Scripture · Matthew 5:1-12
Matthew 4:15-16
Design for the Zwickau Altarpiece
“Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.”
A pale violet figure stands above a broad flight of steps, while loosely painted figures gather and bend before the gateway.
About the artwork
The steps draw the eye upward from the unfinished crowd to Christ. His face and the surrounding figures remain abbreviated, and the foreground is still a mass of brushstrokes rather than a set of fully described individuals. The image retains the provisional character of a design: its main concern is the relation between the elevated figure and the people below.
This small study prepared Uhde’s first and only public altarpiece commission, for the Luther Church in Zwickau. He received it in 1903, after years in which his modern biblical figures had met resistance. Zwickau also held memories of his youth: in a letter to the church, he expressed how deeply it moved him to have his first altarpiece there. The freely brushed crowd belongs to a work in preparation for an actual congregation.
Featured in: Fritz von Uhde’s Bible Paintings: Jesus at the Peasants’ Table, and Why It Was Called Blasphemous
What does Matthew 4:15-16 mean?
Matthew 4:12–17 describes Jesus settling in Capernaum and beginning to preach in Galilee. Matthew quotes Isaiah’s image of light reaching people who live in darkness. The geographical names in verses 15–16 belong to that account of the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.
Uhde’s altarpiece project turns the prophecy into an encounter between Christ and a gathered community. It does not illustrate a particular meeting on a staircase described by Matthew. The high, luminous figure and the people approaching from below are the artist’s visual interpretation of the passage.
Matthew 4:15–16 provides the altarpiece’s theme of light reaching a people, rather than the setting of a single Gospel episode.
Sources
Wikimedia Commons — image and catalog references.
Fritz von Uhde’s Bible Paintings: Jesus at the Peasants’ Table, and Why It Was Called Blasphemous. Artwork reading adapted from this guide.
Matthew 4 — Berean Standard Bible. Context for Matthew 4:15-16.
Hans Rosenhagen — Uhde (1908). Historical catalogue and discussion of the work; historical ownership is not a claim about its present location.
Lempertz — Design for the Zwickau Altarpiece, lot 1581. Exact 62.5 × 49 cm study, oil on cardboard mounted on hardboard, probably the first overall design of 1904. Its arrangement differs from the completed 1905 painting. The proposed 1911 provenance is qualified in the catalogue.
Sächsische Biografie — Fritz von Uhde. The late-1903 commission, its status as his only public commission, and the completed 1905 altarpiece.
Stadtarchiv Zwickau — Cygnea 9 (2011), pp. 94–96. Discusses the commission and quotes Uhde’s 30 January 1906 letter to the church board about its personal importance.
Also from Matthew:Marriage of the VirginThe Dream of Saint Joseph
Continue looking:Jesus Casting out SatanSaint James the GreaterThe Mocking of Christ