Mathildenkreuz

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The Mathildenkreuz in Essen Cathedral Treasury

The Mathildenkreuz is a lecture cross from the Essen Cathedral Treasury , which was made under the Essen Abbess Theophanu († 1058). It takes its name from Abbess Mathilde , who is shown on an email on the trunk of the cross as the founder. The cross, which is also often referred to as the younger or second Mathildenkreuz, is artistically related to the Otto Mathilden Cross , which is about 60 years older , and which was also referred to as the "older" or first Mathildenkreuz, and to the cross with the large ones Sink melting . It is kept under inventory number 4 in the Essen Cathedral Treasury.

description

The back of the Mathildenkreuz

The Mathilden Cross is 45 cm high and 30.5 cm wide, the cross bars are 6.3 cm wide and 2.2 cm thick. It consists of a with sheet gold studded oak wood core . Under the cross there is a modern glass ball as a node . The ends of the Latin cross are atypically widened. The narrow sides and back of the Mathildenkreuz are covered with gilded copper sheet, decorated on the back with a punched Agnus Dei , which is accompanied by the evangelist symbols , which are also punched . The crucifix on the front is cast from bronze , gold-plated and has three cavities, two in the back and one in the back of the head, which contain relics . It is accompanied on the right and left by two round enamels with the personifications of the sun and moon, each surrounded by four pearls and filigree . Above the crucifix is ​​the cross inscription IHCNAZA / RENUS REX / IVDEORV consisting of an enamel, above this there is a large red stone surrounded by four pearls. Below the crucifix there is a brown cameo of a lion, underneath this is the enamel with the depiction of the donor showing the named Mathilde in the clothes of a sanctimonials kneeling in prayer in front of a Madonna figure . The middle field with crucifixus, donor picture , cross inscription, Sol, Luna and the lion cameo is framed like a border by alternating enamel plates and stones, each accompanied by four pearls. At each end of the cross, four teardrop-shaped colored stones point to a central stone. On the right cross arm there is a cameo with a female half-figure looking to the left, on the left cross trunk there is an Inaglio , a helmeted warrior standing in profile with a spear, cut into a striped onyx .

The Mathildenkreuz is generally considered to be the artistically weakest of the four Essen lecture crosses, Pothmann described the artistic and handcraft quality as not exactly high. In 1904, Humann ascribed it an overloaded splendor and a rougher education in every respect . The assessment of the cross is made considerably more difficult by an undocumented restoration that must have taken place between 1904 and 1950. In this case, among other things, the edge enamel was melted over, which caused the colors to suffer.

Crucifix

The crucifix in close-up

The crucifix stands on a suppedaneum , legs side by side. The feet are not nailed on. The loincloth is knotted in the middle and falls evenly in wide folds. The arms are slightly unequal in length. The head is tilted sharply to one side and is held behind by a nimbus that is attached to the cross-square and is not adapted to the inclination of the head. Humann calls the posture of the body awkward and self-conscious. The cavities on the back, which are also cast, contained three small reliquary parcels until 2010, which, thanks to their lacing, fitted exactly into the depressions. The relics thus originally belonged to the Mathildenkreuz. The relic in the lowest part is wrapped in purple taffeta and without cedula . In the middle part there was a relic tied in white linen with an attached cedula innocentu , dissolved Innocentum , i.e. of the innocent children. The script, Carolingian minuscule , was used in the 10./11. Dated to the 19th century and located in the scriptorium of the Essen women's monastery. In the cavity in the head there were three more, fragmented parchment cedulae on fragments of red silk fabric. Here, too, the script had typical elements of the Essen scriptorium, and one of the fragments could be completed to laurenci . The cross thus contained relics of St. Lawrence and the innocent children, as well as other relics that can no longer be identified. Annemarie Stauffer pointed out the color symbolism of the reliquary covers: the white linen fabric in the body of the Christ figure is in the place of the battered body of Christ, linen as a typical bandage material for the healing of mankind through the sacrificial death of Christ and the red bundle in the place of the loincloth for martyrdom. The purple in the head of Christ is not unambiguous, but is definitely connected with Christ's triumph over death and his kingship. The reliquary parcels and cedulae are now kept separately in the cathedral treasury under inventory numbers MK1 to MK4.

