List of looted art from the sack of Constantinople in 1204

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pala d'Oro, top row: Looted art from 1204 (San Marco, Venice)

The list of looted art from the sack of Constantinople records objects that were stolen in 1204 by participants in the Fourth Crusade after the conquest of Constantinople , their original use and their use at the new location.

Significant relics stolen from Constantinople, whose Byzantine container has not been preserved (strictly speaking, no art) were also recorded. These represented very high values ​​for the contemporaries, as can be seen, for example, in the crown of thorns relic in Paris.

The looting lasted April 13-16, 1204.

"They stole the most valuable vessels and receptacles of the saints, broke them and put them in their pockets or put them on their own tables as bread baskets and drinking cups."

- Niketas Choniates

Republic of Venice

The division of the booty secured a large share for the Republic of Venice , while the rest was divided between various actors.

Cathedral treasure and church furnishings from San Marco

Madonna Nicopeia (San Marco, Venice)

The Cathedral Treasury ( Tesoro ) of San Marco houses a large number of Byzantine works of art. It is generally believed that most of them either fell to Venice when they were sacked in 1204 or were added to the Venetian collection in the following years of the Latin rule of Constantinople (until 1261). The provenance of the individual pieces can hardly be clarified. The Doge Andrea Dandolo sent four main relics to Venice: a piece of the True Cross that supposedly belonged to Emperor Constantine , a Holy Blood relic, and relics of John the Baptist and Saint George. It is noticeable that the sources name only five relics in total that came to Venice from Constantinople in 1204, which is small in view of the amount of sacred and profane loot. Chalices are particularly numerous (see the quote from Choniates).

  • Madonna Nicopeia. An icon of the victorious Mother of God was carried before the Byzantine army before the battle; in the 16th century, Giovanni Ramusio identified this icon, which was brought to Venice in 1204, with the Byzantine palladium . This is not entirely certain because of the time lag. The icon of the Madonna Nicopeia, considered to be miraculous, is 48 cm high and is now in a chapel in the left transept of San Marco.
  • Essay of the altar retable Pala d'Oro in St. Mark's Basilica. Seven panels from the booty from 1204 were integrated into the altarpiece. Six of them are holiday icons made of email, the Archangel Michael is shown in a quatrefoil in the middle. The Venetians had stolen the icons from the templon of a church, as the dimensions of the objects show. These icons are said to come from one of the three churches of the Pantocrator monastery . They were later identified as such by a Greek visitor; on the other hand, the fact that the altar cabinets of the Pantocrator monastery were made of marble and a mix of materials with enamel was unusual. Sylvester Syropoulos, chronicler of the Council of Ferrara , looked at the Pala d'Oro in 1438 and wrote: “All these things were brought to St. Mark from Constantinople, according to the law of looting, that is, they came here as spoils of war, So when, oh, Constantinople fell into the hands of the Latins. ”However, the Pala d'Oro as a whole is not a loot from 1204, but a composition of Byzantine works of art that came into Venetian possession in various ways.
  • Icon of the standing Archangel Michael , in the cathedral treasury (inv. No. 16). Is considered a piece from the booty from 1204. The angel is shown as a relief. Material: silver, enamel, stones, wood; Height: 46 cm.
  • Silver incense burner, in the cathedral treasure (inv. No. 109). It is 36 cm high and represents a building with a domed roof in miniature format. According to the inventories of the cathedral treasury, it housed the Holy Blood relic around 1300 (Fatimid ampoule made of rock crystal with Venetian gold mount, inv. No. 63). As a reliquary, the building was often interpreted as a miniature church, especially by the Venetians; but originally it could have been a garden kiosk, a Byzantine building form known from literature. The crosses on the domed roofs are later additions.
  • Cross reliquary of Empress Irene Dukaina , in the cathedral treasury (inv. No. 57). This simple cross was in Byzantium a particularly revered relic in a reliquary was stored with the reliefs of Constantine and Helena.
  • Purple-colored glass vase with mythological scenes, in the cathedral treasury (inv. No. 83). Valid as a piece from the looted goods from 1204. The vase has two curved silver handles and is 17 cm high. On the vase, rosé against a purple background, there are seven medallions with unconnected scenes from ancient mythology: Mars Gradius, Dionysus , Polydectes , Hermes ?, Ajax?, Heracles and a Roman augur . The vase was initially considered an antique piece, but was later recognized as a work of art of the Macedonian Renaissance . Ornaments in pseudo- Kufic script are an argument for this .

