Antemensale

An antemensale (from Latin ante , "in front" and mensa , "table") or frontale is a special form of the antependium, a decorated wooden or metal plate with which the front of the altar table in a church is clad.

history

Antemensals to cover the front of the altar table appeared in the 8th century. As with the altar retables that appear at about the same time , they show scenes from salvation history , often with a Christ enthroned in the mandola in the center. The oldest known specimen is the Antemensale of the Pala d'oro in St. Mark's Basilica , which served as a model for the Basel Antependium and the Pala d'oro in Aachen Cathedral from the 11th century. Antemensals were mostly designed in the form of reliefs during the Romanesque period , often gilded metal panels, but painted wooden panels prevailed in the Gothic period . The so-called Soest Antependium of the Walpurgis Monastery in Soest , created in 1170 and the oldest surviving painting on wood north of the Alps, is not an antemesale, but a reredos. In addition to image programs that focused on Jesus Christ , there were Marian and saints legends.

From the late Middle Ages, the permanent antemensale was replaced by the antependium , which is made of fabric and is usually changed several times during the church year . In 1570 the Roman Catholic Church made exchangeable antependums compulsory. Antemensals were only made of metal again in the Baroque period . These were mostly purely decorative elements, at most with a medallion in the middle. Antemensals also became unusable in Protestant churches after the Reformation . Medieval antemensals are therefore rarely found in their original location. A particularly large number have been preserved in Scandinavia, in Norway alone 31 painted wooden panels from the 13th / 14th centuries. Century.

A special feature is the post-Reformation Antemensale, which was created for the church in Torslunde in 1561 , with a depiction of the Protestant service based on a woodcut by Lucas Cranach .

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  Pala d'oro in Aachen Cathedral

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  12th century antemensale from the demolished old church of Broddetorp

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  Antemensals from the church in Randers

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  The life of Martin von Tours on the 13th century antemensale from the Church of San Martín in Chía

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  Gothic antemensal in St. Petri Church (Rieseby) , the images of Christ and the apostles are only partially preserved.

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  Painted Antemensale from the demolished old Nes kyrkje in Luster (Norway)

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  Antemensale from 1561 from Torslunde

literature

• Erla Bergendahl Hohler, Nigel J. Morgan, Anne Wichstrøm, Unn Plahter, Bjørn Kaland: Painted altar frontals of Norway 1250-1350 , 3 volumes, Oslo 2004, ISBN 1-873132-44-1
• Joseph Braun: Altarantependium (A. In the Catholic Church) , in: Reallexikon zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte , Vol. I (1934), Col. 441–459; especially section III. A. made of metal and wood .

Web links

Commons : Antemensale  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Antependium
• Stephan Tschudi-Madsen: Antemensale , in Store norske Leksikon (Norwegian)
• Antemensaler from the Norsk Folkemuseum

Remarks

1. ^ Soester Antependium
2. ↑ today in the State Historical Museum in Stockholm
3. ↑ ^{a b} today in the Danish National Museum
4. ↑ today in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya
5. ↑ today in the University Museum Bergen