JUNCKER, Johannes the Elder
(c. 1582-c. 1624)

Passion altar

c. 1610
Black and red marble, alabaster
Palace chapel, Aschaffenburg

The passion altar created around 1610 by the leading Franconian sculptor of the early seventeenth century, Johannes JUncker, suggests a strong adherence to the late Renaissance formalism, with a strict structure formed of red and back marble; the many alabaster figures and scenes filling the intervening areas point to an almost Mannerist 'horror vacui' (horror of emptiness).