testament, is said to have delivered Jesus
to the henchmen in exchange for thirty pieces of silver, thus
making him the epitome of the traitor. As interpreted by the church
the motives for his act were greed and avarice. It is still debat-
ed whether Judas should be declared guilty as the Lord’s traitor
or whether his action carried out the divine plan for salvation
by redeeming humanity through Christ’s death on the cross.15
In the Gemäldegalerie, Judas is found primarily in renderings
of the Last Supper, in which he stands out recognisably from the
other eleven apostles. For example, on one of the outer panels
of the wings of the Speyer Altarpiece (c. 1480), he is presented as
the only disciple of Jesus who lacks a halo. The purse with the
pieces of silver points to the payment for his betrayal. The sloping
ground at his feet looks like a visualisation of the ›stray path‹
he has taken as a result of his action.
The sculpture Salomé Dances also alludes to an Old Testa-
ment story, one that dramatises the consequences of unbridled
passion: the feast of Herod. The stepdaughter of the king is able
to charm him with her dance of the veils such that he grants
her a wish. Influenced by her mother, Herodias, she demands the
beheading of John the Baptist, who had criticised the sinful rela-
tionship of Herod and Herodias. Because Herodias had separated
from her husband, Herod’s half-brother, out of political ambition,
and caused Herod to cast out his first wife. Even today, a number
of artistic, literary and musical works are based on this story
from the Bible. The collection of the Gemäldegalerie also includes
numerous depictions of this topic. For example, the Master of
the Munich Adoration interweaves several scenes from this story
in The Beheading of St John the Baptist (c. 1520): the dance of
Salomé is seen through the window of the house in the background,
24and in the middle ground John is led off to be executed. Finally,
the beheading and presentation of the severed head are shown in
the foreground. Caro, too, dovetailed different scenes from the
story in his account: Salomé’s dance before Herod is shown along
with its terrible consequences: the head of the Baptist on a platter.
Finally, Greed and Envy thematises two of the so-called
Cardinal Vices, which medieval theology regarded as the cause of
sins. Artists continue to depict these vices. One of the most fa-
mous examples is by Jan Vermeer (1632–1675): Young Woman with
a Pearl Necklace (1663–1665). It is a subtle variation on a motif
that in Netherlandish painting can be traced back to Hieronymus
Bosch. The mirror was considered the symbol of pride, whose
transience pointed to the vanity of worldly things, whereas the
precious pearl necklace was associated with the vice of greed.16
Caro’s sculpture shows greed and envy in the form of hoarding
figures who seem to be sitting on their wealth and regarding each
other enviously.
In Hell is a City, Caro took up the topos of a sinful big city.
Biblical Babylon is the most powerful example of this localising
of immorality and decay. I mention here only the description in the
Revelation of John ›of the whore of Babylon decked in purple
and precious stones‹.17 Today, Babylon is synonymous with the sin-
ful metropolis that, as a subject in art, has become the central
reference point of the critical engagement with the achievements
of human culture and civilisation. Caro rendered the city as a
dense architectonic ensemble hostile to life, recalling the Expres-
sionist scenes of metropolises. His vision is populated by loud-
speakers, which recall both the trumpets of the Last Judgement
and the noise of cities.
Whereas Caro located sin in space in Hell is a City, in
Shades of Night he defined it in time. In many cultures, night
stands for the uncanny and dangerous. Vices and crimes thrive
in its shadow, and dark desires that shy away from the light of
day emerge. In the texts of the Old Testament, the shadow also
26 27symbolises the transience and proximity to death of human exist
ence.18 The size of the shades in Caro’s Shades of Night clearly
distinguishes them from the figures in the other groups. Several
vertical elements in the sculpture structure the space. In the
resulting niches, we see human-like bodies and parts of bodies,
including naked ones that recall prostitutes offering themselves.
In the centre, a pillar stands out, on which an owl is enthroned –
at least since antiquity, it has been a symbol of night but also of
impending disaster and death.19
28 29CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
In numerous depictions of the Last Judgement from the Middle
Ages and Renaissance, the archangel Michael is seen weighing
souls with a scale as a symbol the administration of divine
justice. A painting by Bartolomeo Vivarini (c. 1432–c. 1499) in the
Gemäldegalerie shows the archangel weighing souls. With his
right hand, he is pointing a lance at the devil, while with his left
hand he is weighing a person’s good and bad deeds. The Last
Judgement features neither the archangel nor his scales, but a
series of sculptures can be understood as a grappling with injus-
tices on earth and hopes for a higher, heavenly justice.