San Marco architecture

Quadriga from the Hippodrome of Constantinople (San Marco, Venice)
Pilastri Acritani (San Marco, Venice)
Tondo with Emperor Representation (Dumbarton Oaks)

Several Byzantine spoils were integrated into the facade of St. Mark's Basilica . Most of the time, however, it is not possible to prove whether this architectural jewelery was actually transported from Constantinople in 1204. There is no contemporary Venetian documentation about it. That shortens the following list.

  • San Marco horses . This quadriga (cast bronze, 2nd / 3rd century AD) probably originally adorned the hippodrome of Constantinople. The bronze horses were exhibited on the loggia of St. Mark's Basilica until 1977, and have since been replaced by copies; the originals are in the treasury of St. Mark's Basilica.
  • So-called Carmagnola , head of an Eastern Roman imperial figure, porphyry , 40 cm high. It is located on the southwest corner of the Loggia of San Marco.
  • Porphyry group of the Tetrarchs (Egypt, around 300), originally two parts of two 7 meter high porphyry columns on the Philadelphion, a public square in Constantinople. In the 13th century, the 1.38 meter high spoil was built on the southwest corner of St. Mark's Basilica. Before being transported away, the Venetians had temporarily stored their share of the booty at the Myrielaion Church. A Caesar's foot belonging to the tetrarch relief remained here. It was found in 1965 during excavations in Istanbul.
  • Pilastri Acritani, "Pillar of Akko", two free-standing columns on St. Mark's Square, in front of the south facade of San Marco. They originally belonged to the church of Hagios Polyeuktos. In the Istanbul Archaeological Museum there is a corresponding capital of another column and other architectural decorations of this church.

Others

  • Tondo made of aphrodisiac marble with a relief representation of a Byzantine emperor (diameter 90 cm). Brought to Venice during the sack of Constantinople, acquired there by Prince Karl Friedrich Alexander of Prussia and from 1860 in Glienicke Palace ; today Dumbarton Oaks , Washington. The identification of the emperor depicted is uncertain; John II Comnenus was proposed . The function of the tondo is also not clear. Such representations of rulers could have adorned the facade of the imperial palace and seem to have been typical of the Comnen dynasty .
  • Almost identical marble tondo with depiction of the emperor, built as a Spolie in Venice, Campiello del Angaran .
  • Colossus of Barletta . The 5.10 meter high bronze statue probably represents Emperor Markian or Leo I. One thesis about the installation of such a figure in Barletta states: It was part of the Venetian booty; however, the ship sank and the statue ended up on the beach at Barletta.

Crusader army

Alphabetically according to the current storage location.

Amalfi (Treasure of the Cathedral)

  • The apostle Andrew was the patron saint of the city of Constantinople; his bones were venerated in the Apostle Church . Cardinal Petrus von Capua had them "brought to safety" after the capture of Constantinople and transferred to the Amalfi Cathedral on May 8, 1208 .

Amiens (treasure of the cathedral)

  • Head reliquary of John the Baptist . Wallon de Sarton, Canon of Picquigny and participant in the Fourth Crusade, discovered two large, heavy silver vessels during the sack of Constantinople, one with the head of John the Baptist and the other with the head of St. George, both identified by Greek inscriptions. Wallon de Sarton sold the containers and instead had two smaller ones made in which the relics were placed immediately. So he started the journey home. In 1206 he brought the head reliquary of the Baptist to Amiens , where it became the central sanctuary of the newly built cathedral ; the George relic is considered lost.

Bort-les-Orgues, Corrèze (church treasure)

  • Relics of Saints Germanos and Remède. They arrived in Bort-les-Orgues on July 5, 1210 from Constantinople . The church still has a reliquary from the 13th century, in which the two silk relic pouches with their original certificates of authenticity are located.

