#  Zur Wunde Christi: Caravaggios doppelsinniger Naturalismus 

 



    ![abstract image](/sites/g/files/omnuum4936/files/styles/hwp_5_4__480x385/public/mahindra/files/german_studies_01.jpg?itok=v4BoHGxu) 

 



 

####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **October 9, 2025** 

 05:00PM - 07:00PM EDT 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **Barker Center, Room 133**  



 

 



 

## [GERMAN STUDIES: NEW PERSPECTIVES](/german-studies-new-perspectives)

## SPEAKER: Peter J. Burgard, Harvard University

Was macht Caravaggios Naturalismus aus? Was macht Caravaggio mit seinem Naturalismus? Was macht Caravaggios Naturalismus mit uns? In diesem Vortrag geht es erstens um den vollendeten Naturalismus, den Caravaggio in seiner Malerei erreicht hat, zweitens um die Störungen, die er dann in diesen Naturalismus hat einfließen lassen, drittens um das Störende an seiner naturalistisch-religiösen Kunst und schließlich um den ausgesprochenen Doppelsinn vieler seiner religiösen Gemälde, der deren und dessen Religiosität unterläuft. Zu besprechende Gemälde u.a. *Die Berufung des Matthäus*, die *Johannes-der-Täufer-Serie*, *Die Opferung Isaaks*, *David mit dem Haupt des Goliath*, *Salome mit dem Haupt des Täufers*, *Der ungläubige Thomas*, *Die Kreuzabnahme*.

Lecture in German. Q&A in English or German. In the context of the German Studies Seminar, the purpose of this lecture is to show how the practice of close reading central to modern literary criticism can yield new insights into one of the most famous and discussed painters in the Western tradition. It is also an opportunity to hear a lecture in German.

### About the Speaker

Peter J. Burgard has been a professor in the Harvard German Department for 36 years. He writes on mainly German poetry, drama, narrative, and the essay, on mainly European painting, sculpture, and architecture, and on mainly German intellectual history — ranging, in various combinations, from the 16th to the 20th century. In addition, he translates German poetry into English. In his publications he addresses the work of Luther, Caravaggio, Bernini, Rubens, Opitz, Fleming, Velázquez, Zesen, Gryphius, Borromini, Hoffmannswaldau, de Hooch, Grimmelshausen, E.Q. and C.D. Asam, Lessing, Herder, Goethe, Nietzsche, Ibsen, Mann, Kafka, Adorno, Miller, and Warhol.

In 2019, he published *Baroque: Figures of Excess in Seventeenth-Century European Art and German Literature*. He is currently completing a small volume of translations of German poetry from c. 1770–1990, entitled *Modern German Poetry, 1770–1990: Twenty-Seven Translations.* Prior publications include *Idioms of Uncertainty: Goethe and the Essay*, *Nietzsche and the Feminine*, and *Barock: Neue Sichtweisen einer Epoche*, and he is currently working on a book entitled *Caravaggio: Disturbing Naturalism and Double Entendre*. Life permitting, there might also be books on *Integral Ornament: Revolutions and Devolutions of the Decorative, Vienna 1683–1914* and *Nietzsche and the Ethics of Atheism*, which currently exist in bits and pieces.

   ![Peter Burgard headshot](/sites/g/files/omnuum4936/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-07/Unknown.jpeg?itok=N5q53t3d) 

 



 

 



 

 See also:- [ Seminar ](/event-type/seminar)
- [ German Studies: New Perspectives ](/seminars/german-studies-new-perspectives)
 
 

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