Tribunal arranges within an architectonic structure the
ritual elements of a court trial. The tiered structure recalls an ele
vated judge’s seat, while a stone with a cross carved in it recalls
Moses’ Tablets of the Law. Giant hands – some of them raised as
if voting or taking an oath, others menacingly balled into a fist.
It remains open whether they stand for the power of the law, the
power of violence or the unbending attitude of the accused.
The sculpture thus also evokes memories of the ambiguous his
tory of great tribunals – from the dark chapter of the Stalinist
show trials of the 1930s by way of the epochal Nuremberg war
crime trials after World War II to the International Criminal
Court ruling on the former Yugoslavia.
The sculpture Confession, which shows a confessional of
the kind used especially in the Roman Catholic Church for per-
sonal confession of sins, is about guilt and repentance. Confess-
ing guilt is the precondition for forgiveness and reconciliation
with God. Confession also includes honest remorse about the sin
and the intention not to violate God’s commandments in the
future. The church derives its task of absolving the confessors of
their sin from the words of Jesus Christ to his disciples in the
Gospel of John: ›Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto
them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.‹ 20
31It is striking, however, that Caro’s sculpture lacks the part of the
confessional in which the priest usually sits. We see a confessor
but no one who can forgive sins.
The sculpture Without Mercy appears to be a profound sym-
bolic depiction of a merciless punishment. We see two hanged
figures dangling above the floor. The skull under the earth triggers
memories of Golgatha in the Bible, the ›place of the skull‹, where
Christ was crucified. The presentation of a merciless hanging is
connected to the divine act of dying on the cross that is the core
of the Christian faith. It says that God the Father sacrificed his
son to redeem human beings from their sins. Seen in the light of
this idea of divine grace, the human mercilessness vividly ex-
pressed by Caro’s sculpture is that much stronger. It raises the
question whether there can be justice at all without mercy.
32›HELL IS ONESELF‹ (T. S. ELIOT)
Many of the individual groups can be seen as timeless spatial
images of violence but also as sculptural articulations of the
horrors of the twentieth century, by means of which people have
created a hell on earth for one another. Such an interpretation
is often suggested by the title, as is the case with the sculpture
Civil War. Like Shades of Night, it is distinguished by its monu-
mental horizontal format. In its composition and materiality, how-
ever, it reveals clear differences: numerous metallic elements
combine to form heavy war implements and barricades, behind
which the individual forms are entrenched. Caro thus creates
a dramatic-looking depiction of the ›war of all against all‹ (Thomas
Hobbes), which runs like a blood-red thread through our history
and the present.
In Prisoners, we see three figures penned up in a crowded
space behind thick bars. We know neither the crimes of which
they are accused nor their identity. Rather, they raise questions
of justice and injustice and make us think of political perse-
cution and imprisonment but also of forms of the internal and
external captivity of human beings. ›How could prison‹, Michel
Foucault asked, ›not be the penalty par excellence in a society
in which liberty is a good that belongs to all in the same way
and to which each individual is attached […] by a »universal and
constant« feeling?‹ 21
With its shifted, stacked elements, beneath which parts
of bodies and instruments of torture are visible, Torture Box
points to the tortures to which people are subjected still in our
day to make them submissive or to torment them physically
and mentally. Torturing demons and devils are found in many
medieval accounts of the divine judgement. Although they
refer to the tortures of Hell, which the damned have to fear in
the afterlife, Caro’s sculpture illustrates an infernal place
on earth.
35Poison Chamber also alludes to such a place. A poison
chamber is usually a locked space in a pharmacy where toxic sub-
stances are kept securely, but Caro’s sculpture can scarcely
be seen without thinking of the millions murdered in the gas cham-
bers of the National Socialist extermination camps. A chain
points to imprisonment; three deformed heads presumably refer
to the devastating effect of the poison. A hand can be seen
above a funnel, apparently pouring a substance into the opening.
Tombs for the Unknown Soldier are found in many coun-
tries on earth. Dedicated to the memory of the war dead who could
not be identified, they are connected in a special way to the
mass death in the two world wars. They serve ›to focus national
mourning‹ and ›retrospectively legitimise the victims of war‹.
Especially in the period between the world wars, they became an
›epitome of dedication and the willingness to sacrifice‹ and a
component of a hero cult of the soldier.22 Caro’s sculpture seems
to contrast this idealised thought with the cold reality of the
battlefield, since the noble monument contrasts with the broken
figure of a fallen soldier.
