Christoph Daniel Schenck was born into a family of sculptors. He learned his trade mainly from his father and was best known as a sculptor of religious imagery. He worked mainly in the area of southern Germany and northern Switzerland around Lake Constance. He specialised in beechwood and ivory carvings, though he also produced monumental altarpieces and panels. He began his career during the Counter-Reformation, capitalising on the strong and urgent demand for restoration and redecoration of churches and monasteries. In his work he drew on the writings of St Ignatius of Loyola, blending naturalism, emotion and rhetoric so that every element of his figures, from clothing to gestures and attitudes, dramatically emphasises empathy with worshippers through passionate feelings of repentance, anguish, lamentation and the pain of martyrdom.
His works include the following: Christ with Angels (Church of St. Lawrence, Tengen, Germany, 1650); The Archangel Michael Vanquishing Lucifer (c. 1645); The Penitent Magdalene (1679); The Penitent St. Peter (1685) and The Conversion of St. Paul (1685) (both now at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, USA); Our Lady Mourning at the Foot of the Cross and the altar of Constance Cathedral.
Christoph Daniel Schenck was born into a family of sculptors. He learned his trade mainly from his father and was best known as a sculptor of religious imagery. He worked mainly in the area of southern Germany and northern Switzerland around Lake Constance. He specialised in beechwood and ivory carvings, though he also produced monumental altarpieces and panels. He began his career during the Counter-Reformation, capitalising on the strong and urgent demand for restoration and redecoration of churches and monasteries. In his work he drew on the writings of St Ignatius of Loyola, blending naturalism, emotion and rhetoric so that every element of his figures, from clothing to gestures and attitudes, dramatically emphasises empathy with worshippers through passionate feelings of repentance, anguish, lamentation and the pain of martyrdom.
His works include the following: Christ with Angels (Church of St. Lawrence, Tengen, Germany, 1650); The Archangel Michael Vanquishing Lucifer (c. 1645); The Penitent Magdalene (1679); The Penitent St. Peter (1685) and The Conversion of St. Paul (1685) (both now at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, USA); Our Lady Mourning at the Foot of the Cross and the altar of Constance Cathedral.