Grave monument for Duchess Dorothea
The grave monument for Duchess Dorothea is a grave monument for the Duchess Dorothea of Denmark and Norway (1504–1547), the first wife of the state founder Duke Albrecht of Prussia , in the Königsberg Cathedral .
location
The reconstructed memorial is located on the north side of the high choir in Königsberg Cathedral.
history
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The grave monument for Duchess Dorothea was created by Cornelis Floris in Antwerp . The work of art reached the East Prussian royal seat of Königsberg via Lübeck in 1552. Jakob Binck from Cologne created the design . The monument was erected by the sculptor Heinrich Vlint.
The memorial survived the Second World War “almost undamaged”. The bust of the Duchess as well as all figures, coats of arms and columns were lost in the post-war period. The bust is now in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, a plaster cast in the Danish National History Museum in Frederiksborg Palace .
Structure and description
The frame consists of reddish-colored marble, the architectural parts of black marble. The figurative representations are made of alabaster .
The grave monument is constructed in three parts. In the middle part there is a large inscription, on which the bust of the Duchess is the crowning glory.
Lower part
Under the inscription there is a cartouche , consisting of a shield-shaped frame decorated with small lions' heads. There are two genii with palm branches on either side . These hold the Danish coat of arms, which has a crown .
Above the cartouche is a frieze with two relief-like representations from the Old Testament , which are separated from one another by a lion's head. Abigail is shown kneeling before King David in the right relief (1 Samuel 25). The left relief is Queen of Sheba shown that King Solomon brings gifts (2 Chronicles 9).
Middle part
On the main floor of the monument there is a plaque with a long inscription in Latin . Translation by Ernst August Hagen .
“Hic jacet Albert primi Ducis inclyta conjunx
Quae Patre Danorum Rege creata fuit:
Maternumque genus praelustri duxit from ortu.
Mater Teutonici neptis Achillis erat.
Et quo dicta fuit, dignam se nomina gessit
Dorothea: Donum nam fuit ipsa DEi.
Non tantum voluit Princeps, sed mitis haberi
Mater: & est inopum commiserata vicem.
Virginibus, quarum fuit orba Parentibus aetas,
Pronuba consortes tradidit ipsa tori.
Nec dedignata est humiles intrare penates,
Et medicas aegris applicuisse manus.
Adfuit & gravidis nuribus, partuque levatis
Miscuit ut nutrix officiosa dapes.
Sacra colens etiam divinis tradita scriptis,
Nil habuit vera relligione prius.
In populi coetu doctos audire solebat,
Omni paene die verba referre Dei:
Nec meritis hominum, sed Christi morte redemtam,
Seque pia justam credidit esse fide:
Adde quod ipsa suum Dominum constanter amavit.
Inque vicem à Domino semper amata, fuit:
Corpore namque decens, & amabilis extitit omni
Laude: fugax litis, sobria, comis erat.
Edidit in lucem duo Mascula pignora lecti,
Foeminea quater est factaque prole Parens.
Denique suscipiens Musarum provida curam,
Nobile Gymnasii cum Duce struxit opus.
Jamque duos annos mensesque peregerat octo,
Post octo vitae lustra, decemque dies
Cum desiderium non uni triste relinquens.
Hay prematura morte soluta fuit.
Illius immensum peperit jactura dolorem
Ombinus indigenis: prussia quotquot habet.
Ad superos animi rediit vigor: ossa sepulchro
Inque beatorum spe tumulata cubant.
Obiit diem III Idus Aprilis, Anno MDXLVII ”
"Here rests Duke Albrecht, the first, famous wife,
who was begotten by Denmark's kings,
her mother's family comes from sublime origin,
because the German Achilles granddaughter's mother was her:
And so she was called and showed herself worthy of the name
Dorothea, for it was itself a gift from God.
Better than princess she let herself be called a tender mother
And with a compassionate mind she lifted her helpless need.
Virgin, who passed the days orphaned,
As the matchmaker, she herself determined the comrades of the bed.
She was caring for pregnant women and prepared meals for those who had been freed from the burden
, like nurses who were active.
And she was not afraid to penetrate into low huts
And to gently Christmas the sick with the healing hand.
She holy venerated what was contained in the divine scriptures,
noble as religion, as genuine, nothing to her.
In the assembled people the preachers like to 'listen' to her.
Most of the day she spoke from God.
Not by human merit, only by the death of Christ
, she considered herself saved , only by the consolation of believers.
Do not forget how she, because she loved the master of
the house faithfully, always saw herself loved again by the master of the house.
For she was chaste in body and exalted in every praise.
Amiable, enemy of quarrels, celibate and gentle.
She bore two male pledges of love to the light,
four female children under the heart she bore.
At last she took care of the muses and,
with the duke of the school, set a noble foundation to work.