3638 39
TRANSIENCE AND PERMANENCE
Several elements of the ensemble call to mind the transience of
earthly existence and the question of eternal things. Still Life –
Skulls combines the genre of the still life (French nature morte
= dead nature) as the classical form to represent transience
with the skull, which symbolises human mortality. It is found in
many paintings of penitent and hermit saints. The painting
St Jerome in His Cell (c. 1545) by Marinus van Reymerswaele
(c. 1490/95–1546/56) shows the Father of the Church meditating
on a skull. That Jerome’s thoughts are meant to be understood
against the backdrop of the Last Judgement is revealed by the
open book to his left: it shows Christ as the Judge of the World.
On a very similar table with animal heads – and perhaps
also human skulls beneath them – a Sacrifice is being prepared.
In many religions, the sacrifice made at an altar is attributed
the significance of paying tribute to God or the gods, asking for
assistance, or atoning for a sin. In the process, the sacrifice
creates an imagined community of human beings and gods; it links
earthly things to eternal forces. In the Christian idea, the death
of Jesus on the cross is the grate sacrifice that makes all further
sacrifices unnecessary and opens the path to eternal life for
human beings.
The group Flesh also makes us aware of human mortality.
As the counterpart of the spirit, flesh sometimes epitomises
the transient. The dynamic effect of the sculpture, trigged by the
diagonals of the body moving forward and seemingly striving
upward as well as by the flapping robe brings to mind the central
Christian idea of the ›resurrection of the flesh‹. It expresses
the faith that death is not the last word.
41HOPE DIES LAST
Whereas the Last Judgement as a whole seems sombre and
oppressive, there are isolated glimmers of hope. Elysian Fields,
Jacob’s Ladder and Gate of Heaven seem like symbols of
redemption and heavenly existence.
In ancient mythology, the Elysian Fields are a place where
those selected by the gods live in eternal bliss after death.
Sometimes described as the island of the blessed on the edge
of the world, sometimes as the seat of the just in Hades, the
Elysian Fields transformed from a paradise for heroes to a place
of everlasting well-being for the just and the good.23 Caro ren-
dered Elysian Fields in harmonious forms and colours that clearly
distinguish it from the expressiveness and darkness of the
other sculptures.
Jacob’s Ladder alludes to Heaven as the place of bliss.
According to a story in the Bible, it connects Heaven and earth.
In a dream, Jacob saw the ladder with its tip touching Heaven:
the ›angels of God ascending and descending on it‹.24 Caro’s
Jacob’s Ladder, by contrast, seems like a small excerpt from
an enormous path to Heaven. The feet on the rungs suggest peo-
ple more than angels. Perhaps Caro based his version on the
Church Father Jerome, who regarded Jacob’s ladder as an ›image
for the path of life‹ on which ›God encourages those ascending
and extends his hand to the exhausted‹.25 The sculpture does not
show where the ladder leads. It shows the path, not the destination.
Gate of Heaven, flanked by The Last Trumpets, which
call the dead from their graves, terminates Caro’s monumental
ensemble. In many religions, Heaven is seen not just the seat
of the gods but also as paradise for those who have stood out for
leading good lives. The gate is ajar. The path into a better world
appears not to be closed to us yet.