Emails

The Mathildenkreuz was set with 40 enamel tablets, of which 37 are still present: the enamel with the donor's picture, the enamel with the cross inscription, two round enamels with the personifications of Luna and Sol as well as 33 ornamental enamels; 3 further ornamental enamels are missing, the were lost before the first description of the cross. The Mathilden Cross is the object with the richest enamel decoration within the Essen treasure. All enamel frames consist of filigree loops.

Founder picture

The email with the description of the donor

The donor email is 6 × 2.9 cm in size. It shows a frontal Madonna on the right, holding her child on her left knee, in front of which a figure, dressed in the white robe of a sanctimonials, bends over. The Sanctimoniale holds a cross in both hands, which she offers to Jesus as an addressee. The child extends both hands towards the cross in an accepting gesture. An inscription MA / HTH / ILD / AB / BH / II allows the Sanctimonials to identify with Abbess Mathilde. The inscription was probably executed incorrectly, the second word should probably be ABBATI (SSA). Above and to the right of the Madonna figure there are two additional inscriptions that are incomprehensible. It is believed that it is a misunderstood and mutilated representation of Greek inscriptions. The inscription expert Sonja Hermann assumes that the enameller mixed up the third and fourth letters and put a T upside down, which would result in MHTHP (μήτηρ "holy mother"). Hermann reads the characters arranged vertically on the right as IY XY for the genitive of Jesus Christ (Ί (ησο) ύ Χ (ριστο) ύ). The base of the enamel is in tranzlucid green, in which the letters are set from single or double gold bars. Maria's head is surrounded by a yellow, opaque nimbus, she wears a white hood and a translucent, brown-purple robe with red-ocher sleeves. The robe and sleeves are given rhythm by individual gold bars. Mary is seated on a yellow throne, her feet clad in gray shoes resting on a blue footstool. The face is beige, the round eyes are colored in the same shade as the robe. Eyebrows, nose and mouth are formed from gold bars. The rigid stance of Mary is striking.

The child is sitting on Mary's left thigh, the legs hanging down between Mary's slightly opened knees. Jesus wears a red and ocher-colored cross nimbus, the cross is made of thick gold bars. As with Maria, the face is made of webs. Christ wears a blue robe with individual gold bars suggesting drapery, and gray shoes. Mathilde's clothing consists of the white, tight robe of a sanctimonials, including a white bonnet, which is enlivened by gold bars; underneath, as can be seen from the arms, she wears a blue undergarment. The cross that she holds upright is made up of wider bars. Since the vertical cross bar merges with the side of the throne and the horizontal cross bar with the upper end of the throne, the cross itself is difficult to see. Mathilde's line of sight goes through the crossing of the cross she offered and the hand of Christ to the face of the Savior.

The donor portrayal shows parallels to the donor portrayal on the cover of the Theophanu Gospel , in which Theophanu presents her donation to an enthroned Mary in a similar posture, but lying down. Due to the similar attitude of the depicted Madonnas with the sculpture, it is assumed that the recipient of the actual foundation act was the Golden Madonna .

Cross inscription

The cross inscription IHCNAZA / RENVS REX / IVDEORV is set with gold bars in the translucent, blue background. It is surrounded by a wide gold border, the lines are separated by gold stripes. The letters are legible, but do not achieve the precision of their model on the Otto-Mathilden-Kreuz. The existing dotting of the gold rim, which is a characteristic of the Egbert workshop , is missing. In contrast to the inscription enamel of the Otto-Mathilden-Kreuz, the separating gold strips are placed on the glass mass and not left standing when the pits containing the glass mass are deepened.

