Niellokreuz from St. Trudpert

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The niello Cross of St. Trudpert is in niello technique crafted processional cross in the form of a crutch Cross , which in the 12th century for the former Benedictine monastery St. Trudpert in Munster was donated. Today it is in the care of the Catholic parish of Staufen-St. Trudpert.

St. Trudpert Monastery in the Münstertal

description

The cross on a wooden core, chased in sheet silver, engraved and decorated with stone jewelry is approx. 67 cm high and 50 cm wide. A special feature is the color in NIELLO technique (it. Niello and lat. Nigellus = blackish); a blue-black mass consisting of silver, copper, lead and sulfur is melted into the engraved silver plates.

The obverse shows Jesus on the cross, his head tilted to one side, his eyes open, his feet nailed next to each other (“four-nail cross”), with a nimbus instead of a crown of thorns; under the transom the free-standing figures of Mary and the apostle John . A small cross relic is embedded under a rock crystal above the head of the crucified Christ.

The ends of the cross are enlarged by rectangular relief plates; they contain representations of three evangelists : Mark (above), Matthew (right) and Luke (left); kneeling, each of them holds a scroll with the opening words of his gospel . On the frame of these reliefs there are - partially damaged - inscriptions ; from Markus: FILIVS HOMINI (S) NON HABET VBI CAPVT SVVM RECLINET = The Son of Man has nothing to put his head on; in Matthew: TRADETVR PRINCI (PI) B (VS) SACERDOTVM ET (CON) -DEMPNABVNT EVM MORTE = He will be handed over to the high priests and they will condemn him to death; with Lukas: SIC O (PORTE) BA (T) PAT (I) XPM (Christum) (et) RESVRGERE A MORTVIS E TER (TIA DIE) = It is written that Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. On the lower relief plate a woman is depicted, kneeling and with raised hands looking up at the crucified Christ; the inscription on the frame reads: (I) N CR (V) CE XPE (Christe) GEMENS ANNAM ME RESPICE CLEMEN (S) = Sighing on the cross, Christ, look down on me, Anna, gently. The trunk of the cross, nimbus and loincloth of Jesus as well as the robes of Mary and John, the evangelists and the donors are gilded; In addition, both the loincloth of Jesus and the robes of Mary and John have ornaments with geometric patterns in the niello technique.

Donor figures of "Anna" and "Godefrid" at the lower end of the cross on the front and back

On the back of the lecture cross, regardless of the shape of the cross given by the front, the enthroned Christ is depicted as the judge of the world ; he shows his wounds, holds his arms outstretched and has his feet parallel on a suppedaneum ; his head is surrounded by a halo, above it the crown of thorns , to the side the cross and a chalice with three nails and a lance ( instruments of passion ); the plate below the feet contains a bas-relief with the raising of the dead as they are dressed in the robes of the resurrected. The relief panels above and to the side show three angels of the Last Judgment with trumpets; the inscriptions on the frame read: OLIM DEF (VN) CTI MONET HEC VOX SVRGITE CVNCTI = Once this voice calls on the dead: rise up all (above); XRIST (TO) AD (DI) CTI SEM (PER) GAVDENT BENED (I) C (TI) = Those who are assigned to Christ are always happy as the blessed (left); DAMNATVS PLANGIT TV (BA) QVANDO NOVISSIM (A) CLANGIT = The damned laments loudly when the trumpet of the youngest (day) sounds. On the relief plate under the resurrection scene a kneeling man can be seen, raising both arms to judge the world; on the frame you can read fragmentarily: ... RVM ME (LE) TIFICET GODEF (R) IDVM = May he fill me, Gottfried, with joy.

Explanation

On the occasion of the thorough restoration from 1970 to 1972 in the Michael Amberg goldsmith's workshop in Würzburg, incorrect assemblies of the relief plates could be corrected according to the original arrangement; the relief plates of the evangelists and angels were replaced and the two donor reliefs on the front and back were replaced. In its current state, the female figure known as "Anna" is kneeling again on the front under the crucified, whom she implores with praying hands to look down at her under the cross, as the inscription says. On the back the male figure called "Godefrid" can be seen again, kneeling below the judge of the world and asking with raised hands to grant him the joys of eternal life, also in accordance with the inscription. These corrections, which have already been repeatedly requested by science, have been carried out since 1972; however, there are still individual images without reference to these corrections.

In the specialist literature of the goldsmith's art of the Middle Ages it is assumed that the "Godefrid" named in the inscription on the back is Gottfried von Staufen. Between 1161 and 1175 he was Marshal of Duke Berthold IV of Zähringen and at the same time Vogt of the small town of Münster and the neighboring Benedictine monastery of St. Trudpert in the Münstertal near Freiburg im Breisgau , died around 1178. It is also considered likely that the “Anna” depicted on the front was the founder of the valuable lecture cross with the cross relic; this is supported by their representation on the more important front and the position of the "Godefrid" on the back with Christ as judge of the world and below the relief with the raising of the dead. It could therefore have behaved in such a way that "Anna", whose person has not yet been clearly identified (wife or relatives), donated this Niello cross for the monastery church of St. Trudpert in memory of "Godefrid" who died around 1178 ; This is supported by the fact that the Lords of Staufen were based in Staufen Castle at the mouth of the Munster valley in the Rhine valley and that their burial place was in the St. Trudpert monastery church.