Halberstadt (Cathedral Treasury)

On August 16, 1205, the objects captured by Konrad von Krosigk , the Bishop of Halberstadt, in Constantinople were brought into the city in a kind of triumphal procession. This festival "Adventus Reliquarum" was celebrated annually from then on. A deed of donation from the bishop, dated 1208, names the treasures he has brought with him: over 50 relics, most of them in precious frames, seven vessels made of gold and silver, 21 cloths, four vestments. Parts of this treasure were:

  • Halberstadt table reliquary: a container made after the model of Byzantine storage tanks in Lower Saxony, in which the inscribed relics brought by Bishop Konrad can be seen behind rock crystal disks. Around 200 precious stones, pearls, enamel plates and gems decorate the reliquary; in the center, as a special treasure, a silver plate on which a crucifixion is depicted using Niellotechnik . This is a 7th century Byzantine work.
  • Skull reliquary of the apostle James minor with Byzantine mount: silver, gold-plated clasps encircle the skull, which is filled with a plastic material to stabilize it. The holes remained from the gemstones on the clasps. Only a fragment of the portrait of the apostle has survived (blessing hand and shoulder).
  • Bottle reliquary with milk from the Mother of God: the rock crystal bottle is an Egyptian work, the lid and neck ring are Byzantine.
  • Two embroidered cloths made of silk velvet, which were originally used to cover the chalice (Poterokalymma) and paten (Diskokalymma) during the Eucharist. They are among the oldest surviving Byzantine textiles in the world and were converted into liturgical flags in Halberstadt by sewing them onto an originally dark green Italian silk fabric. The Byzantine cloths have a size of about 50 × 40 cm. The apostle communion is shown . A circumferential volume of Greek text names the founder of these precious liturgical textiles: Sebastos Alexios Palaiologos , grandfather of the later Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos .
  • Gold-plated discos with a diameter of 41.4 cm. This consecration bread bowl of the Orthodox Eucharistic celebration is shaped as a figure eight with a wide rim. A crucifixion is shown in the center; under the cross stand the Virgin Mary and the apostle John. A circumferential Greek inscription quotes the words of institution Mt 26,26-28  LUT : ΛΑΒΕΤΕ ΦΑΓΕΤΕ ΤΟΥΤΟ ΕCΤΙΝ ΤΟ CΩΜΑ ΜΟΥ ΤΟ ΥΠΕΡ ΥΜΩΝ ΚΛΩΜΕΝΟΝ ΕΙC ΑΦΕCΙΝ AΜΑΡΤΙΩΝ. The arches of the eight pass are filled with a grapevine ornament; a martyr is represented as a medallion bust in each arch. The rim of the bowl, again with grapevine ornamentation, shows medallion busts of eight Orthodox church fathers. Possibly this votive bread bowl was the storage vessel for the authentic bread from the Last Supper , which was stolen from the Pharos Church by the Latins in 1204 ; From the Byzantine side in 1206 the Halberstadt bishop was accused of having been involved. (The Byzantines described the container as golden crockery, labeled with the words of institution).
  • Enkolpion with a representation of the Saints Demetrios and Nestor. The 5.8 × 3.2 × 1.5 cm large container made of gilded silver shows Saint Demetrios in the cloisoné technique on the front; this front also serves as a door to the interior of the encolpion, which contains a small three-dimensional bust of St. Nestor and recesses for a blood relic and myrrh of St. Demetrius.
  • Two more small Demetrios reliquaries, Byzantine, 10./11. Century.
  • Two ivory panels, 25.5 cm high, each 11 cm wide, Constantinople 10th century. It could be part of a small iconostasis.

Cologne (Treasure of St. Pantaleon)

  • Head relic of Saint Pantaleon , from the sack of Constantinople in 1204, brought to the Rhineland by Heinrich von Ulmen and donated to the Cologne Abbey, which already owned several relics of its saint.

