Freising Luke picture

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
, Byzantine icon by 1000 with fitting of the 14th century. Since 1440 in Freising, so as Freisinger Luke image referred

The picture of Luke from Freising is a Byzantine icon of Mary from around 1000, which the Byzantine emperor Manuel II had given to the Duke of Milan Gian Galeazzo Visconti in 1400 , and which came through his relatives to Nicodemus della Scala , the then Prince-Bishop of Freising , who transferred the icon to Freising Cathedral in 1440 . The precious image of Mary was then kept in Freising Cathedral and since 1974 in the local diocesan museum.

history

Manuel II. PalaiolOgos, Byzantine emperor from 1391–1425
Nicodemus della Scala, Freising Prince-Bishop from 1422–1443
Diocesan Museum on the Domberg in Freising

The Byzantine emperor Manuel II. Palaiologos (* 1350, 1391–1425) had given the Freising icon in 1400 to the then Duke Gian Galleazzo Visconti of Milan in recognition of his help in the fight against the Ottomans . The name commonly used today as " Luke picture " goes back to the ancient, pious legend , according to which the evangelist Luke is said to have painted the original picture of Mary named after him, which was then repeatedly copied in the following years and especially venerated with all copies.

Manuel II was an educated ruler from whom numerous rhetorical and theological writings originate. He represented the dogmatic positions of orthodoxy against Catholicism and against Islam . His theological discussions with the Persian scholar Mudarris (around 1391), which were held in the lecture of Pope Benedict XVI in 2006, are best known . before church dignitaries and scientists at the University of Regensburg were quoted.

According to research to date, the icon's route initially ran from its presumed place of origin Constantinople via Milan and England to Freising.

In 1400 the icon (already with the valuable fittings) came as a gift from Emperor Manuel II to Gian Galleazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan, and in 1402 to his cousin Lucia Visconti, who had been with Edmund Holland, 4th Earl of Kent since her marriage in 1407 . was also called the Countess of Kent. She bequeathed the icon to her second cousin, the Veronese city lord Bronorius della Scala, who after 1422 gave it to his brother Nicodemus della Scala who had moved to Bavaria and who was Prince-Bishop of Freising from 1422 to 1443. Nicodemus della Scala transferred the icon to his cathedral, the Freising Mariendom, on September 23, 1440, where it was subsequently exhibited for veneration on the five feast days of Mary.

At the beginning of the 17th century the icon was presented in a baroque silver altar in the cathedral. Since 1974 it has been kept in the Diocesan Museum Freising along with numerous other art treasures.

iconography

Maria Advocata in Santa Maria del Rosario on Monte Mario in Rome, 6./7. century

The icon of Mary belongs to the iconographic type of Hagiosoritissa (Ἁγιοσορίτισσα, from hagios = "holy", and soros = "shrine", so "icon at the holy shrine"), named after the old St. Luke in the rotunda Hagia Soros of the former Chalkoprateia church to Constantinople . This type of icon shows Mary interceding for humanity with Jesus Christ ; the German name of this type is accordingly "Maria als Intercessor". In the choice of motifs for the earliest icons of Mary, the depictions of Mary as intercessor (without child) preceded the images of the Mother of God with child (e.g. Hodegetria ).

The picture of Luke from Freising shows the Mother of God Maria in a half-figure turned sideways to the left, eyes on the viewer, both hands raised pleadingly. The head, which is tilted slightly to the left, is wrapped in the shawl ( Maphorion ) with the “Mother of God star”; this spica (lat. "ear of corn") was considered a sign of virginity, derived from the brightest star of the same name in the constellation Virgo . The icon painter made clear how Mary interceded as an intercessor, with his left hand, raised to the shoulder, over the edge of the picture to the edge of the icon. Mary turns to Jesus Christ with raised hands and with a slight turn of the body, as it were, out of the picture, in order to pass on the requests entrusted to her to him.

The oldest model for the icon of St. Luke in Freising is still preserved today is the portrait of Mary of Maria Advocata , the Mother of God as advocate from the 6th / 7th centuries. Century. This icon is now kept in the Chiesa della Madonna del Rosario, the monastery church of the Dominican Sisters on Monte Mario in Rome ; it is also known by the names of the earlier storage places (Santa Maria in Tempulo, Madonna di San Sisto, Santa Maria di Santi Domenico e Sisto and Santa Maria del Rosario). In contrast to the Maria Advocata and the numerous modeled icons, Maria does not turn to the right but to the left in the Freising Luke picture with her intercession.

Description of the icon and the fitting

The Freising Luke picture today consists of the icon with the first layer of paint of Mary as intercessor, which was probably made around 1000 in Constantinople. The entire icon measures 27.8 cm × 21.5 cm, the image field 19.5 cm × 13.4 cm.

On the icon there was originally the - later painted over - inscription Μ (HΤ) ΗΡ // ΘΕΟΥ (Mother of God), the two words of which were distributed on the left and right upper corner of the icon.

