Christ column (Hildesheim)

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The Christ column in Hildesheim Cathedral (since 1893)
The Christ column on the Great Cathedral Courtyard (1810-1893)
The Christ column in St. Michael (until 1810). Reconstruction Carpiceci / Gallistl
Reception of the Christ column in St. Michael, September 30, 2009

The Christ Column , also Bernward Column , in Hildesheim Cathedral is one of the works of art from the time of Bishop Bernwards (993-1022), the outstanding importance of which, together with the Bernward Door and the picture ceiling in St. Michael, made it a World Heritage Site .

Original lineup and history

The Christ column was created for St. Michael , the foundation and burial place of Bernwards. There was the cross altar at the beginning of the east choir. The bronze column with the triumphal cross rose behind the cross altar. The location under the triumphal arch, which Gallistl discovered from written sources, was confirmed by excavation in 2006. In front of the cross altar stood a copper-clad marble column, the stone of which comes from the eastern Mediterranean and, according to later sources, a gift from Otto III. was at Bernward. This equated the cross altar with the sacrificial table in the forecourt of the Solomonic temple , which had also stood between two columns (the bronze columns Jachin and Boaz ). Until 1662, a large wheel chandelier with the porphyry jug in the middle hung above the Christ column , which, from the wedding at Cana , was also a gift from Otto III. to have been to Bernward. This combination of cross, altar and Jerusalem candlestick was modeled on Golgotha , which was equated with the forecourt of the temple. The distance of approx. 42 m between the former location of the Christ column and the burial place of Bernwards in the west crypt of St. Michael also has an analogy in the distance that, according to pilgrims' reports in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, was between the Resurrection Rotunda and Golgotha.

During the turmoil of the Reformation in Hildesheim, the Christ column was robbed of its crowning cross by iconoclasts in 1544. It was melted down into a cannon, which speaks for its considerable size. After the east choir of Michaeliskirche was demolished in 1650 and the resulting collapse of the east crossing , the “several hundred pounds” capital was melted down in 1676 and replaced by a wooden capital, which should hide the loss due to the same shape and appearance. An engraving by Johann Ludwig Brandes (1730) reports that it was provided with figures. Since figurative capitals of this type do not appear in Lower Saxony until the 12th century, the possibility has been considered that the melted-down capital was no longer the original Bernwardin, but that the latter was during the reconstruction of the monastery church in the second half of the 12th century had been renewed. The fact that the rest of the column was not subsequently melted down - despite its value as a source of raw materials - is mainly due to its centuries-long validity as a relic of touch, as it is known from St. Bernward believed it was made personally. After the secularization of the Catholic monastery (1803) and the dissolution of the Protestant parish of St. Michael (1810), the column was bought up in Napoleonic times in 1810 by the private initiative of an episcopal official and placed in the northern cathedral courtyard between the cathedral and the bishop's house. In 1870 it received a new bronze capital from the Hildesheim sculptor Karl Küsthardt , which is modeled after the wooden capital or its depiction and thus indirectly preserves the appearance of the old bronze capital that had held the bronze crucifix on a fighter block. In 1893 the Christ column came to Hildesheim Cathedral.

For the time of the cathedral renovation, from September 30, 2009 to August 2014, the column was brought back to the Michaeliskirche .

Shape and statement

It is an honorary column that Bernward had cast from bronze in deliberate imitation of the Trajan's and Marcus Aurelius columns in Rome . If the war acts of the emperors are depicted there in picture friezes that spiral upwards, so here it is the peace acts of Christ , beginning with the baptism of the Jordan and ending with the entry into Jerusalem. The column was originally crowned by a triumphal cross .

The Christ column (height 3.79 m, diameter 58 cm) impresses, apart from the technical performance, with the liveliness and movement of its semi-sculptural figures, which were quite unusual for its time.

Thematically, it complements the depictions of the Bernward door , where the story of Jesus' birth is immediately followed by passion and resurrection.

Both works of art and Bernward's art and architecture as a whole reflect his endeavors to give his episcopal city the status of a Nordic Rome within the framework of the Christian Roman Empire, which was renewed by the Saxon emperors, and at the same time to present the rulers in Christ with the example of a just and God-bound royalty . It is no coincidence that the drama about the execution of John the Baptist with the weak and unjust King Herod is depicted in a striking breadth on the Christ column.