Sol and Luna

The personification of Luna and the ancient gem of the right arm of the cross

The two round enamel medallions with the personifications of Sol and Luna ( sun and moon ) , which stand for the creation lamenting Jesus' death on the cross, are located on the horizontal crossbar. Both personifications face the crucifix, Sol from the left and Luna from the right. The background of the enamel representing sol is green. The bust of Sol has a plaintive expression and the hands are raised in front of the face. The brown-purple eyes are round. The eyebrows and the bulbous nose are formed from one web, the mouth with the hanging corners of the mouth from two webs. A forehead crease formed by a Y-shaped bar reinforces the plaintive expression. Sol wears a four-point crown of rays in his yellow hair and holds a cloth in front of his face.

The enamel of the Luna is a mirror image of the sol medallion. Luna also holds a cloth in front of her face. The enamel is darker overall, the bridge guidance is a little better. In contrast to sol enamel, the robe and hair are enlivened by bridges. When creating the face, the enamelur used a bridge that connects the nose and mouth.

The enamels of the edge framing

The enamels of the edge framing are alternately attached with precious stones. They show a total of five different motifs in different colors. Eleven emails show carpet-like staircase patterns, seven emails are divided into fields. In five of the emails, diagonal crosses appear as motifs, four times there are circular motifs with quatrefoil flowers. The other enamels show modified four-pass flowers. Diagonal crosses, staircase motifs and quatrefoil flowers also appear as motifs in the immersion crucible. The colors used are translucent bottle green and dark blue as well as opaque white, red, jade green, blue turquoise, blue and yellow. Several emails have a mirror-symmetrical counterpart, some of them are arranged opposite one another. All the enamels for the edge framing were probably originally attached in pairs, so that the sight of the cross was less disorganized than it is today.

Gems

The Mathildenkreuz carries three cut stones, which are located in iconographically significant places. On the longitudinal bar there is a brownish chalcedony with a cameo of a lying or sleeping lion, on the left cross arm a transversely striped layered onyx with a warrior with a spear and helmet looking at the crucifix, standing in profile, an oval cameo with an oval cameo on the right cross trunk opposite a brightly carved female half-figure against a dark background. All gems are ancient spoils .

The iconographic interpretation of these stone cuts has not yet been fully clarified. The lion stands on the longitudinal bar in the same place as the driven snake on the Otto Mathilden Cross and the Gorgon cameo on the melted cross, both symbols of the evil conquered by Christ's death on the cross. The lion cameo can also be classified in this symbolism. In the case of the peacefully lying lion, however, another meaning also appears possible: in the Physiologus , a property of the lion is that he wakes his stillborn cubs to life on the third day with a breath; this makes the lion a symbol for the resurrection of Christ. The lion cameo could therefore also be interpreted as a reference to the resurrection hope of the donor depicted below.

The interpretation of the stone cuts on the crossbeam is even more difficult. The use of these spolia appears to be deliberate, an iconographic interpretation of the naked warrior with spear and helmet and the noble lady has not yet succeeded. Due to the fact that both are looking in the same direction as Sol or Luna, it seems possible that they were intended as a kind of "image intensifier".

Art historical research

The Mathildenkreuz has always been considered in connection with the three other Ottonian lecture crosses in the Essen Cathedral Treasury. Already Humann noticed the clear parallels to the Otto Mathilden Cross and the cross with the large sinkholes, so that for the goldsmith of the Mathilden Cross he assumed the knowledge of the Otto Mathilden Cross, which he called the older Mathilden Cross. The shape and the basic idea of ​​the Mathildenkreuz has been adopted from the Otto Mathilden Cross: donor image, cross titulus and crucifix on a golden field surrounded by a precious frame. The takeover is particularly clear in the cross title, in which the Mathildenkreuz directly copies the older model. The frame itself is taken from the submerged melting cross. The Mathildenkreuz therefore had to be younger than these models. In 1904, based on the illustration of Mathilde, Humann assumed that the Mathilden Cross was created before 1011, the year she died. Since the Mathilden Cross seems less harmonious, more colorful and less successful in terms of craftsmanship, it was assumed that Mathilde donated it shortly before the end of her life, when the outstanding craftsmen of the Otto Mathilden Cross were no longer available to her. Since the Otto Mathilden Cross was often referred to as the “Mathildenkreuz” at that time, the cross was given the name “Younger Mathildenkreuz” or “Second Mathildenkreuz”.

