Chess set

Josef Hartwig

1924 · Wood · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

The sphere, double cube, and three sizes of block, singly or combined, yield pieces that, despite their highly geometric stylization, are strongly suggestive of their rank or power. The bishops are clearly implied by the cross outline, and the rooks by the simple stablility of a cube. Most ingenious of all are the knights, formed of three double cubes joined in such a fashion that each face of the resulting form shows two cubes one above the other and a third on the side, an embodiment of the knight's move.

Artist

Josef Hartwig

Date

1924

Medium

Wood

Culture

German, Weimar

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Gift of Gustavus A. Pfeiffer, 1948