Robert Marschall
:
Weinburg On the Pielach
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The design of a 'bridge saint' has been a regular task since baroque times. Marschall has translated this tradition into the present day with a flat, sketchily represented metal figure, and places the saint on a level with other martyrs.
Johannes Nepomuk, the vicar-general of the Prague archbishop, maintained the confidentiality of confession with regard to the Queen, which is why in 1393 he was taken prisoner by King Wenceslas IV of Bohemia and drowned in the River Moldau. His death occurred at a time of great secular and ecclesiastical conflict, about which many legends subsequently arose. Johannes Nepomuk was highly venerated as the 'Saint of the Bridges', particularly in the late Baroque period, and numerous statues of him were made. However, he is not only the helper who is called upon when there is a lack of water, there is also the saint of the 'tongue'. Five stars encircle his head, corresponding to the five letters of the word TACUI (= I am silent). The idea was to contrast late-Baroque piety with a work of contemporary veneration of Nepomuk and to place him together with other martyrs, such as Pater Kolbe, Martin Luther King, Jan Palach and others.
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