Misericord

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Misericordie (16th century) in the Marienkirche in Dortmund - Drunken Monk ( Cellerar )
Misericord (16th century) in the Quirinus Minster in Neuss - ' Stippeföttche '

Misericordia are small supporting boards in church choir stalls . The term comes from the Latin word misericordia , which means mercy .

function

Choir stalls have been fitted with folding seats since the High Middle Ages , which lifted when they were used. The misericords were attached to the underside of the seats as a support for long periods of standing. Originally they were probably only for older, sick or weakened monks or canons thought.

history

While the first choir stalls were still made of stone, wooden constructions were used as early as the early Middle Ages - albeit without folding seats. Such choir stalls have been preserved in the Alpirsbach monastery and in Ratzeburg . In a rule of the Benedictines in Hirsau from the late 11th century ( Constitutiones Hirsaugienses ; also Consuetudines Hirsaugienses ), misericords on folding chairs are mentioned for the first time.

Carvings

Below the misericordia, decorations in the form of carvings were usually attached. Due to the arrangement near the abdomen, these decorations do not show any religious themes, but in part depictions of negative or even obscene things and behaviors.

Sometimes the grimace or grimace cutters also radiate onto the side cheeks or armrests of the choir stalls, where usually biblical themes or sovereign emblems (lions) were attached. The really obscene representations can only be found in the misericords.

meaning

Much has been written about the meaning of the curious and sometimes very revealing representations in the Misericordien: It can be said that they were very popular - both with monks and the carvers of the late Middle Ages. The latter were largely free and not subject to any restrictions in the creation of misericords, both in terms of the choice of topic and in terms of content and form.

In contrast to the predominantly religious themes in the usual church furnishings , the misericords are more likely to be attributed to popular visual art . They form a hidden 'counter-world' as it is visible in church buildings - in a very similar way - often also on the console friezes below cornices and eaves.

gallery

  • Les Andelys (Normandy), Église Notre-Dame - Mermaid with mirror + comb

  • Boston, Lincolnshire, St Botolph's Church - teacher beats a student

  • Tréguier (Brittany), cathedral - three obscenities

  • Solignac (Limousin), former abbey church - grimace cutter

literature

  • Dorothy and Henry Kraus: The Hidden World of Misericords. London 1976, expanded as Le Monde Caché des Misericordes. Paris 1986
  • Elaine C. Block: Misericords in the Rhineland. RD Shelden Enterprises, 1996 ISBN 1-883-30006-1
  • Elaine C. Block: Corpus of Medieval Misericords. France. XIII - XIV. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers NV 2003 ISBN 2-503-51239-9
  • Elaine C. Block: Corpus of Medieval Misericords. Iberia. Portugal-Spain XIII-XVI. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers NV 2004
  • Elaine C. Block: Corpus of Medieval Misericords: Belgium (B) - Netherlands (NL). David Brown Book Co 2010 ISBN 978-2-503-51600-4
  • Paul Hardwick: English Medieval Misericords: the margins of meaning. 2011 ISBN 1-84383-659-9

Web links

Commons : Misericords  - collection of images, videos and audio files