Přemyslid Cross

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Přemyslid Cross (around 1330) exhibited in Strahov Monastery , Prague

The Přemyslid Cross (Czech Přemyslovský kříž , also Přemyslovský krucifix ), also known as the Jihlava Cross , is a Gothic crucifix in the shape of a forked cross . As a significant work of art, it has been designated as a national cultural monument of the Czech Republic since 2010 .

history

According to legend, the Jihlava Cross is dedicated to the Bohemian kings Ottokar II Přemysl or Ottokar I Přemysl . However, it was probably created around 1330 in the German-speaking area and reached Jihlava ( Iglau ) in the 14th century in the elevation of St. Dominican church consecrated to the cross . The spiritual center of the Dominican Order in Central Europe was Cologne at that time, where the oldest crucifixes of a similar type were made. After the Josephine reforms and the abolition of the Jesuit order , the Dominicans moved to the Jesuit monastery in Iglau. There the crucifix was in the left side chapel next to the entrance to the Church of St. Ignatius von Loyola, later in the Rococo altar there. Then it came to the St. Jacob's Church, which has been under the Strahov Premonstratensian Monastery since 1591 . After its restoration in 1994–1997, the Přemyslid Cross has been exhibited in the picture gallery of the Strahov Monastery in Prague since 1989. The planned return to the church of St. James the Elder in Jihlava did not take place in 2012 due to unsuitable climatic conditions; instead, a modern replica made of synthetic resin is exhibited there.

Description and classification

The expressive anti-classical style of the “mystical crucifixes” ( crucifix dolorosum , forked crucifix ) has its origins in the German Rhineland . The Přemyslid Cross was created later than the crucifixes of Fabriano and Palermo and rather follows the crucifix from the Church of St. Mary of Peace in Cologne and the two crucifixes of the Archdiocese of Salzburg ( Nonnberg , Friesach ). Stylistically, it is so similar to the Hungarian cross in the Church of the Assumption of Mary in Andernach that it can even come from the same workshop. A crucifix from the Augustinian Canon House in Klosterneuburg follows with its sculptural, but somewhat less expressive rendering .

The polychrome wooden cross differs from other Gothic sculptures of Bohemian origin in its larger than life dimensions and its dramatic expression, which is similar to the representations of the 13th century. The body of Christ , including the hands, is 245 cm tall and has an arm span of 158 cm. The cross itself is 309 cm high. Its shape as a deeply branched trunk with cut growth forms represents a symbolic tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The figure of Christ has a disproportionately enlarged head, palms and feet. With his mouth open and eyes down, his head bends to the right and stretches the neck muscles. The model could have been the heads of the prophets on the west facade of the Strasbourg cathedral . The expressive face of Christ's Passion is emphasized by carvings that tend to be stylized and combine sharp convex and concave shapes. The head of Christ has a precisely trimmed beard and a massive crown of thorns with long thorns that penetrate the skull. The statue, like the other "Crucifixi dolorosi", was used to store relics , as the hole in the head proves. The long strands of hair that can be seen in older images were not original and were removed during the restoration. Large palms with long, twisted fingers have sores caused by swollen skin on the nails. In addition, the crossed legs, pierced with a nail, dramatically accentuate the wounds. The body is quite massive, with schematically marked ribs that extend to the waist, a belly with four convex folds, a lower edge of the chest in the shape of a letter M. The wound on the side is open and the blood flows to the feet. The crucifixion is reproduced with naturalistic accuracy compared to older pictures - slender arms are stretched by the weight of the body, nailed legs have sharply bent knees.

The loincloth of Christ consists of several folds that are deep, bowl-shaped, horizontally folded at the front and flat and vertically tightly folded on the sides. The four points fall on either side and between the knees. The drapery pattern is similar to that of the Nonnberg and Friesach crucifixes and is partly in line with the more recent Dalmatian crucifixes.

Until the 13th century, Christ on the cross was depicted almost exclusively as Christ the victor over death , as a smooth figure with no signs of suffering, often with a crown on his head. It was a four-nailed crucifixion with the legs resting side by side. The three-nails crucifixion has dominated since the mid-13th century and has its origins in mystical currents in the Church that focused on the human aspect of Christ's suffering and encouraged believers to ponder and identify. At the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries, the church had to deal with the growing influence of religious heretics . The mendicant orders and the Inquisition played an important role in the fight against the heretics . The dramatic depiction of Christ on the cross is based on records of mystical visions and prayers and should deepen the belief that the Messiah sacrificed himself to redeem human sins.

restoration

The crucifix was restored in 1997. The owner of the plant and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic agreed that in order to preserve the original Gothic polychromy, all later paints except the oldest layer should be removed. Over the course of 600 years, ten base layers and overpaintings were applied to the crucifix, which were gradually scanned and documented. The oldest gray-pink color of the incarnation is only fragmentarily preserved on the back of the hand, so that the statue received a light brown body color in accordance with a restoration in Gothic times. The originally light gray-brown veil of Christ was painted over several times. During the restoration, the four most recent paints were removed and the oldest surviving ivory layer was left with drops of blood and a gilded border. The fork cross made of spruce ( middle ) and maple ( fork ) is original, including the silicate layer underneath and traces of the original polychromy. The oldest dark brown painting has been preserved. In contrast to the comparable German Christ statues made of oak or walnut ( Coesfeld , Haltern ), the one made of Jihlava consists of soft poplar wood and a large number of smaller parts. The joints were covered with a canvas and smoothed with layers of pebble clay and chalk , the composition of which corresponds to the materials used in Czech Gothic panel painting and wooden sculpture of the 14th century.

meaning

With its historical and artistic value, this work is one of the most important in the group of painful crucifixes. There are only a few dozen similar early Gothic works in Europe. The oldest are the crucifixes in the Benedictine Abbey of Nonnberg near Salzburg, the "Crocifisso Chiaramonte" in the Cathedral of Palermo, the "Chapelle du dévot Christ" in Perpignan (1307) and the crucifixes of the cathedrals in the Italian cities of Lucera (1317), Sulmona , Tolentino and Fabriano. Others are located in the Dalmatian cities of Split , Kotor and Piran .

