Alfred Hrdlicka is one of the most important Austrian sculptors of the post-war period. The sculpture “Marsyas III (Abgenommener Schächer)” (Marsyas III (Crucified Thief)), created in 1964, is part of one of Alfred Hrdlicka’s central groups of works and marks an essential point in the artist’s early creative phase. By combining the ancient myth of Marsyas with the Christian motif of the thief taken down from the cross, Hrdlicka opens up a complex iconographic and metaphorical space that elevates the suffering of the individual to a universal symbol of human existence. In Christian tradition, the “repentant thief” symbolizes the epitome of late repentance and divine grace: As one of the two criminals crucified with Jesus, he asks for forgiveness at the last moment and is promised paradise. In Greek mythology, Marsyas, on the other hand, embodies the hubris (arrogance, presumption) of man who challenges the gods. The Marsyas myth—the cruel flaying of the satyr by Apollo—is paradigmatic for Hrdlicka of the body's vulnerability to violence and force. This sculpture links this theme to the figure of the crucified thief. Hrdlicka interprets this biblical material not illustratively, but as an existential symbol of guilt, redemption, and political helplessness. The figure, carved from yellowish Untersberg marble, shows traces of expressive workmanship: the stone remains rough in many places, making the pain and fragmentation of the body comprehensible both visually and haptically.
Formally, “Marsyas III” marks a departure from classical, idealizing sculpture toward a radically expressive formal language that foregrounds human vulnerability through deformed bodies, open surfaces, and an emphasis on materiality. Hrdlicka's artistic concern is deeply political: his figures are not heroes, but witnesses to violence, oppression, and human suffering.
The sculpture is also part of an extensive art-historical discourse on the body in the 20th century. In a time of social upheaval and political repression, Hrdlicka's suffering body becomes a projection surface for collective and individual traumas. As an early work in yellowish Untersberg marble, “Marsyas III” is also particularly rare in the artist's oeuvre, as he later worked increasingly with other materials. The sculpture exemplifies his consistently socio-critical and humanistic position within modern sculpture.