Limburg (Cathedral Treasure)

Staurothek , formerly Stuben Monastery (Limburg)
  • Limburg storage library . Originally it was the reliquary of the True Cross and was located in a chapel in the Great Imperial Palace . There is a ring at the top of the storage room. The imperial court chamberlain wore them on during processions through the streets of Constantinople. The storage library is considered to be the most valuable preserved loot from Constantinople. In 1208 it was owned by Heinrich von Ulmen. Now it is difficult to imagine that a simple knight would have dared to simply appropriate such a treasure. Perhaps it was like this: Margrave Bonifatius I of Montferrat took possession of the Bukoleon Palace in Constantinople and withdrew to Thessaloniki with the treasures stolen there (including the staurotheque). He died in 1207. The widow of the margrave and former empress Margarete of Hungary commissioned Heinrich von Ulmen to bring the treasures to King Philip of Swabia in order to persuade him to engage in military action in Thessaloniki, which was attacked by the Bulgarians. Heinrich was in the Rhineland at the turn of the year 1207/08; but instead of contacting King Philip, he distributed the treasures he had brought with him to various church institutions. He gave the most valuable item, the storage library, together with a Demetrios reliquary to the Stuben monastery . (His sister Irmgard was the head of this monastery.) From there, after secularization, it was transferred to the Limburg Cathedral Treasury.

Longpont, Aisne (church treasure)

Longpré-les-Corps-Saints, Somme (church treasure)

  • Small reliquary of the True Cross, silver, partially gilded. Brought back from Constantinople in 1205 by Vuibert, chaplain of Aleame de Fontaine, Lord of Longpré . In contrast, it is said that Aleame de Fontaine himself, as a participant in the crusade, brought various relics, including this square container.

Maastricht (Treasure of the Church of Our Lady)

Enkolpion (Maastricht, Treasure of the Church of Our Lady)

According to tradition, the Church of Our Lady received relics from Constantinople through an "Abbot Martin from Paris". Gesine Klintworth was able to show that this was a mix-up with Abbot Martin von Pairis (in Alsace ), about whose collecting activities in Constantinople the chronicler Gunther von Pairis reported. However, it is not possible to identify a piece from the Maastricht treasure with one of the pieces described in more detail by Gunther; Gunther had probably not seen all of the relics himself.

  • Enkolpion depicting the Mother of God Hagiosoritissa, silver, partially gilded, with enamel inlay. Brought from Constantinople in 1206 by an anonymous cleric.

Maria Laach (treasure of the abbey)

  • Relic of the True Cross, from the plundering of Constantinople in 1204, brought to the Rhineland by Heinrich von Ulmen and donated to Maria Laach Abbey . When the monastery was dissolved in 1802, the cross relic was distributed in pieces to the individual priests. One of these pieces was given back to the abbey when it was re-established in 1893. The artist monk Radbod Commandeur made a winged altar in the Byzantine style for this treasure in the 1930s, in which the cross relic has been exhibited ever since.

Namur (treasure of the cathedral)

  • Crown of thorns reliquary, made in 1207 to hold precious relic particles that the Flemish Count Heinrich , now Latin Emperor , had sent to his cathedral from Constantinople.

Paris (Treasure of Notre-Dame)

  • Relic of Christ's crown of thorns . This relic of Christ had been transferred from Jerusalem to Constantinople in 1063, where it was kept in the Pharos palace chapel and, along with other treasures, was claimed by the Latin emperors of Constantinople after 1204. But Emperor Baudouin II had pawned them for lack of money; the Venetian Nicolas Quirino acted as creditor. The crown of thorns was mortgaged with 13,134 gold hyperperes (about 10,000 livres tournois ) and was kept in a church in Constantinople administered by the Venetians. Since Baldwin II could not repay his debts, the Venetians believed they were already in possession of the relic when Louis IX. of France showed interest in the property. He acquired the crown of thorns for 135,000 livres tournois . Under special security precautions, the relic traveled from Constantinople via Venice to Paris, where it arrived in 1239. The Sainte-Chapelle church was conceived as a large reliquary for this Christ relic. During the Revolution , the crown of thorns was housed in the National Library , and since then in the treasure of Notre-Dame Cathedral.