The Romanesque niello cross of St. Trudpert should not be confused with the Gothic lecture cross, which also came from the Benedictine Abbey of St. Trudpert and was detoured to the Hermitage (Saint Petersburg) after the secularization in 1885 . This cross in the size of approx. 72 × 52 cm, which was probably made in Strasbourg in the second half of the 13th century , occupies a top position among all European goldsmiths of this time; it also contains a particle of Christ's True Cross. Details can be found in the work published by Klaus Mangoldt in 2003 with the new research results. Since 1983 there has also been a cross above the celebration altar in the chapel of the Loretto Hospital in Freiburg , which the Freiburg artist Hans Baumhauer copied from St. Trudpert's Niello cross.

Appreciation

The Berlin art historian Dietrich Kötzsche (1930–2008) dates the Niello cross by an anonymous master in southwest Germany between 1177 and 1180. It is the most extensive Niello work from the 12th century and so far hardly classifiable in terms of art history. Without any immediate prerequisites and without a successor, the goldsmith's art of the 12th century was completely alone. With the squat proportions of the figures and the strictly stylized folds, the driving work at this time looked ancient and strange. But this cross as a whole is of impressive monumentality due to its size and the large number of figures, especially the two dominating Christ figures.

literature

  • Marc Rosenberg : The cross of St. Trudpert. An Alemannic niello work from the late Romanesque period . In: Schau-ins-Land 20, 1894, pp. 49–80 ( digitized version ).
  • Franz Xaver Kraus (Ed.): The art monuments of the Grand Duchy of Baden, Volume 6: The art monuments of the districts of Breisach,…. Staufen and Waldkirch, Tübingen 1904, pp. 441–444
  • Ingeborg Krummer-Schroth : Medieval goldsmithing on the Upper Rhine, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1948, p. 24f. No. 22 with plates 8–9.
  • Albert Boeckler (Ed.): Art of the Early Middle Ages, Bern Art Museum, Bern 1949, No. 371.
  • Albert Boeckler (Ed.): Ars sacra - Art of the Early Middle Ages, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich 1950, No. 363.
  • Hans-Jörgen Heuser: Das Niellokreuz von St. Trudpert, in: Zeitschrift für Kunstwissenschaft, Volume 6, 1952, pp. 27-46.
  • Ingeborg Krummer-Schroth, Hermann Gombert : Art Epochs of the City of Freiburg - Exhibition for the 850th Anniversary, May 24th - July 26th, 1970, Augustinermuseum Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau 1970, p. 4f.
  • Reiner Haussherr (ed.): The time of the Staufer, history - art - culture, exhibition catalog Stuttgart 1977, volume 1, p. 466ff. and Volume 2, Figs. 405–408.
  • Monument topography Baden-Württemberg, Volume III.1.1: City of Staufen… .; Stuttgart 2002, p. 20 with Fig. 9.
  • Dietrich Kötzsche : The Niello Cross in St. Trudpert . In: The cross from St. Trudpert in Münstertal, Black Forest in the St. Petersburg State Hermitage . Hirmer, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-7774-9910-2

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dietrich Kötzsche in: Reiner Haussherr (ed.), Die Zeit der Staufer, History - Art - Culture, Exhibition Catalog Stuttgart 1977, Volume I, 467f.
  2. ↑ As in note 1
  3. ↑ Dietrich Kötzsche in: Reiner Haussherr (ed.), Die Zeit der Staufer, History - Art - Culture, Exhibition Catalog Stuttgart 1977, Volume I, 467f.
  4. ↑ Badische Zeitung of March 15, 2014 “Niello Cross by St. Trudpert from the 12th century is presented”.
  5. ↑ Klaus Mangold (ed.): The cross from St. Trudpert in Münstertal / Black Forest in the State Hermitage St. Petersburg, Munich 2003, p. 104
  6. ↑ Hans-Jörgen Heuser: Das Niellokreuz von St. Trudpert, in: Zeitschrift für Kunstwissenschaft, Volume VI, 1952, 45, with further references. Also note 1.
  7. ^ Dietrich Kötzsche: Das Niello-Kreuz in St. Trudpert, in: Introduction to the special exhibition in the Augustinermuseum Freiburg from December 18. until November 9, 2003.
  8. ↑ Klaus Mangold (ed.): The cross from St. Trudpert in Münstertal / Black Forest in the State Hermitage St. Petersburg. Munich 2003.
  9. ↑ Dietrich Kötzsche in: Reiner Haussherr (ed.), Die Zeit der Staufer, History - Art - Culture, Exhibition Catalog Stuttgart 1977, Volume I, 467f.