When she had already spent two years and eight of the moons,
ten of the days after eight lusters of earthly beings,
Then - not only with one person she left longing grief -
she was woe! robbed of premature death.
Their passing gave birth to infinite sorrow for all the
natives, no matter how much Prussian soil encompassed.
The spirit went home to the transfigured, the bones buried in the grave
in the hope that beckons to the blessed. "
The table is flanked by two caryatids . The figures are on consoles with Ionic capitals . A grape-like, semicircular hanging cone, which is decorated with radial ribbons mixed with leaves, hangs on each of the consoles. This feature "alone [has] already betrayed the origin of the epitaph in the Netherlands" and is "characteristic of the Netherlands".
The left caryatid represents the Christian faith as an allegory. The figure holds the cross and the Bible as two attributes. The right caryatid represents love as an allegory . The female figure is holding a child in her arms, another child is hanging on the tip of her skirt. The two female figures are crowned by Ionic capitals. On the capitals there are basket-like, round structures, which are decorated with radial ribbons mixed with leaves.
Above the inscription panel there is another frieze with two relief-like representations showing ancient sacrifices.
Top
There is a second, much lower storey as the upper part above the inscription part. In the center is the bust of the Duchess, flanked by two caryatids, allegories of hope and temperance. Next to the caryatids, on the corners of the grave monument, two reclining, young geniuses are depicted on skulls.
Today the reconstructed grave monument of Duchess Dorothea adorns the original of her bust. This had been in a Moscow depot since the end of World War II, where numerous busts and figures from Germany were collected. The bust is in a niche with a shell and a semicircular arch as the top. The arch carries a console, which is flanked by mourning angels in the spandrels . The console, together with two small caryatids, supports the uppermost cornice, on which a flower vase stands on a base as a crown. The vase is flanked by volutes .
Art historical significance
Georg Dehio / Ernst Gall describe the monument as "strict and cool with all elements of its style". The work of art is therefore "closely related to the epitaphs in the Great Church in Breda ". According to Anton Ulbrich , the work is an early example of Dutch influence in Königsberg.
literature
- Adolf Boetticher (Ed.): The architectural and art monuments of the province of East Prussia. On behalf of the East Prussian Provincial Parliament . Booklet VII. The architectural and art monuments in Königsberg. Bernhardt Teichert, Königsberg 1897, OCLC 312871065 .
- Georg Dehio; Ernst Gall; Bernhard Schmid: Handbook of German art monuments. [7], Teutonic Order Prussia . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich; Berlin 1952, OCLC 878777190 .
- Ernst August Hagen : The description of the cathedral church to Königsberg and the works of art contained in it , Königsberg 1833 (together with AR Gebser).
- Baldur Köster: Königsberg: Architecture from German times. In the appendix: The Kneiphof . Booklet VII. The architectural and art monuments in Königsberg. Husum Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Husum 2000, OCLC 237377396 .
- Markus Podehl: Architektura Kaliningrada: how Königsberg became Kaliningrad. Materials on the art, culture and history of East Central Europe, 1 . Herder Institute, Marburg 2012, OCLC 816472756 .
- Karl Faber: The capital and residence city of Königsberg in Prussia. The strangest thing in history. Description and chronicle of the city . Graefe and Unzer, Königsberg 1840, OCLC 15210624 ( reprinted 1971).
- The Königsberg group and the liberation from the ties to the Renaissance. Wall tombs in the Königsberg Cathedral. In: Anton Ulbrich: History of sculpture in East Prussia from the end of the 16th century to around 1870 , 2 volumes, Königsberg 1926–1929, pp. 81–85
- Similar style wall tombs in the cathedral to Königsberg… . In: Anton Ulbrich: History of sculpture in East Prussia from the end of the 16th century to around 1870 , 2 volumes, Königsberg 1926–1929, pp. 86–92
- Anton Ulbrich : History of sculpture in East Prussia from the end of the 16th century to around 1870 , 2 volumes, Königsberg 1926–1929, pp. 19–20.
Web links
- Kneiphof and Dom on www.ostpreussen.net.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Köster, p. 54.
- ↑ a b c d e cf. Boetticher, p. 329.
- ↑ Rediscovered Cornelis Floris bust in The Pushkin Museum Moscow. Codart, June 4, 2013, accessed December 8, 2015 .
- ↑ cf. Boetticher, p. 328.
- ↑ Hagen, pp. 258-259. ( online )
- ↑ a b c cf. Boetticher, p. 330.
- ↑ Kneiphof and Cathedral . www.ostpreussen.net. Retrieved November 22, 2015.
- ↑ Dehio / Gall, p. 376
- ↑ Dehio / Gall, p. 376.
- ↑ cf. Ulbrich, pp. 19 and 20.
- ↑ cf. Ulbrich, p. 83 and p. 91.