44ENDNOTES LIST OF FIGURES
1 Giovanni Carandente, Anthony Caro and Weltliteratur (see note 10), pp. 654–668, esp. p. 655. Cover: Anthony Caro: The Bell Tower, 1995–1999, Sculptures Ltd, Photo: David Buckland. p. 33 lower
Twentieth-Century Sculpture, ed. Ian Barker 18 See, for example, Stefan Fischer, s.v. Stoneware, jarrah wood and steel, Würth Collection, image: Anthony Caro: Without Mercy, 1995–1999,
(Künzelsau: Paul Swiridoff, 1999), p. 11. ›Schatten‹, in: Das Wissenschaftliche Bibellexikon Inv. No. 5417, © Barford Sculptures Ltd, Photo: Stoneware, jarrah wood and steel, Würth Collection,
2 Anthony Caro, ›Preface‹, in: Ian Barker, im Internet (WiBiLex), April 2013, David Buckland. S. 4/5: Anthony Caro: The Last Inv. No. 5421, © Barford Sculptures Ltd, Photo:
ed., The Last Judgement by Anthony Caro https://www.bibelwissenschaft.de/de/ Judgement Sculpture, 1995–1999, Installation view David Buckland. p. 34: Anthony Caro: Civil War,
(Künzelsau: Paul Swiridoff, 2001), pp. 8–9, esp. p. 8. stichwort/26341/ (accessed 11 October 2019). Venice Biennale 1999, Stoneware, jarrah wood 1995–1999, Stoneware, jarrah wood and steel,
3 See Philip Rylands, ›The Last Judgement in 19 See Sigrid and Lothar Dittrich, Lexikon der and steel, Würth Collection, Inv. No. 5417–5441, Beton, Würth Collection, Inv. No. 5434, © Barford
Western Art‹, in: ibid., pp. 140–179, esp. p. 143. Tiersymbole (Petersberg: Imhof, 2004), pp. 108–121 © Barford Sculptures Ltd, Photo: David Buckland. Sculptures Ltd, Photo: David Buckland. p. 37 upper
4 Francisco Calvo Serraller, ›Wohin gehst Du?‹, in: and Christian Hünemörder, s.v. ›Eulen‹, in: p. 19 upper image: Anthony Caro: The Bell Tower, image: Anthony Caro: Prisoners, 1995–1999,
Ian Barker and C. Sylvia Weber, eds., The Last Hubert Cancik, Helmuth Schneider and Manfred 1995–1999, Stoneware, jarrah wood and steel, Stoneware, jarrah wood and steel Würth Collection,
Judgement Sculpture von Anthony Caro (Künzelsau: Landfester, eds., Der Neue Pauly: Enzyklopädie Würth Collection, Inv. No. 5417, © Barford Sculptures Inv. No. 5432, © Barford Sculptures Ltd, Photo:
Swiridoff, 2001), pp. 194–205, esp. pp. 197–198. der Antike (Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, 1996–2003), Ltd, Photo: David Buckland. p. 19 lower image: David Buckland. p. 37 lower image: Anthony Caro:
5 See Caro, ›Preface‹ (see note 2), p. 8. http://dx-1doi-1org-10073a4k300f4.erf.sbb.spk- Anthony Caro: The Door of Death, 1995–1999, Torture Box, 1995–1999, Stoneware, jarrah wood and
6 See Karen Wilken, ›Letter from Venice‹, in: berlin.de/10.1163/1574-9347_dnp_e404920 Stoneware, jarrah wood and steel, Würth Collection, steel, Würth Collection, Inv. No. 5426, © Barford
The Hudson Review 53, no. 1 (Spring 2000), pp. 6–15, (accessed 5 October 2019). Inv. No. 5418, © Barford Sculptures Ltd, Photo: Sculptures Ltd, Photo: David Buckland. p. 38:
esp. p. 7. 20 John 20:23 (King James Version). David Buckland. p. 20: Anthony Caro: Charon, Anthony Caro: Poison Chamber, 1995–1999,
7 See Julius Bryant, Figurative and Narrative 21 Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: 1995–1999, Stoneware, jarrah wood and steel, Stoneware, jarrah wood and steel, Würth Collection,
Sculpture, Farnham 2009, pp. 30–31. The Birth of the Prison, trans. Alan Sheridan Würth Collection, Inv. No. 5419, © Barford Sculptures Inv. No. 5437, © Barford Sculptures Ltd, Photo:
8 John Donne, Devotions upon Emergent (New York: Vintage, 1995), p. 232. Ltd, Photo: David Buckland. p. 22: Anthony Caro: David Buckland. p. 39: Anthony Caro: Unknown
Occasions, ed. Anthony Raspa (New York: Oxford 22 Isabell Oberle and Stefan Schubert, s.v. Teiresias, 1995–1999, Stoneware, jarrah wood and Soldier, 1995–1999, Stoneware, jarrah wood and