MK1 Cathedral Treasure Essen.jpg
Mathildenkreuz
Hermann-ida-cross detail front.jpg
Hermann Ida Cross
Ivory carved panel.jpg
Ivory on the cover of the Theophanu Gospels


The stylistic affinity of the crucifixion of the Mathildenkreuz becomes clear in comparison.

The dating of the Mathildenkreuz before 1011 posed art historical difficulties. On the one hand, there are individual ornamental shapes on the cross with the large sinkholes, which should have been created earlier, which were not used until later. On the other hand, the crucifix of the Mathilden Cross shows numerous parallels to a group of cast bronze crucifixes, the prominent example of which is the crucifix of the Hermann Ida Cross , which in any case was made at least thirty years after Abbess Mathilde's death. There are further parallels to crosses on ivory carvings in Cologne , something to the ivory of the book cover of the Theophanu Gospels. Since the current crucifix is ​​not adapted to the inner surface, it has therefore been assumed that the Mathildenkreuz was revised in the middle of the 11th century, with an original embossed crucifix being replaced by the cast one. Due to the fact that the research assumed that Abbess Sophia had not continued various projects of Mathilde, such as the west building of the Essen Minster or the Marsus Shrine , it was also assumed that the Mathilde Cross was only completed under Theophanu, or that a Mathilde Foundation only carried out this . One argument for this was provided by the similarity of the donor email of the Mathildenkreuz to the donor Theophanus on the cover of the Theophanu Gospel. Klaus Gereon Beuckers set up a newer interpretation of the Mathildenkreuz . Thereafter Theophanu was the founder of the cross, which Beuckers dates to around 1050. The crucifix would then be original. Beuckers places the Mathildenkreuz in Theophanus' efforts to promote the Memoria Mathildes. Theophanu surrounded Mathilde's grave in the new building of the Theophanu Crypt, which is now known as the Altfrid Crypt, which was consecrated in 1051, with a memorial building in order to underline the importance of the monastery through the liturgical elevation of the important predecessor. Theophanu had new emails made for the Mathildenkreuz, which immediately received older emails already available in Essen. Beuckers therefore assumes that the Mathildenkreuz was made in Essen. Since enamels were only used as spolia on the older treasures Theophanus, Kreuznagel reliquary and Theophanu cross , Theophanu presumably resumed the Essen enamel workshop, which had worked under Mathilde on the melted cross and the Marsus shrine , with new staff Business.

history

The cross has been in Essen since its creation, disregarding war and crisis-related evacuations. Based on the representation of Mathilde and the similarities with two other crosses in the cathedral treasury, which are documented by a foundation based in Essen, it is assumed that the cross belonged to Essen without interruption from its foundation until the secularization of the Essen women's foundation in 1802. However, the sources on the Essen Cathedral Treasury do not explicitly name the cross. The Inventarium reliquiarum Essendiensium of July 12, 1627, the earliest surviving list of the monastery treasure, does not allow a perfect identification, as it only lists two crucifixer fornhero coated with many stones and gold, but covered with copper on the back . This description applies to all four presentation crosses in the Essen Cathedral Treasury. The Liber Ordinarius , who regulated the liturgical use of the monastery treasury, only mentions lecture crosses in general. During the Thirty Years' War the abbess of the monastery fled to Cologne with the treasures, during other crises the cross was probably hidden in the monastery area. This is documented for 1794, when the French advanced on Essen and the monastery treasure was brought to Steele (today Essen-Steele ) in the orphanage donated by Abbess Franziska Christine von Pfalz-Sulzbach .