Paris (Louvre)

Reliquary of the True Cross (Louvre)
Reliquary of the stone from the tomb of Christ (Louvre)
Sardonyx paten (Louvre)
  • Reliquary of the True Cross : The main plate, in which the piece of wood is inserted, (silver gilded with a crucifixion) comes from a Constantinopolitan workshop of the 11th century; the box around it is the work of a goldsmith's workshop in the Rhine-Maas region from the early 13th century, which tried to imitate Byzantine models.
  • Reliquary of the stone from the tomb of Christ, from the treasure of the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. It was made by Louis IX. acquired from the booty of Constantinople (gold-plated silver, height 42.6 cm).
  • Paten . Made of sardonyx, in the middle a medallion (enamel, cloisonné ) depicting the Last Supper (total diameter 12.6 cm). Crusaders stole this bowl from a church or palace in Constantinople. Acquired for the Louvre from the historical treasure of the Marquis de Pidal, probably from a Spanish Dominican monastery.
  • Icon of Christ made of lapis lazuli (height with gold frame 10 cm, without frame 6.4 cm) from the treasure of the Abbey of Saint-Denis. A Maria Orans is shown on the back . The name icon is imprecise because the eyelet attached to it shows that it was an encolpion. Due to the precious material and the elegant execution, it is assumed that a Constantinopolitan workshop of the early 12th century. If it is not a diplomatic gift, probably booty from 1204.

Trier (treasure of St. Matthias Abbey)

  • Relic of the True Cross, from the plundering of Constantinople in 1204, brought to the Rhineland by Heinrich von Ulmen and donated to the abbey. A storage library based on the Byzantine model was built on site for this treasure.

Troyes (treasure of the cathedral)

Ivory box with lion hunt (Troyes, treasure of the cathedral)

A stained glass window in the high choir of the Saint-Pierre et Saint-Paul cathedral, made between 1240 and 1250, depicts the transfer of relics from Constantinople to Troyes.

  • Ivory box depicting a lion hunt. Since this form of hunting was an imperial privilege, the box probably came from the imperial palace. According to tradition, this box was brought from Constantinople in 1204 by Archdeacon Hugo, a chaplain of Bishop Gascuin of Troyes. Alternatively, Jean Langlois, chaplain to Bishop Garnier de Traisnel is also mentioned.

Vatican (Treasure of San Pietro)

Constantine Cross, 1204 to 1837 in the treasure of the Church of Our Lady Maastricht (Vatican)
  • Small storage library in the shape of a cross, known as the Patriarch's Cross , was brought from Constantinople to Maastricht, until 1837 in the treasure of the Church of Our Lady in Maastricht.
  • So-called Constantine Cross, from around 1204 to 1837 in the treasure of the Church of Our Lady in Maastricht.

Vienna (Imperial Treasury)

Agate bowl (Vienna)
  • Agate bowl cut from a single block of agate ; With a diameter of 58 cm the largest preserved (late) antique stone carving work. Probably captured during the sack of Constantinople in 1204; Declared an “inalienable heirloom of the House of Austria” in 1564, as identified with the Holy Grail - due to the natural phenomenon that the letters XRISTO can be discovered in the drawing of the agate under certain incidence of light.

refund

Sarcophagus for the bones of the Doctor of the Church John Chrysostom under the altar of the choir chapel (St. Peter's Basilica)