University Press, 1987), p. 87. ›Unbekannter Soldat‹, in: Compendium heroicum, steel, Würth Collection, Inv. No. 5425, © Barford steel, Würth Collection, Inv. No. 5422, © Barford
9 Dante Alighieri, Inferno: Text and Translation, https://www.compendium-heroicum.de/lemma/ Sculptures Ltd, Photo: David Buckland. p. 23: Sculptures Ltd, Photo: David Buckland. p. 40 upper
vol. 1.1 of The Divine Comedy, ed. and trans. Charles unbekannter-soldat/ (accessed 3 November 2019). Anthony Caro: The Furies, 1995–1999, Stoneware, image: Anthony Caro: Still Life – Skulls, 1995–1999,
S. Singleton (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 23 See Heribert Hunger, Lexikon der griechischen jarrah wood and steel, Würth Collection, Stoneware, jarrah wood and steel, Würth Collection,
1989), p. 25 (3.9). und römischen Mythologie, 5th rev. ed. (Vienna, Inv. No. 5438, © Barford Sculptures Ltd, Photo: Inv. No. 5427, © Barford Sculptures Ltd, Photo:
10 See s.v. ›Unterweltsbesuch‹, in: Elisabeth 1959), p. 365, and s.v. ›Unterweltsbesuch‹ (see note David Buckland. p. 25 upper image: Anthony Caro: David Buckland. p. 40 lower image: Anthony Caro:
Frenzel, Motive der Weltliteratur: Ein Lexikon 10), p. 703, and Christine Sourvinou Inwood, s.v. Judas, 1995–1999, Stoneware, jarrah wood and steel Sacrifice, 1995–1999, Stoneware, jarrah wood and
dichtungsgeschichtlicher Längsschnitte, 6th rev. ›Elysion‹, in: Der Neue Pauly (see note 19), Würth Collection, Inv. No. 5435, © Barford steel, Würth Collection, Inv. No. 5430, © Barford
ed. (Stuttgart: Kröner, 2008), pp. 700–714, http://dx-1doi-1org-10073a4k30198.erf.sbb.spk- Sculptures Ltd, Photo: David Buckland. p. 25 lower Sculptures Ltd, Photo: David Buckland. p. 42:
esp. pp. 700–701, and s.v. ›Unterwelt‹, in: Christine berlin.de/10.1163/1574-9347_dnp_e329730 image: Anthony Caro: Salome Dances, 1995–1999, Anthony Caro: Flesh, 1995–1999, Stoneware, jarrah
Harrauer and Herbert Hunger, Lexikon der (accessed 5 October 2019). Stoneware, jarrah wood and steel, Würth Collection, wood and steel, Würth Collection, Inv. No. 5428,
griechischen und römischen Mythologie, 9th rev. 24 Genesis 28:12 (King James Version). Inv. No. 5431, © Barford Sculptures Ltd, Photo: © Barford Sculptures Ltd, Photo: David Buckland.
ed. (Purkersdorf: Hollinek, 2006), pp. 551–553, 25 Jörg Lanckau, s.v. ›Himmelsleiter‹, in: David Buckland. p. 26: Anthony Caro: Greed and p. 43 upper image: Anthony Caro: Elysian Fields,
esp. pp. 551–552. Das wissenschaftliche Bibellexikon im Internet Envy, 1995–1999, Stoneware, jarrah wood and steel, 1995–1999, Stoneware, jarrah wood and steel,
11 Dante, Inferno (see note 9), p. 31 (3.82–87). (WiBiLex), October 2009, https://www.bibel Würth Collection, Inv. No. 5429, © Barford Würth Collection, Inv. No. 5424, © Barford Sculptures
12 Homer, Odyssey, book 10, 490ff., and book 11, wissenschaft.de/stichwort/21230/ Sculptures Ltd, Photo: David Buckland. p. 29 upper Ltd, Photo: David Buckland. p. 43 lower image:
84ff. See also s.v. ›Tirésias‹, in: Harrauer and (accessed 5 October 2019). image: Anthony Caro: Hell is a City, 1995–1999, Anthony Caro: Jacob’s Ladder, 1995–1999, Stone-
Hunger, Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Stoneware, jarrah wood and steel, Würth Collection, ware, jarrah wood and steel, Würth Collection,
Mythologie (see note 10), pp. 536–537, esp. p. 536. Inv. No. 5420, © Barford Sculptures Ltd, Photo: Inv. No. 5439, © Barford Sculptures Ltd, Photo:
13 Dante, Inferno (see note 9), p. 205 (20.40–42). David Buckland. p. 29 lower image: Anthony Caro: David Buckland. p. 45: Anthony Caro: Gate of
14 Ibid., p. 93 (9.49–51). Shades of Night, 1995–1999, Stoneware, jarrah Heaven/The Last Trump, 1995–1999, Stoneware,