Liturgical meaning

An essential indication of the liturgical significance of the Christ column is its original installation on the central axis of St. Michael's Church near the cross altar , because communion was distributed and the sacrament was kept there . Within the cycle of pictures, there is an emphasis on the Gospels on Lent Sundays , which is historically connected to the reforms of Gorze and Cluny . This corresponds to the references to the liturgy of fasting and penance , which were also found in the image program of the Bernward door.

Cast

A plaster cast of the column has been in the cast collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London since 1874 .

literature

  • Heinz Josef Adamski, Hermann Wehmeyer: The Christ column in Hildesheim Cathedral , Hildesheim 1979.
  • Michael Brandt, Arne Eggebrecht (eds.): Bernward von Hildesheim and the age of the Ottonians, catalog of the exhibition 1993. Volume II, Bernward, Hildesheim 1993, ISBN 3-87065-736-7 .
  • Michael Brandt: Bernwards column - treasures from the Hildesheim cathedral. Schnell & Steiner publishing house, Regensburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-7954-2046-8 .
  • Bernhard Bruns: The Bernwards column, tree of life and victory column. Hildesheim 1995.
  • Bernhard Gallistl: Hildesheim Cathedral and its world cultural heritage, Bernward door and Christ column. Hildesheim 2000, ISBN 3-89366-500-5 .
  • Bernhard Gallistl: The Bernwards Column and the Michaeliskirche in Hildesheim. With photos by Johannes Scholz, publications by the Landschaftsverband Hildesheim e. V. Verlag Georg Olms. Hildesheim 1993, ISBN 3-487-09755-9 .
  • Roswitha Hespe: The Bernwards column in Hildesheim. Diss masch. Bonn 1949.
  • Joanna Olchawa: To the Bernwards column in Hildesheim. MA thesis, Institute for Art History, FU Berlin, 2008.
  • A. Röder: The Bernward column in Hildesheim . In: The Gazebo . Issue 44, 1888 ( full text [ Wikisource ]).

Web links

Commons : Christ column  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Lit. Gallistl (1993) p. 32.
  2. Harenberg excavation drawing. In: Christiane Segers-Glocke (Hrsg.): St. Michael in Hildesheim: Research results on the architectural archaeological investigation in 2006 . CW Niemeyer Buchverlage, Hameln 2008, Lower Saxony State Office for the Preservation of Monuments , ISBN 978-3-8271-8034-6 , p. 153 (= workbooks on the preservation of monuments in Lower Saxony 34)
  3. so u. a. Gallistl: Hildesheim Cathedral and its World Heritage Site, Bernward Door and Christ Column , pp. 30–31.
  4. ^ Hartwig Beseler, Hans Roggenkamp: The Michaeliskirche in Hildesheim . Berlin 1954, p. 102.
  5. Ref. Olchawa (2008) p. 70 ff.
  6. ^ Brandt: Bernwards column . P. 29.
  7. ^ Gallistl: The Hildesheim Cathedral and its world cultural heritage . P. 108.
  8. ^ Brandt: Bernwards column . P. 51.
  9. ^ Gallistl: The Hildesheim Cathedral and its world cultural heritage . P. 120.
  10. ^ Brandt: Bernwards column . P. 65.
  11. The Gospel of Mark and Luke speaks of the healing of a blind man ( Mk 10.46-52  EU , Lk 18.35-43  EU ).
  12. ^ Gallistl: The Hildesheim Cathedral and its world cultural heritage . P. 125.
  13. ^ Brandt: Bernwards column . P. 70.
  14. ^ Gallistl: The Hildesheim Cathedral and its world cultural heritage . P. 127.
  15. Olchawa 2008. p. 95.
  16. Bernhard Gallistl: In Faciem Angelici Templi. Cult-historical remarks on the inscription and original placement of the Bernward door . In: Yearbook for History and Art in the Diocese of Hildesheim 75./76. Year 2007/2008. P. 84 note 26.

Coordinates: 52 ° 8 ′ 56 ″  N , 9 ° 56 ′ 50 ″  E