Mercy seat

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Mercy Seat (Austrian master, early 15th century)

The mercy seat is a type of image of Christian art to represent the Trinity (Trinity): The mostly crowned God the Father holds the cross ( crucifix ) with the dead Christ in both hands, while the dove hovers over it as a symbol of the Holy Spirit . Towards the end of the 13th century, portraits also appear in which God the Father holds the body of the dead son on his lap or shows the son standing in front of him.

Development of the subject

The mercy seat is considered the most important medieval image creation for the motif of the Trinity. “It became the characteristic occidental form of their visualization”. The picture motif developed from a connection of the cross with the symbols for God the Father and for the Holy Spirit. On the back of the Lothar cross from the Aachen Cathedral Treasury (around 980), the right hand of God the Father holds the victory wreath with the dove over the crucified. In this way an attempt was made for the first time to connect Christ's sacrificial death with the triune Godhead.

Miniature in the Missal of Cambrai (around 1120)
Mercy seat in Kiedrich, St. Valentin (14th century)
Master of Flémalle: Mercy Seat (around 1430)
Mercy Seat with Tiara -crowned God the Father (early 16th century)

At the beginning of the 12th century the new type of image of the mercy seat appeared. The oldest surviving example is a miniature in the Missal of Cambrai (around 1120), which in this missal takes the place at the beginning of the Canon Missae , the prayer in the Christian Eucharist : God the Father with a cross nimbus , sitting on a throne chair and surrounded by a mandorla , holds the crucifix with both hands. The dove of the Holy Spirit, also with a cross nimbus, establishes the connection between the divine persons by touching the lips of God the Father and Christ with its wings. Wolfgang Braunfels describes the text of the Canon missae as a literary source for the motif of the mercy seat.

Another variant of the mercy seat shows the round pane of a choir window of the cathedral of Saint-Denis , dating from around 1140 : In addition to God the Father with the cross of the son, the chariot of Aminadab and the Ark of the Covenant are also shown. Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis described the glass medallion as “the Ark of the Covenant with a crucifix on the Quadriga Aminadab”. The medallion disk shows: - God the Father, who holds the crucifix with both hands over the opened ark; - A yellow velum hangs down from the crossbar of the cross, which is visible to the rear edge of the ark. “In this arrangement, Suger's connection of velum and cross can be placed in a historical line that leads back to the Constantinian Labarum ... The composition obviously relates the cloth not only to the cross above, but also to the ark below. Accordingly, the velum means the curtain that separates the sanctissimum , in which the ark was located, from the sanctum in the Old Testament covenant tent or temple ”; - the Ark of the Covenant on the four-wheeled chariot of Aminadab contains, in addition to the tablets of the law and the staff of Aaron ( Old Testament ), the crucifix held by God the Father ( New Testament ); the inscription below describes the car as QUADRIGE AMINADAB; - the four wheels of the cart correspond to the surrounding four evangelist symbols , - an inscription from Abbot Suger , which describes the depicted "mercy seat" as an " altar with the cross of Christ" erected on the ark: FEDERIS EX ARCA CRUCE XRI SISTITUR ARA - FEDERE MAIORI VULT IBI VITA MORI (“On the ark of the covenant is set up the altar with the cross of Christ; here the Son wants to die for the loftier covenant”); - in the background the light blue universe.

In art history, the pictorial type described was initially referred to as the Trinity; Only in the 19th century did the term “mercy seat” gain acceptance.

Theological content

The form of representation should help the viewer to better imagine the mystery of the Trinity of God (Trinity) : God the Father presents his Son Jesus Christ to people as the one who died for their sins on the cross. The Holy Spirit is the bond between God the Father and God the Son; he himself is the third person of the Trinity. The Christian faith teaches the belief in a God who is threefold in himself: one God in three persons, the three persons of the one God.

The term “mercy seat” comes from Martin Luther as a translation for propitiatorium , the golden lid on the ark ( Ex 25,17ff.  LUT ). Following the term mercy seat, Luther also created the term “mercy seat”. In Rom 3:25  LUT , in translation from ἱλαστήριον, it denotes Christ, through whom - according to Luther - every person achieves grace and salvation.

The canon of the Mass begins with the request to God the Father to accept the sacrifice made in the service in mind of the Christ sacrifice. God the Father receives the body of the Son and presents it to people again, what the images of the mercy seat are supposed to say.

mysticism

During the spread of Christian mysticism , a modification of the mercy seat arose insofar as God the Father now often holds the body of the son on his lap (cf. Pietà ), which in the sense of mysticism also expresses the father's grief.

Examples

There are numerous examples of the mercy seat in the visual arts, some of which are listed here in chronological order:

  • Miniature in the Missal of Cambrai (around 1120)
  • Cover plate of a support altar from Hildesheim, London (before 1132)
  • Cover plate of the Mauritius portable altar, St. Servatius Siegburg (around 1160)
  • Illumination on a single sheet, Vienna Albertina (2nd half of the 12th century)
  • Altar retable from the Wiesenkirche in Soest, Berlin (1250–1270)
  • Mercy seat in Kiedrich, St. Valentin (14th century)
  • Austrian Master: Mercy Seat, London (around 1410)
  • Master von Flémalle (also attributed to Robert Campin ): Mourning of the Trinity, Petersburg (1430s)
  • Master von Flémalle: Mercy Seat, Städel, Frankfurt am Main (around 1430)
  • Master of the Darmstadt Passion : Mercy Seat from St. Martin in Bad Orb, Berlin (1460–1470)
  • Albrecht Dürer : Holy Trinity, woodcut (1511)
  • Lucas Cranach the Elder : Trinity (1518)
  • Meister von Meßkirch : Mercy Seat (around 1530)
  • Mercy Seat Epitaph, Bremen Cathedral Museum (1549)
  • El Greco : Trinity, Madrid Prado (1577)
  • Nina Koch: Mercy Seat, sculpture in front of St. Jodokus Church in Bielefeld (2005)
  • Weiglkreuz , Lower Austria

literature

Web links

Commons : Mercy Seat  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Mercy Seat  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
  • PW Hartmann (Hrsg.): Gnadenstuhl In: Das Große Kunstlexikon.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ LCI vol. 1 col. 535 f.
  2. ↑ Bibliothèque Municipale de Cambrai Ms.234, fol.2r.
  3. ↑ Sugerus: De rebus in administratione sua gestis (1146-49).
  4. ^ Konrad Hoffmann: Sugers "Anagogisches Fenster" in St. Denis. In: Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch. 30, Cologne 1968, p. 66.
  5. ↑ mercy seat. In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm (Hrsg.): German dictionary . tape 8 : Glibber – Gräzist - (IV, 1st section, part 5). S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1958, Sp. 591 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).
  6. ↑ grace throne. In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm (Hrsg.): German dictionary . tape 8 : Glibber – Gräzist - (IV, 1st section, part 5). S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1958, Sp. 592 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).
  7. ↑ Today's translations according to Martin Luther offer atonement in Rom 3:25 . Luther himself translate 1522 and 1546 as gnade stuel and Gnadenstuel .