15 See s.v. ›Judas Ischarioth‹, in: Elisabeth Frenzel wood and steel, Würth Collection, Inv. No. 5423, jarrah wood and steel, Würth Collection,
with Sybille Grammetbauer, Stoffe der Weltliteratur: © Barford Sculptures Ltd, Photo: David Buckland. Inv. No. 5441/ 5440, © Barford Sculptures Ltd,
Ein Lexikon dichtungsgeschichtlicher Längsschnitte, p. 30: Anthony Caro: Tribunal, 1995–1999, Photo: David Buckland
10th rev. ed. (Stuttgart: Kröner, 2005), pp. 457–460. Stoneware, jarrah wood and steel, Würth Collection,
16 See Claudia Banz, ›Junge Dame mit Perlen- Inv. No. 5436, © Barford Sculptures Ltd, Photo:
halsband‹, in: Gemäldegalerie Berlin, 5th rev. ed. David Buckland. p. 33 upper image: Anthony Caro:
(Munich: Prestel, 2017), pp. 98–99, esp. p. 99. Confession, 1995–1999, Stoneware, jarrah wood and
17 S.v. ›Stadt, Die‹, in: Frenzel, ed., Motive der steel, Würth Collection, Inv. No. 5433, © Barford
46 47ANTHONY
1924
Born 8 March in New Malden, Surrey, England
CARO
1946
Began studying sculpture at the Regent Street Polytechnic,
University of Westminster
1947–1952
Study at Royal Academy School
1949
Married the painter Sheila Girling
1951–1953
Assistant to Henry Moore
1924— 1959
First trip to the US, and travels in Mexico; became acquainted
2013
with Clement Greenberg and Kenneth Noland
1960
First abstract steel sculptures without pedestals; beginning of
friendship with Michael Fried; Frank Martin brought him to
St. Martin’s School of Art, London, where Caro would inspire
an entire generation of young British sculptors
1963–1965
Appointment to Bennington College, Vermont, U.S.
1966/1967
Caro exhibited with American minimalists in Primary Structures:
Younger American and British Artists at the Jewish Museum,
New York; included in American Sculpture of the Sixties,
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
491970 2000
Show at the Emmerich Gallery, New York; culmination of steel Received the Order of Merit as the first sculptor to be awarded
sculptures finished in coloured lacquers this special distinction since Henry Moore in 1963
The Last Judgement inaugurates the new wing of Museo
1975 des Bellas Artes, Bilbao, Spain
Retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York;
participation in Margie Hughto’s clay workshop at Syracuse 2001
University brought a further change in Caro’s style and a turn The Last Judgement is exhibited at Johanniterkirche,
to clay and bronze Schwäbisch Hall, Germany to coincide with the opening of the
new Kunsthalle Würth
1982
Founded the Triangle Workshop for sculptors and painters, 2004
in Pine Plains, N.Y. Comprehensive retrospective exhibition, Caro in Focus –
1942–2003, at Kunsthalle Würth in Schwäbisch Hall, Germany
1985
Trip to Greece, and influence of archaic art; literary elements 2005
entered Caro’s sculpture, and he began to create installations Retrospective exhibition at the London Tate to mark
the artist’s eightieth birthday
1989 /1990
Retrospective exhibition at the Walker Hill Art Center, Seoul; 2008
exhibitions in Tokyo and Osaka Retrospective exhibtion at Musée des Beaux-Arts in Angers,
followed by the biggest retrospective exhibition of Caro ever
1992 in France shown at cities as Paris, Gravelines, Dunkerque and
Retrospective exhibition at Trajan’s Forum, Rome, with narrative Calais. Opening of the Chœur de Lumière, the redesign of the
sculptures based on Homer choir of Saint-Jean Baptiste Church at Bourbourg
1995 2012
Large retrospective exhibition at Museum of Contemporary Art, Large retrospective exhibition Caro Close Up at Yale Center
Tokyo; collaboration with Tadao Ando for British Art, Connecticut, USA
1999 2013
The Last Judgement (1995/99) shown at 48th Venice Biennale, Sir Anthony Caro dies October 23rd in London at the age of 89.