Web links

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John Julius Norwich: Byzantium . Munich 1996, ISBN 3-8289-0374-6 , pp. 213 .
  2. ↑ Karin Krause: Trial by Fire, Portraits in Stone . S. 111 .
  3. ^ Giovanni Ramusio: Delle Navigazioni e Viaggi . 1559.
  4. ↑ The Glory of Byzantium . S. 140 .
  5. ^ A b Hans Belting: Image and cult: a history of the image before the age of art . 6th edition. CH Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-37768-8 , p. 269 .
  6. ↑ The Pala d'Oro. In: Basilica di San Marco. Retrieved April 6, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Michael Jucker: Stolen Gifts, Secret Past . S. 87 .
  8. ^ The Treasury of San Marco . S. 171 .
  9. ↑ Icon of the standing Archangel Michael. In: Meraviglie di Venezia. Retrieved April 5, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Scented candle in the shape of a building with a dome. In: Meraviglie de Venezia. Retrieved on April 5, 2018 (The term "scented candle" does not do the property justice.).
  11. ↑ Reliquary of the Miraculous Blood. In: Meraviglie di Venezia. Retrieved April 5, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Karin Krause: Trial by Fire, Portraits in Stone . S. 117.119 .
  13. ↑ The Glory of Byzantium . S. 251 .
  14. ↑ Reliquary of the Cross of Empress Irene Dukas. In: Meraviglie di Venezia. Retrieved April 5, 2018 .
  15. ↑ Karin Krause: Trial by Fire, Portraits in Stone . S. 121-125 .
  16. ^ The Treasury of San Marco . S. 181 .
  17. ↑ Purple glass vase with mythological scenes. In: Meraviglie di Venezia. Retrieved April 5, 2018 .
  18. ↑ Venetian Tetrarchs. In: Virtual Ancient Museum Göttingen. Retrieved April 5, 2018 .
  19. ↑ Stéphane Yerasimos: Constantinople . S. 64 .
  20. ↑ The Glory of Byzantium . S. 200-201 .
  21. ^ Roundel with Emperor John II Comnenus. In: Dumbarton Oaks. Retrieved April 6, 2018 .
  22. ↑ Stéphane Yerasimos: Constantinople . S. 64-65 .
  23. ^ Jörg Richter: The cathedral treasure to Halberstadt . S. 11 .
  24. ↑ Harald Meller, Ingo Mundt: Beyond Jerusalem . S. 138-146 .
  25. ^ Jörg Richter: The cathedral treasure to Halberstadt . S. 168 .
  26. ^ Jörg Richter: The cathedral treasure to Halberstadt . S. 74 .
  27. ↑ The Glory of Byzantium . S. 68-69 .
  28. ^ Jörg Richter: The cathedral treasure to Halberstadt . S. 156 .
  29. ↑ The Glory of Byzantium . S. 161 .
  30. ^ Jörg Richter: The cathedral treasure to Halberstadt . S. 176 .
  31. ↑ a b c d Bernhard Kreutz: Heinrich von Ulmen .
  32. ↑ Châsse du chef de saint Denis l'Aréopagite. Retrieved April 7, 2018 .
  33. ↑ a b c The Glory of Byzantium . S. 165-166.441 .
  34. ↑ Reliquaire des quatre docteurs de l'Eglise. Retrieved April 6, 2018 .
  35. ^ Gesine Klintworth: Le transfert d'un reliquaire byzantin à Maastricht. Mystère autour d'un abbé de Saint-Magloire de Paris. In: Francia 42. perspectivia.net, 2015, accessed on April 6, 2018 (French).
  36. ↑ The Laacher Cross Relic. In: Klosterzeitung No. 14. Maria Laach Abbey, 2008, pp. 6–7 , accessed on April 8, 2018 .
  37. ^ Karl-August Wirth: Crown of thorns reliquary . In: Real Lexicon on German Art History . tape 4 , 1955, col. 312-315 .
  38. ↑ Ruth Wessel: The Sainte Chapelle . S. 16 .
  39. ↑ Reliquaire de la Vraie Croix. In: Département des Objets d'art: Moyen Age. Louvre, accessed April 8, 2018 .
  40. ↑ Sponsors. In: Department of Decorative Arts: Early Middle Ages. Louvre, accessed April 5, 2018 .
  41. ↑ The Glory of Byzantium . S. 132-133 .
  42. ↑ Hans G. Reuter, Josef Tietzen: Looking for traces . Around the cathedral . Trier, ISBN 3-935281-30-7 , pp. 13 (The storage library is referred to by the authors as a "case of looted art".).
  43. ↑ Verrière figurée: translation of reliques de Constantinople (baie 210). Retrieved April 7, 2018 .
  44. ↑ Coffret. In: Monuments historiques. Retrieved April 5, 2018 .
  45. ↑ The Glory of Byzantium . S. 204 .
  46. ↑ Agate bowl. In: Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien. Retrieved April 8, 2018 .
  47. ↑ JP Silbert: The life of St. John Chrysostom . tape 2 . Vienna 1839, p. 230 .
  48. ↑ Ecumenical celebration with Pope John Paul II with the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I on the occasion of the handover of the relics of St. Gregory of Nazianzen and John Chrysostom, bishops and church fathers. In: Office for the liturgical celebrations of the Pope. Retrieved April 8, 2018 .