Benna cross

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The Benna Cross (also called Benno Cross , Benna , Benno and, more rarely, Willigis Cross ) was a triumphal cross commissioned by Archbishop Willigis of Mainz around the year 1000 with a larger than life and solid gold figure of Christ . The figure of Christ, which can be dismantled into 14 individual parts and has cavities on the inside, was made of 600 pounds of gold and was also decorated with precious stones. In the early Middle Ages, the Benna Cross was considered to be the most valuable part of the Mainz Cathedral treasure and was probably only shown in Mainz Cathedral on special occasions . In the course of the following centuries, more and more individual parts of the cross were sold, so that the trace of the Benna cross was lost as early as the 13th century.

Names

In the medieval sources both the name forms Benna and Benno are handed down. This could either have been the name of a possible donor or the goldsmith who made the cross. A 15th century source, the Magnum Chronicon Belgicum , names a Benno as the imperial cupbearer who was murdered by Jews. As a punishment, they had to make a valuable cross, which was connected to the Benno cross in the High Middle Ages. However, since older sources from Mainz nowhere mention such an incident and associate it with the said cross, it is probably a legend that originated in the High Middle Ages.

As the eponymous artist of the Benno Cross, the goldsmith and painter Benna Treverensis from Trier , a canon in the St. Paulinus monastery in Trier, could be considered. Various important works such as the Andreas portable altar and the nail reliquary in the Trier cathedral treasure are awarded to this. Ultimately, however, a relationship between this artist and the Benna Cross is not certain and is only possible indirectly through indications such as the rarity of the name, the temporal correspondence between the creation of the cross and the artist's creative period, and the interpretation of the name as that of the artist who created it.

Structure and design

A precise description of the Benna Cross is given in the Liber de calamitate ecclesiae Moguntinae from the middle of the 13th century. According to tradition in the annals of St. Disibod, the core of the cross was made of cypress wood ; Some modern sources also speak of cedar wood . On this wooden core there was a gold plating with rich gemstone decoration.

The figure of Christ attached to the cross is described as larger than life and is said to have been made of 600 pounds of pure gold, which Willigis is said to have taken from the tribute of the Lombards . Hollow spaces were cut out in the head part, which were used to store relics and precious stones. According to medieval sources, the eyes of the figure of Christ consisted of “egg yolk-sized carbuncle stones ”, probably rubies that glowed in the dark. The individual body parts, a total of 14 individual pieces, were removable. Since the Benna Cross may not have been shown permanently in the cathedral, they were kept in a box or shrine for most of the time.

On the probably upper part of the cross was the following inscription: auri sexcentas tenet haec crux aurea libras . That means: this golden cross weighs 600 pounds of gold .

Usage and history

It is unclear whether the entire triumphal cross was permanently erected in the cathedral, there above the cross altar , or only on high church holidays, on special instructions from the respective bishop and when the emperor or other high-ranking personalities visited. It is also conceivable that the cross was permanently present, but the figure of Christ was only temporarily. Here the medieval sources contradict each other and give only vague information. From the third quarter of the 13th century, however , there is evidence of a cross altar in the east choir of the cathedral and it can be assumed that there were corresponding predecessor facilities there at an earlier time. Installation in the west choir is also conceivable, for example at a royal coronation in Mainz Cathedral. The Benna Cross was probably erected on a beam high in the air above the entrance to the choir on these occasions. When the Gothic pillar installation in the east choir was broken off in 1874 , dowel holes were found on both the north and south choir piers , which were connected to a triumphal beam to present the cross.

Due to the indication of the material value on the cross as the only direct inscription on the Benna cross, in addition to the spiritual value and the overall effect of the triumphal cross on festive occasions, a permanent use as a purely material reserve in the form of the processed precious metal and gemstones is assumed. This is also supported by the fact that the crucifix is ​​broken down into individual parts, which made it possible to sell some of it. As the historical tradition shows, this also happened. In 1142, the Archbishop of Mainz, Markolf, sent a golden foot of the Christ figure to Rome and used it to pay his pallium fee . Only 13 years later, Archbishop Arnold von Selenhofen used the other foot and the two lower legs to finance his fight against Count Palatine Hermann von Stahleck . Around 1160 Archbishop Rudolf von Zähringen financed his trip to Rome with one of the arms. The Benna Cross, which was probably no longer complete towards the end of the 12th century, was last mentioned around 1196 in a letter from Abbot Guiberts von Gembloux to Archbishop Konrad I von Wittelsbach . Then the traces of the Benna Cross are lost in the later sources of the High Middle Ages .

Classification in art history

The description of the Benna cross suggests a production method in the style of the Carolingian tradition of metal-clad monumental crosses with a solid wooden core. From the circle of other Ottonian triumphal crosses , the Gero cross in Cologne Cathedral is still preserved today.

swell

  • Annales Palidenses a. 983, Edition Georg Heinrich Pertz (MGH SS XVI, 1859, 65)
  • Annales sancti Disibodi a. 1160, Edition Georg Waitz (MGH SS XVII, 1861, 29)
  • Christiani archiepiscopi liber de calamitate ecclesiae Moguntinae, Edition Heinrich Reimer (MGH SS XXV, 1880, 244)

literature

  • Manuela Beer: Triumphal Crosses of the Middle Ages. A contribution to type and genesis in the 12th and 13th centuries. With a catalog of the preserved monuments. Schnell + Steiner, Regensburg 2005, ISBN 3-7954-1755-4 .
  • Annegret Peschlow-Kondermann: Reconstruction of the west lettner and the east choir from the 13th century in Mainz Cathedral. (= Research on art history and Christian archeology. Vol. 8). Steiner, Wiesbaden 1972.
  • Franz Werner : The cathedral of Mainz and its monuments together with a representation of the fate of the city and the history of its archbishops up to the translation of the archbishopric to Regensburg. Part I, Mainz 1836, p. 354ff. ( available online at google books )
  • Episcopal Cathedral and Diocesan Museum Mainz (publisher): The missing cathedral: perception and change of the Mainz cathedral over the centuries. Hermann Schmidt, Mainz 2011, 978-3935647540 p. 100

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Christiani archiepiscopi liber de calamitate ecclesiae Moguntinae, ed.Reimer (MGH SS XXV, 1880, 244)
  2. ↑ Annales Palidenses a. 983, ed.Pertz (MGH SS XVI, 1859, 65)
  3. ↑ quoted by Carl Euler: Archbishop Willigis of Mainz in the first years of his work. Naumburg 1860, p. 38ff. ( available online at google books )
  4. ↑ Annales sancti Disibodi a. 1160, ed.Waitz (MGH SS XVII, 1861, 29)
  5. ^ Franz Werner: The cathedral of Mainz and its monuments. In addition to the presentation of the fate of the city and the history of its archbishops up to the translation of the archbishopric to Regensburg. Volume I, Müller, Mainz 1827
  6. ↑ Notation according to the following source Annales sancti Disibodi a. 1160, ed.Waitz (MGH SS XVII, 1861, 29). There are two other, slightly different traditional spellings
  7. ↑ Manuela Beer: Triumphal Crosses of the Middle Ages. A contribution to type and genesis in the 12th and 13th centuries. With a catalog of the preserved monuments. , P. 173f.