a 25-part sculpture in terracotta, wood and steel
50 51LOCATIONS OF THE MENTIONED PAINTINGS
AT THE GEMÄLDEGALERIE 10
10
1 Petrus Christus:
Wing of a Triptych
2 Fra Angelico:
The Last Judgement
3 9 5
3 Jean Bellegambe: 6
Triptych with the Last Judgement
4 Lucas Cranach the Elder:
The Last Judgement Triptych
5 Hieronymus Bosch:
1
St John on Patmos
6 Master of the Munich Adoration: 4
The Decapitation of John the Baptist
7 Master of the Housebook:
7
The Last Supper
8 Bartolomeo Vivarini:
The Archangel Michael with the Scale for Souls 8
9 Marinus van Reymerswaele:
St Jerome in His Cell
10 Jan Vermeer van Delft:
2
Young Woman with a Pearl Necklace Entrance hall
52 5301 PETRUS CHRISTUS 02 FRA ANGELICO
(C. 1410/20 BAERLE–1475/76 BRUGES) (C. 1395/1400 VICCHIO DI MUGELLO–1455 ROME)
WING OF A TRIPTYCH, 1452 THE LAST JUDGEMENT, C. 1435–1440
Inv. No. 529B, Location: Room IV Inv. No. 60A, Location: Room 39
This altarpiece wing with a depiction of the Last Judgement was On the central panel of this altarpiece, Christ as the Judge of
part of reredos whose middle panel probably had a scene from the World is sitting in the mandorla, surrounded by the Virgin Mary,
the Passion. Christ is enthroned on a rainbow as Judge of the World. John the Baptist, the twelve apostles, two evangelists and four
On earth, the archangel Michael is battling death and the devil. saints. An angel holding the cross is depicted in the centre, below
that the separation of the resurrected into the blessed and the
rejected. Beneath the blessed, who on the left panel are being led
by the angels into Paradise, are mainly Dominicans and a few
Franciscans. On the right panel, Hell is depicted beneath the saints
and host of angels in the zone of Heaven.
54 5503 JEAN BELLEGAMBE 04 LUCAS CRANACH THE ELDER
(C. 1468/72 DOUAI–1535 DOUAI) (1472 KRONACH–1553 WEIMAR)
TRIPTYCH WITH THE LAST JUDGEMENT, 1520/25 THE LAST JUDGEMENT TRIPTYCH, C. 1520–25
Inv. No. 641, Location: Raum VI Inv. No. 563, Location: Room III
Christ as the Judge of the World is enthroned on a rainbow Cranach’s The Last Judgement Triptych is the only known repe
with the earth at his feet. The sword and lily coming out of his tition of the original painting by Hieronymus Bosch (Vienna,
mouth are symbols of justice and mercy. Amid the sound of Akademie der Künste). The left wing shows the fall of the angels,
the trumpets, the graves open up and the dead rise up out of them. the creation of Eve, the Fall, and the expulsion from Paradise.
In the foreground on the right, the godless are driven by arch On the central panel, the Judge of the World is enthroned, sur-
angel Michael into Hell, which is depicted on the right wing of the rounded by the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist, the twelve apostles,
reredos. The opposite of the torments of Hell, which have to and angels blowing trumpets. A gloomy landscape of hell opens
be endured here representatively by personifications of the Seven up below that and is continued on the right wing.
Deadly Sins, is the vision of Paradise on the left wing, depicted
as a heavenly Jerusalem.
56 5705 HIERONYMUS BOSCH 06 MASTER OF THE MUNICH ADORATION
(C. 1450 ’S-HERTOGENBOSCH (?)–1516 ’S-HERTOGENBOSCH) THE DECAPITATION OF JOHN THE BAPTIST
ST JOHN ON PATMOS, VERSO: THE PASSION OF CHRIST, C. 1500 C. 1520
Inv. No. 1647A, Location: Room 6 Inv. No. 630C, Location: Room 6
In the middle of a broad landscape, John the Evangelist is sitting An open square, which is delimited on the left and in the back-
on a hill that represents the Mediterranean island of Patmos. ground by looming buildings with round towers, columns, and
There he receives the vision of the Apocalypse, transmitted by narrow windows, forms the imaginatively designed backdrop
a blue angel. John is looking at the manifestation in the sky for an execution scene. In the foreground lies John the Baptist,
of the Virgin Mary as the woman of the Apocalypse, clothed the whose head the executioner has seized in order to hand it to
sun, with the moon under her feet, and twelve stars around Salomé. In the hall of the palace in the background, one sees
her head (Rev. 12.1). The overall impression is of profound calm, the events that preceded this: Salomé dancing before Herod.
but it is right below the Virgin, where capsizing ships go up in In exchange, at the behest of her mother, Herodias, to ask for
flames, and a gallows wheel is standing on the bank. In a circular the death of John.
form on the back of the panel, one sees the grey, bleak world
in which the Passion of Christ is played out.