During the secularization, the Catholic St. John's community took over the collegiate church and its inventory as a parish church. She made the cross with the rest of the cathedral treasure accessible to the public for the first time. During the Ruhr uprising in 1920, the entire monastery treasure was brought to Hildesheim in great secrecy , from where it was returned in 1925 under the same conspiratorial circumstances.

During the Second World War , the cathedral treasure was first brought to Warstein , then to the Albrechtsburg in Meißen and from there to a bunker in Siegen . Found there by American troops after the end of the war, the cross with the treasure ended up in the State Museum in Marburg and later in a collection point for outsourced works of art at Dyck Castle near Rheydt . From April to October 1949, the Essen Cathedral Treasure was exhibited in Brussels and Amsterdam , only to be returned to Essen afterwards.

With the establishment of the Ruhr diocese in 1958 and the elevation of the Essen Minster to the cathedral, the cross came to the diocese of Essen.

Liturgical use

Details of the liturgical use of the cross in Essen monastery are not known. As far as the sources, especially the Liber Ordinarius from Essen around 1400, prescribed the use of lecture crosses for processions, this was done generally and without mentioning individual crosses. The Mathildenkreuz is, even if the Ruhr diocese no longer uses it as a lecture cross for conservation reasons, but a sacred object that can be used in church services. On November 5, 2011 , it was used as an altar cross in a memorial service on the occasion of the 1000th anniversary of Mathilde's death, for whose memorial it was donated.

literature

  • Georg Humann : The works of art of the cathedral church to eat. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1904, pp. 115-160.
  • Alfred Pothmann : The Essen church treasure from the early days of the monastery history. In: Günter Berghaus, Thomas Schilp, Michael Schlagheck (eds.): Rule, education and prayer - founding and beginnings of the women's monastery in Essen. Klartext Verlag, Essen 2000, ISBN 3-88474-907-2 , pp. 135–153.
  • Thorsten Fremer: Abbess Theophanu and the Essen monastery. Memory and individuality in the Ottonian-Salic times. Verlag Peter Pomp, Bottrop / Essen 2002, ISBN 3-89355-233-2 .
  • Sybille Eckenfels-Kunst: Gold enamels. Investigations into Ottonian and Early Salian gold cell melts. Pro Business Verlag, Berlin 2008 (also Diss. Stuttgart 2004), ISBN 978-3-86805-061-5 .
  • Klaus Gereon Beuckers : The Marsus Shrine in Essen. Investigations into a lost masterpiece of the Ottonian goldsmith's art. Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Münster 2006, ISBN 3-402-06251-8 .
  • Klaus Gereon Beuckers, Ulrich Knapp: Colored Gold - The Ottonian Crosses in the Cathedral Treasury Essen and their emails. Cathedral Treasury Essen 2006, ISBN 3-00-020039-8 .
  • Klaus Gereon Beuckers: Mathildenkreuz. In: Birgitta Falk (Ed.): Gold before Black - The Essen Cathedral Treasure on Zollverein. Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2008, ISBN 978-3-8375-0050-9 , p. 86.
  • Sonja Hermann: The Essener inscriptions (= The German inscriptions, Vol. 81). Wiesbaden 2011, ISBN 978-3-89500-823-8 , pp. 17–19 No. 8.
  • Anna Pawlik: Saints, relics and reliquaries in the Essen monastery - an inventory. In: Thomas Schilp (Ed.): Women build Europe. Essener Forschungen zum Frauenstift, Vol. 9. Klartext Verlag, Essen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8375-0672-3 , pp. 261-317.
  • Hiltrud Westermann-Angerhausen : The memory of objects. Spolia in the Essen treasure as a sign of rank and origin. In: Thomas Schilp (Ed.): Women build Europe. Essener Forschungen zum Frauenstift, Vol. 9. Klartext Verlag, Essen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8375-0672-3 , pp. 203-226.