The last time the International Symposium Freising 2016 dealt with the dating of the three layers of paint on the icon. The bottom layer of paint was created around 1000, while the walnut wood of the icon dates from the 10th century according to a C-14 analysis . The second layer of paint was probably applied when the metal frame was attached in the 14th century.

In the second half of the 14th century the Levite ( deacon ) Manuel Dishypatos donated a Byzantine goldsmith frame with enamel work for the icon; According to the latest investigations , the deacon Manuel Dishypatos, who was proven around 1365 and comes from the province of Serrai and is also mentioned in the epigram of the icon on the fitting of the icon, is a possible donor:

“The Kanstrisios (high official) speaks, who offers you (Mother of God) this, Manuel Dishypatos, the rank after Levite (deacon). So accept this graciously, O virgin, and give me in return for your intercessions to painlessly pace through this fleeting life. "

Manuel Dishypatos also wrote the inscriptions next to the nimbus of the Blessed Mother: Μ (ΗΤ) ΗΡ // ΘΕΟΥ Η Ε / ΛΠ / ΙΣ / ΤΩ / Ν // ΑΠΕ / ΛΠ / ΙΣ / ΜΕ / ΝΩ / Ν (Mother of God - The Hope the hopeless)

Ten medallions with biblical themes are inserted between the individual epigram fields on the gold frame . These medallions of excellent quality, made from enamel using the cell melting process, are believed to have come from a workshop working for the Byzantine imperial court . Inscriptions and medallions on the goldsmith's frame are described in the inscription catalog of the city of Freising as follows: “The first part of the dedicatory inscription on the frame added before 1235 begins on the left on the upper narrow side (V, VI) and continues on the right long side (VII- IX). The beginning of the second part of the dedicatory inscription above on the left long side (X-XII), the end on the lower narrow side (XIII, XIV). At the instigation of Manuel Dishypatos, ten medallions were inserted into the spaces between the individual fields, containing pictorial representations with nine tituli (XV-XXIII): In the middle of the upper narrow side the divine throne, flanked by the archangels Michael (without inscription) and Gabriel ; on the long sides the apostles Peter and Paul , including the hll. Georg and Demetrius ; on the lower narrow side the hll. Kosmas and Damian with Pantaleon . Around 1300 the icon was completely overpainted with the same motif and the fitting with two captions was added on the sides of the nimbus. 1964 Restoration and examination of the icon by the Doerner Institute . "

Art-technical examinations of the icon and the silver fittings were carried out in 1964 and 2016/17. The attempt was made to understand and document the production and the phases of the changes.

The silver altar for the St. Luke icon was created in 1629 by the Munich goldsmith Gottfried Lang, with an inscription from Bishop Veit Adam. In the niches the evangelists Luke and John.

Hints

On 21/22 April 2016 in Freising an international symposium on the Freising Luke picture took place under the topic "The Luke picture - Radiance over a thousand years".

In October 2018 the picture of Luke from Freising was shown at the exhibition “Byzantine Icons of Thessaloniki” in the Vlatadon Monastery in Thessaloniki .

From November 26, 2018 to March 5, 2019, the picture of Luke from Freising was exhibited in the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice: “The last days of Byzantium. The picture of Luke from Freising in Venice ”.

literature

  • Hans Belting : Image and Cult - A History of the Image before the Age of Art . CH Beck, Munich 1991, p. 47ff. 51ff. 76ff. 83ff. 131ff. 348ff. 353ff.
  • Alexander Grillparzer / Heike Stege: The Freising icon of Lukas. Lecture on November 7, 2017 at the Technical University of Munich, Chair for Restoration, Art Technology and Conservation Science.
  • Carmen Roll / Antje Bosselmann-Ruickbie (eds.): The Freising Luke picture - A Byzantine icon and its thousand-year history. Proceedings of the International Symposium Freising 2016 . Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn 2019
  • Christoph Kurzeder / Carmen Roll (ed.): The last days of Byzantium - The Freising Luke picture in Venice . Sieveking Verlag, Munich 2019.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Carmen Roll / Antje Bosselmann-Ruickbie (eds.): The Freising Luke picture - A Byzantine icon and its thousand-year history. Proceedings of the International Symposium Freising 2016 . Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn 2019.
  2. ↑ Hans Belting : Image and Cult - A History of the Image before the Age of Art . Munich 1991, p. 353ff.
  3. ↑ Hans Georg Wehrens: Rome - The Christian sacred buildings from the 4th to the 9th century - A Vademecum . Freiburg, 2nd edition 2017, pp. 184f.
  4. ↑ http://www.inschriften.net/freising-stadt/inschrift/nr/di069-0423.html
  5. ↑ Christoph Schmälzle: Freising in Venice - Wanderbild: What an icon of St. Luke tells . In: FAZ of February 4, 2019.