Musée national du Moyen Age
The museum Musée National du Moyen Âge (by the year 1980: Musée de Cluny ) is one of the most important sights of Paris . It is located in the Latin Quarter in the 5th arrondissement and has been managed by Elisabeth Taburet-Delahaye since 2005 .
building
Around the year 200 the thermal baths known today as Thermes de Cluny were built in ancient Lutetia , around the year 380 they were largely destroyed. Only the cold water bath has largely been preserved and integrated into the museum. With a length of over 20 m, it is once the largest cold water bath in the province of Gaul .
In 1330, the abbot of the Abbey Cluny Pierre II. De Chastelux acquired the remains of the complex in order to have their own accommodation in the future in the possession of the abbey when visiting the royal court in Paris. From 1455 to 1510, the Hôtel de Cluny palace was built on the property . The chapel that was built is a one- pillar room that was highly valued by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc . The building from the late 15th century combines stylistic elements from the late Gothic and Renaissance periods . In 1842 the ensemble became state property and the museum was opened in 1844.
In September 2000, the medieval garden (French: Le jardin médiéval ) was laid out next to the Hôtel de Cluny, with an area of around 5,000 m².
collection
One of the residents of the Hôtel de Cluny was Alexandre Du Sommerard (1779–1842), an art collector and archaeologist. In the hotel, he brought together a large collection of medieval equipment and works of art that the French state bought after his death and that prompted the establishment of the museum.
The lady with the unicorn
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The main attraction of the museum is the six-part millefleurs wall hanging The Lady with the Unicorn (French: La Dame à la licorne ). The picture knitwear was created at the end of the 15th century in the southern Netherlands (possibly in Brussels or Tournai). Five of the works symbolically show the five senses :
1 Taste: A servant hands the lady a dragee, which she gives to a parrot
2 hearing: the lady plays the organ
3 Face: The lady holds a mirror in front of the unicorn
4 Smell: The lady is weaving a wreath of flowers, a monkey smells a flower
5 Feeling: The lady is holding the unicorn and a flag lance
The sixth carpet bears the inscription “Mon seul désir” (My only desire) between the initials A and V. The lady puts her collar in a jewelry box, which may mean renouncing (or prudent use of) sensual stimuli. The unicorn has the body of a horse, but the pair of hooves and the head with a mustache resemble a goat. According to medieval natural history books, the unicorn was considered to actually exist. It could only be appeased by a virgin, so the hunters lured it into the trap by a virgin. In Christian symbolism the unicorn stands for Christ, Mary is the one in whose lap the unicorn rests, which stands for the incarnation of God in the Virgin Mary. The hunt represents Christ's sacrifice on the cross. In the late medieval tapestry, however, this Christian symbolism is evidently overlaid by profane themes of courtly love and the allegory of the five senses. The picture knits consist of wool (warp threads) and silk (weft) and were made on a high loom . The coat of arms on the flags is that of the le Viste family. According to the prevailing opinion so far, the client was Jean IV. Le Viste from Lyon, President of the Tax Court (Cour des Aides) in Paris since 1484, died 1500. According to new research, the coat of arms is that of the family, but it does not comply with the rules of heraldry, because two colors - blue and red - collide. In heraldry, however, colors may only come into contact with metals (gold or silver). The deviation suggests that it is a variant of the coat of arms of a branch of the family. According to the new theory, the client is Antoine II. Le Viste (official of the royal chancellery around 1500 under King Louis XII and later under François Ier , d. 1532). The following is known about the history of the tapestries: The series came to Boussac Castle in the Limousin through succession. The castle was sold to the municipality and served as the seat of the sub-prefecture. The poet George Sand saw the tapestries in the sub-prefect's office. She imagined a story according to which the carpets were woven by the Turkish prince Zizim when he was a prisoner in France. The art scholar Prosper Mérimée found out about carpets through sand. He reports that the former owner had more of them, but that he cut them up to make floor carpets.
Rainer Maria Rilke deals with carpets in his novel " The Notes of Malte Laurids Brigge ".
