Hildesheim Artemisia tapestries

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The message , tapestry from the Artemisia cycle of the Hildesheim Cathedral Museum

The Hildesheim Artemisia tapestries are a consequence of the original eight, after the war losses six tapestries in the Cathedral Museum Hildesheim . The Mannerist style tapestries made around 1620 in the Paris tapestry factory became the property of Hildesheim Cathedral in 1727 . They adorned the knight's hall in the south wing of the cathedral cloister until the Second World War .

history

Emergence

In the 1560s, the Parisian pharmacist and writer Nicolas Houel published an imaginative biography of Queen Artemisia of Caria , in which he mixed features of the historical rulers Artemisia I and Artemisia II : the king's wife, widowed at an early age, mourning out of love, but also powerful ruling for the underage son. Antoine Caron created drawings that were intended as templates for tapestries. The work paid homage to Caterina de 'Medici , Queen of France and, as a widow, regent for her young sons since 1559 . But it was not until Henry IV that the series of Artemisias , with thematic and iconographic deviations from Houel and Carons model, realized as a tapestry cycle in 1607 by the newly founded Flemish manufactory François de la Planche ( Frans van den Plancken ) and Marc and Hieronymus de Comans .

After that, the theme became popular and was reproduced and varied many times by the same manufactory until 1660. The Artemisia carpets now in Hildesheim were made between 1610 and 1620 in the De-la-Planche-Comans workshop and bear their signature . They thus belong to the early series of Artemisia, and they contain four scenes of which no other representation has survived. Her political reference, attested by monograms in the borders, is Maria de 'Medici , who in 1610 as the widow of Henry IV and regent for her underage son Louis XIII. In a situation similar to that of Caterina 50 years earlier.

The way to Hildesheim

Archbishop Elector Joseph Clemens of Bavaria , who in 1702 was the sixth prince diocese to be given the monastery of Hildesheim , was a lover of tapestry art. He lived in France and Flanders for several years, where he is likely to have bought the Artemisia series for his Bonn collection. In any case, in Bonn it was acquired by the Provost and District President of the Hildesheim Monastery, Franz Joseph von Landsberg, and bequeathed it to Hildesheim Cathedral when he died in 1727.

The large tapestries, actually intended for several rooms, were attached to the walls of the knight's hall, sometimes with folded edges; one hung free from the ceiling. Over the centuries they suffered from pollution, exposure to light and mechanical damage.

World War II and restoration

During the Second World War, six of the eight tapestries escaped destruction due to outsourcing, but suffered additional damage from pests. Until the reopening of the enlarged Cathedral Museum in 2015, they were thoroughly restored and have since been exhibited in their own hall.

description

Of the eight carpets, the six landscape-format carpets are (were) 4.37 by 4.81 m, the two vertical format 4.58 by 3.31 m. The picture scenes are surrounded by wide, partly figurative ornamental borders, which correspond in color to the pictures, but stylistically appear more ancient. The images that point to the Baroque era are lively and rich in design, the colors - white, light blue, red and brown - are kept rather pale and are based on the effect of the textile material.

The themes of the eight scenes are: The Proclamation ; The riding lessons ; The lesson ; The consul ; The coronation ; The message ; The jurisprudence ; Lessons II .

literature

  • Curt Habicht : The tapestries in the knight's hall of Hildesheim Cathedral . In: Monthly books for art history , 10th year, Leipzig 1917, pp. 275–280

Web links

Commons : Hildesheimer Artemisia-Gobelins  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ About Caterina de 'Medici, Heinrich IV., Houel, Caron and the Artemisia theme (exhibition review, sehepunkte.de)
  2. ↑ The Louvre presents on its network presence a tapestry of the series, except for the border, largely the Hildesheim message like, there Les Placets called ( "The statements of claim").
  3. ↑ According to the estate protocol of the cathedral chapter, quoted in Habicht (see lit.) p. 275.
  4. ↑ Habicht, p. 276
  5. ↑ Cathedral Museum, permanent exhibition
  6. ↑ Named and described in detail by Habicht in this order, corresponding to the hanging in the knight's hall at that time.