  
  About the Artwork
  
  
  In the early 1920s, simplification of the human figure became increasingly important to Georg Kolbe, partly inspired by his interest in Egyptian and archaic Greek art. For Assunta, he constructed the slender body of a nude woman from elongated and stylized forms that smoothly flow from one to the other. Devoid of details, self-contained, and monumental, the work conveys through its formal austerity the spiritual content of the assumption of the Virgin Mary. 

During his career Kolbe frequently collaborated with architects. Assunta was originally conceived as part of the design for a mausoleum commissioned from Kolbe and architect Hans Poelzig by Dresden manufacturer Karl August Lingner. The sculpture was to be displayed in an oval room, open to the sky and decorated inside with reliefs of mourners in profile, which, if completed, would have further reinforced Assunta&acirc;&#128;&#153;s architectonic clarity. Eventually, the scale of the mausoleum was reduced, and Assunta was removed from its original design.
  
  
  Title
  Assunta
  
  
  Artwork Date
  1921
  
  Artist
  Georg Kolbe
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1877-1947
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  German
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Bronze
  
  
  Dimensions
  Overall: 76 3/4 &Atilde;&#151; 15 1/2 &Atilde;&#151; 17 1/2 inches (194.9 &Atilde;&#151; 39.4 &Atilde;&#151; 44.5 cm)
  Including base: 77 1/2 &Atilde;&#151; 30 5/8 &Atilde;&#151; 30 5/8 inches (196.9 &Atilde;&#151; 77.8 &Atilde;&#151; 77.8 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Sculpture
  
  
  Department
  European Modern Art to 1970
  
  
  Credit
  City of Detroit Purchase
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum&acirc;&#128;&#153;s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems&acirc;&#128;&#148;no longer assigned&acirc;&#128;&#148;that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  29.331
  
  
  Copyright
  Public Domain
  
  
  