58 5907 MASTER OF THE HOUSEBOOK 08 BARTOLOMEO VIVARINI
(ACTIVE IN THE LATE 15TH AND EARLY 16TH CENTURIES (C. 1432 MURANO–C. 1499 MURANO (?)), THE ARCHANGEL
ON THE MIDDLE RHINE), THE LAST SUPPER, C. 1480 MICHAEL WITH THE SCALE FOR SOULS, 15TH CENTURY
Inv. No. 2073, Location: Room II Inv. No. 1155, Location: Room 35
The Last Supper and the Washing of the Feet formed the outsides The fifteenth-century Italian painter Bartolomeo Vivarini was from
of the wings of the so-called Speyer Altarpiece, the parts of a family of painters living on Murano, near Venice. This panel
which have been dispersed and are found in museums in Freiburg, points to two events in the context of the Apocalypse. With a play-
Frankfurt am Main and Berlin. Jesus celebrated the Last Supper ful legerity, the archangel in the centre is holding the devil
to bid farewell to his disciples before being crucified. He an- (in the form of a dragon) in check with a lance and weighing souls
nounced his imminent death and identified the traitor by dipping – depicted as small people – with a beam scale. The lance and
a piece of bread and handing it to him. In a yellow robe and with the scale are recurring attributes of Michael.
no halo, Judas is trying to hide the purse with the pieces of silver.
The flies sitting on the basket in front of him symbolise the devil.
60 6109 MARINUS VAN REYMERSWAELE 10 JAN VERMEER VAN DELFT
(1490/95 REYMERSWAAL–1546/56 GOES) (1632 DELFT–1675 DELFT)
ST JEROME IN HIS CELL, C. 1545 YOUNG WOMAN WITH A PEARL NECKLACE, 1663–65
Inv. No. 574B, Location: Room VI Inv. No. 912B, Location till February 29 2020: Room 17/ Location from March 3 2020: Room 18
St Jerome lived in the fourth century and translated the Bible into Cool light streams into the room in which the young woman is
Latin. His red clothing, partially lined by ermine, identifies him putting on a pearl necklace. She is gazing into the mirror on
as a cardinal. In the typical pose of the melancholic, he props his the wall. She is wearing an ermine-lined yellow silk jacket; a pow-
head on his hand. He is looking contemplatively at a skull, the der puff is lying before her. Vermeer’s composition conveys
symbol of the transience of human life. The crucifix also alludes the impression of a moment frozen in time. His theme is not only
to that. Finally, the open book also points to the Last Judgment: the attractiveness of the women. Rather, he also draws atten-
Christ can be seen as the Judge of the World. tion the charming interplay between her and her mirror, which
is invisible to the viewer.
62 63This booklet is published on the occasion of the exhibition Anthony Caro. The Last Judgement Sculpture from the Würth Collection, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie in cooperation with Würth Collection 20 December 2019 to 12 July 2020 EXHIBITION Director-general and director Gemäldegalerie: Michael Eissenhauer Director Würth Collection: C. Sylvia Weber Curator: Sarah Schönewald Exhibition Coordination and Conservation Würth Collection: Evelyn Aufrecht, Christoph Bueble, Christine Dorn, Martin Dumke Art mediation: Ines Bellin Communication: Mechtild Kronenberg, Marcus Farr, Fabian Fröhlich, Ursula Zipperer Registrars: Susanne Anger, Ramona Föllmer Exhibition architecture: Atelier Hartung, Berlin Exhibition graphics: StudioKrimm, Berlin Transportation and exhibition construction: Mtec/ Scott Carpenter, London and Team Würth Collection PUBLICATION For Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz published by Michael Eissenhauer Concept and editor: Sarah Schönewald Text: Sarah Schönewald Collaboration image description: Sarah Salomon Translation: Steven Lindberg Design and typesetting: StudioKrimm, Berlin Image editor: hausstætter, Berlin Credits: Cover, pages 4, 5, 19, 20, 22, 23, 25, 26, 29, 30, 33, 34, 37, 38, 39, 40, 42, 43, 45: © Barford Sculptures Ltd, Photography: David Buckland Pages 54, 57, 58: © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Photography: Christoph Schmidt Pages 55, 56, 60, 61, 62, 63: © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Photography: Jörg P. Anders © 2019 Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, the artists, authors, translators and photographers ISBN 978-3-88609-838-5 www.smb.museum/caro WE WOULD LIKE TO EXPRESS OUR GRATITUDE TO the Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG, Patrick Cunningham, Barford Sculptures Ltd., Ian Barker, Catalina Heroven, Ulrike Holzapfel, Maren Eichhorn, Henrik Engel, Sabine Friedrich, Sabine Hoffmann, Katja Kleinert, Carolin Kreutzfeldt, Ute Ottofülling, Jeannette Pauly, Jan Richter, Peter Scheel, Marie Steinke, Veronika Tocha, Justine Tutmann, Sigrid Wollmeiner
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