The origin of these tapestries is also discussed in the novel "The Lady and the Unicorn" by Tracy Chevalier (German translation: "The Kiss of the Unicorn").
Basel Antependium
The Basel antependium from the beginning of the 11th century is considered particularly important . It was made of gold and is approx. 180 cm wide and 120 cm high. The Basel Antependium was donated by Emperor Heinrich II in 1019 to the Basel Cathedral. According to the prevailing opinion of historians at the moment , the piece was made in Fulda , other assumptions suggest that the place of origin was Reichenau or Bamberg . Since the iconography of the antependium shows no reference to the cartridges of the Basel Minster and the figure of St. Benedict suggests a monastery as the original destination, it is assumed that it was originally intended for another location. According to one hypothesis, the antependium was originally located in the Bamberg Benedictine monastery of St. Michael, as the figures of the archangels fit well with Michael's monastery .
The Basel Antependium has been proven to have been in Basel since the Middle Ages. When the canton of Basel split into the cantons of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Land in 1833, the canton's assets were divided, including the church treasury. The antependium fell to Basel-Land, which put the antependium into the art trade because of an urgent need for money, which brought it to the museum in 1854.
Pilier des nautes
In the earlier frigidarium there are five of the probably eight stones that formed the Pilier des nautes . They were found under the choir of Notre Dame Cathedral in 1710 . The column was erected under Emperor Tiberius (14–37 AD) in honor of the god Jupiter and shows u. a. the ancient Seine sailors, the Nautae . A model shows the presumed original appearance of the pillar, which is considered to be the oldest at least partially preserved Parisian sculpture .
Other exhibits
Numerous Gothic sculptures are exhibited, mainly from the 12th and 13th centuries. These include fragments of the west portal of the former abbey church of Saint-Denis and Romanesque capitals from the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés as well as the 21 heads of the Judean kings from the royal gallery of Notre-Dame, created around 1220 and found in 1977 Paris. They were given to the museum in 1980. Other important works are originals of the apostle figures from the Sainte-Chapelle .
In the same room as the heads of kings is composed of limestone -made statue of Adam that has emerged around the year 1260th Originally located in Notre Dame Cathedral , it is famous for its realism, which was unusual in the 13th century.
The glass paintings on display from the 12th to 13th centuries are also considered important . They were once installed in various churches in northern France; u. a. in Sainte-Chapelle (such as Samson's fight with the lion ) and in the Basilica of Saint-Denis . The oldest stained glass comes from 1144.
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literature
- Chris Boicos: Paris. RV Reise- und Verkehrsverlag, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-89480-901-9 . Pp. 154-157.
- Julia Droste-Hennings, Thorsten Droste : Paris. A city and its myth . DuMont, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-7701-6090-8 . Pp. 124-130.
- Heinfried Wischermann: Architecture Guide Paris. Gerd Hatje, Ostfildern 1997, ISBN 3-7757-0606-2 . P. 24 and 37.
- Maria Lanckorońska: Tapestries for a Princess. The lady with the unicorn as a historical personality. Heinrich Scheffler, Frankfurt am Main 1965. (Art historical and historical illustration.)
- Rainer Maria Rilke: The notes of Malte Laurids Brigge. Reclam, Stuttgart 2014
- Tracy Chevalier: The Kiss of the Unicorn. List-Taschenbuch, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-548-60536-2 .
Web links
- Official website of the museum (English, Spanish, French)
- "Les thermes de Cluny" (French)
- fr: Wikipedia: "La Dame à la licorne"
- The lady and the unicorn
- Mary Tudor Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk, the mysterious lady in Dame à la Licorne?
Individual evidence
- ↑ Klaus Freckmann and Michael Leonhardt: The Cusanusstift in Bernkastel-Kues and its one-pillar church - a Central European location . In: INSITU 2018/2, pp. 211–226 (226).
- ↑ Carmen Decu Teodorescu, La Tenture de la Dame à la Licorne. Nouvelle lecture des armoiries , in: Bulletin Monumental, Vol. 168-4, (2010), pp. 355–367.
- ↑ Rilke pp. 109–111
Coordinates: 48 ° 51 '2 " N , 2 ° 20' 36" E