English
Towards the end of January 1937, Beckett made a stop in Naumburg to see its cathedral and came away with his interest in ecclesiastical architecture and sculpture front and centre. Travelling on, he devoted most of his attention to churches and their statuary, though the great sculptors of the 15th and 16th centuries did not always convince him. In Bamberg and Würzburg, it was the work of the Wolfskehlmeister that he preferred – and appears to have related to: “Master of senile & collapsed. Another man for me” (25/02/37).
In Nürnberg, Adam Kraft’s work impressed Beckett the most. A visit to the Heilig-Geist-Spital and Kraft’s Kreuzigungsgruppe became one of the few occasions during his journey that drew some lines of poetry from him and the motif of the two thieves, whose statues are placed to both sides of the crucified Christ in the shadowed corners of the courtyard, will appear once more, over ten years later, in Waiting for Godot.
Adam Kraft , Kreuzigungsgruppe (1507/08)
© www.nuernberg.museum | Foto: Theo Noll
02/03/37
I wish I were an old man
or an old woman
half & half
or an old hermaphrodite
if hermaphrodites live to be old
only old old as a crutch
with a room off the big yard
of the Holy Ghost Spital in Nürnberg
When the sun shines at midday on Adam Kraft’s
Big black stone Christ Crucified
But not on the repentant thief
Nor the unrepentant
VLADIMIR: This is getting alarming. (Silence. Vladimir deep in thought, Estragon pulling at his toes.) One of the thieves was saved. (Pause.) It’s a reasonable percentage.
(Waiting for Godot, ACT I)
Another three decades later, the plays Beckett wrote for television production by the Süddeutscher Rundfunk in Stuttgart offered a mode of expression for his fascination with the interplay of rigidity – or petrification – and the interiority of human emotion.
Naumburger Meister, Hermann und Reglindis (Mitte des 13. Jahrhunderts)
© Vereinigte Domstifter, Bildarchiv Naumburg | Foto: Matthias Rutkowski
Bild aus Geistertrio (1977)
Deutsch
Gegen Ende Januar 1937 machte Beckett Halt in Naumburg, wo ein Besuch des Doms sein Interesse an sakraler Architektur und Plastik in den Vordergrund rückte. Im Laufe seiner Weiterreise widmete er den Großteil seiner Aufmerksamkeit Kirchen und ihren Skulpturen, obwohl ihn die Arbeit der großen Bildhauer des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts nicht immer überzeugte. In Bamberg und Würzburg war es der Wolfskehlmeister, dessen Werk er bevorzugte und dem er sich verbunden zu fühlen schien: „Master of senile & collapsed. Another man for me“ (25/02/37).
In Nürnberg beeindruckte Beckett das Werk Adam Krafts am meisten. Aus einem Besuch des Heilig-Geist-Spitals und der Kreuzigungsgruppe wurde eine der wenigen Gelegenheiten seiner Reise, die Beckett einige Zeilen Lyrik entlockten und das Motiv der beiden Diebe, deren Statuen zu beiden Seiten des gekreuzigten Christus in den schattigen Ecken des Innenhofes platziert sind, tauchen über zehn Jahre später wieder in Warten auf Godot auf.
Adam Kraft, Kreuzigungsgruppe (1507/08)
www.nuernberg.museum | Foto: © Theo Noll
02/03/37
I wish I were an old man
or an old woman
half & half
or an old hermaphrodite
if hermaphrodites live to be old
only old old as a crutch
with a room off the big yard
of the Holy Ghost Spital in Nürnberg
When the sun shines at midday on Adam Kraft’s
Big black stone Christ Crucified
But not on the repentant thief
Nor the unrepentant
VLADIMIR: This is getting alarming. (Silence. Vladimir deep in thought, Estragon pulling at his toes.) One of the thieves was saved. (Pause.) It’s a reasonable percentage.
(Waiting for Godot, ACT I)
Naumburger Meister, Hermann und Reglindis (Mitte des 13. Jahrhunderts)
© Vereinigte Domstifter, Bildarchiv Naumburg | Foto: Matthias Rutkowski
Bild aus Geistertrio (1977)
