3. The Dance of Life

Compared to the construction of the “Machine Man”, 1925, Walter Schulze-Mittendorff finds himself on familiar ground with the creation of the miniatures, the Death, and the Seven Deadly Sins. As far as the Seven Deadly Sins are concerned it is about conveying seven characters, demonstrating basic human feelings so to speak, merely in the form of human figures without an accompanying character play that was to explain them.

His devotion to this task, and his ease in the creative process, are incorporated in the artworks. The sculptor succeeds in bringing these eight figures to life; they seem to merge into a dance, the dance of life. Rather than depicting them as monstrous and repulsive, they approach the viewer in all too human failings. The eight miniatures soften the terror of the deadly sins insomuch as they invest the inner driving forces with a recognizable, familiar human behaviour. They do this with a certain charm, but on the other hand they challenge the viewer to relentlessly confront himself with his, or her, inner dark side. Like a hidden-image puzzle they show both components simultaneously: the seduction, as well as the revelation of its distressing implications – for when the seduction is realized as the distress, it loses its power.

The sculptures of the eight heads of the Death and the Seven Deadly Sins are more radical in their expression. Here the seductive charm fades and the horror of the Seven Deadly Sins comes to the foreground. The sculptures are made as masks, therewith unmasking the egoistic driving forces, and thus they generate a horror which, when it leads to self-awareness, can be healing.

The Passions of the Seven Deadly Sins and their Symptoms:

Vanity, Haughtiness, Arrogance, Pride (Superbia)

Gluttony, Insatiability, Greed (Gula)

Avarice, Stinginess, (Avaritia)

Lust, Vengeance, Unchastity (Luxuria)

Envy, Melancholia (Invidia)

Wrath, Anger (Ira)

Sloth, Inertia, Laziness (Acedia)