Remarks

  1. ↑ According to Pawlik, saints, relics and reliquaries in the Essen monastery, silver, which is often found in the literature , is an inventory. P. 286 Note 71 incorrect.
  2. ↑ Eckenfels art, gold enamels. Investigations into Ottonian and Early Salian gold cell melts. P. 64.
  3. ^ Pothmann, The Essen Church Treasure from the early days of the monastery history. P. 147.
  4. ↑ Humann, The works of art of the Münsterkirche to Essen. P. 145.
  5. ↑ Falk, catalog "Krone und Schleier", p. 273; Beuckers, catalog “Gold vor Schwarz”, p. 86.
  6. ↑ Humann, The works of art of the Münsterkirche to Essen. P. 119.
  7. ↑ Stauffer, Levels of Meaning in Textile Reliquary Shells in the Early and High Middle Ages , in: Beuckers / Schilp (Ed.) Question Perspectives and Aspects of Research into Medieval Women's Pens , Essen 2018, p. 153
  8. ↑ Pawlik, Saints, Relics and Reliquaries in the Essen Abbey - an inventory. P. 285.
  9. ↑ Stauffer, Levels of Meaning in Textile Reliquary Shells in the Early and High Middle Ages , in: Beuckers / Schilp (ed.) Question Perspectives and Aspects of Research into Medieval Women's Pens , Essen 2018, p. 162.
  10. ^ Hermann: The inscriptions of the city of Essen ( Die Deutsche Insschriften Vol. 81), p. 17 No. 8.
  11. ↑ a b c Hermann: The inscriptions of the city of Essen No. 8, p. 18.
  12. ↑ Fremer, Abbess Theophanu and Essen Abbey. P. 102; Westermann-Angerhausen, The memory of objects. P. 218.
  13. ↑ Eckenfels art, gold enamels. Investigations into Ottonian and Early Salian gold cell melts. P. 67.
  14. ↑ Eckenfels art, gold enamels. Investigations into Ottonian and Early Salian gold cell melts. P. 251.
  15. ↑ Eckenfels art, gold enamels. Investigations into Ottonian and Early Salian gold cell melts. P. 252.
  16. ↑ a b Eckenfels art: gold enamels. Investigations into Ottonian and Early Salian gold cell melts. P. 66.
  17. ↑ Eckenfels art: gold enamels. Investigations into Ottonian and Early Salian gold cell melts. Pp. 253-254.
  18. ^ Pothmann: The Essen church treasure from the early days of the monastery history. P. 147, declares the lion cameo to be medieval.
  19. ^ Leonhard Küppers, Paul Mikat : The Essen Minster Treasure. Fredebeul & Koenen, Essen 1966, p. 46.
  20. ↑ Westermann-Angerhausen: The memory of objects. Pp. 219-220.
  21. ↑ Westermann-Angerhausen, The memory of objects. P. 221.
  22. ↑ Humann: The works of art of the Münsterkirche to Essen . P. 145.
  23. ↑ a b Humann, The works of art of the Münsterkirche in Essen. P. 147.
  24. ↑ Beuckers, The Marsus Shrine in Essen. P. 117.
  25. ↑ Fremer, Abbess Theophanu and Essen Abbey. P. 102.
  26. ↑ Klaus Lange, The crypt of the Essen collegiate church. Heuristic considerations on their architectural-liturgical conception. In: Jan Gerchow, Thomas Schilp (ed.), Essen and the Saxon women's pencils in the early Middle Ages. ( Essener Forschungen zum Frauenstift , Volume 2), pp. 161–183, here p. 178.
  27. ↑ Beuckers, The Marsus Shrine. P. 118; Beuckers, catalog “Gold vor Schwarz”, p. 86; Beuckers, colored gold. P. 14, approving z. B. Westermann-Angerhausen, The memory of objects. P. 217.
  28. ↑ The directory is printed in Humann, The works of art of the Münsterkirche in Essen. Pp. 34-35.
  29. ↑ Lydia Konnegen: Hidden Treasures. The Essen minster treasure in times of the Ruhr conflict. In: Münster am Hellweg 58, 2005, pp. 67–81.
This article was added to the list of articles worth reading on September 13, 2012 in this version .