  • Crucifix, St. Maria in the Capitol, Cologne (1304)

  • Crucifix, St. Mary of Peace, Cologne

  • Crucifix, St. Severin, Cologne

  • Crucifix, Cathedral of Palermo (before 1311?)

  • Crucifix, St. Lambert, Coesfeld (1312?)

  • Crucifix, St. Georg, Bocholt

  • Crucifix, Church of Our Lady, Andernach (1310–1320)

  • Crucifix, Iglesia del Crucifijo, Puente la Reina (before 1325)

  • Crucifix, St. Nikolaus, Friesach (2nd quarter of the 14th century)

  • Crucifix, Orvieto Domenico

  • Crucifix, Kotor Cathedral

  • Crucifix, Split Cathedral

  • A forked crucifix from the Corpus Christi Church in Wroclaw

  • Crucifix, St. Georg, Cologne (around 1380)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry at the National Heritage Institute (Czech)
  2. ^ Dana Dvořáková. Přemyslovský kříž zůstane ve Strahovském klášteře Jihlavský deník, 2011-09-13 (online, Czech)
  3. ↑ Stanislav Jelínek. Unikátní památka se možná po klimatických měřeních vrátí do Jihlavy Jihlavský deník, 2010-02-09 (online, Czech)
  4. ↑ I. Kyzourová, P. Kalina, 2006, p 53
  5. ↑ I. Kyzourová, P. Kalina, 2006, p 35
  6. ↑ Albert Kutal: Gotické sochařství , in: R. Chadraba: Dějiny českého umění výtvarného I / 1, Academia Praha 1984, pp 224-225
  7. ↑ a b I. Kyzourová, P. Kalina, 2006, p. 46
  8. ^ H. Bachmann, in: Karl M. Swoboda , Karel Schwarzenberg, Karel František and Werner Neumeister ( photos ): Gotik in Böhmen. History, social history, architecture, sculpture and painting , Prestel-Verlag Munich 1969, p. 118
  9. ↑ I. Kyzourová, P. Kalina, 2006, fig. 19 u. 20, p. 56
  10. ↑ Albert Kutal: České umění gotické , Obelisk Praha, 1972, p 30
  11. ↑ I. Kyzourová, P. Kalina, 2006, p 47
  12. ↑ A. Kutal: Moravská dřevěná plastika první poloviny 14. století , Brno 1939, p. 54
  13. ↑ I. Kyzourová, P. Kalina, 2006, p 55
  14. ↑ I. KyzourováI, P. Kalina, 2006, p 55
  15. ^ N. Cohn: The Pursuit of the Millenium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages , London 1993
  16. ^ Contemplating the Crucifixion - the Crucifixi Dolorosi
  17. ↑ Haltern crucifix
  18. ↑ M. Hamsík, R. Hamsíková, 2006, pp. 413-415
  19. ↑ La navata settentrionale - La cappella del Crocifisso, Palermo
  20. ^ Crucifix, Perpignan
  21. ↑ Chapelle du Devot-Christ, Perpignan
  22. ↑ a b Regina Urbanek: The Crucifixus dolorosus in St. Mary of Peace in Cologne. To technology and restoration; in Colonia Romanica, yearbook of the Förderverein Romanische Kirchen Köln e. V. Vol. XV, 2000, p. 89

literature

  • Ivana Kyzourová, Pavel Kalina: The "Přemyslovský" Crucifix of Jihlava . Stylistic Character and Meaning of a Crucifixus dolorosus, pp. 35-64. In: A. Mudra, M. Ottová (eds.): Ars vídendí, Professori Jaromír Homolka ad honorem , Opera Facultatis Theologiae catholicae Universitatis Carolinae Pragensis, Historia et historia artium, Vol. 5, Praha 2006, ISBN 80-903600-9- 2
  • Mojmír a Radana Hamsíkovi: Přemyslovský krucifix z Jihlavy, restaurace a technika , pp. 413–421. In: A. Mudra, M. Ottová (eds.): Ars vídendí, Professori Jaromír Homolka ad honorem , Opera Facultatis Theologiae catholicae Universitatis Carolinae Pragensis, Historia et historia artium, Vol. 5, Praha 2006, ISBN 80-903600-9- 2
  • Godehard Hoffmann: The fork cross in St. Maria in the Capitol in Cologne and the phenomenon of the Crucifixi dolorosi in Europe , workbook of the Rhenish preservation of monuments 69, 2006
  • Pavel Kalina: Giovanni Pisano, the Dominicans, and the Origin of the crucifixi dolorosi . In: artibus et historiae, No. 47 (XXIV), 2003, pp. 81-101
  • Ulrike Bergmann: New research on the captured sculpture of the Middle Ages. The Gothic Crucifixi dolorosi. Cologne Contributions to the Restoration and Conservation of Art and Cultural Property, Vol. 14. Cologne 2001
  • I. Kyzourová: Přemyslovský krucifix a jeho doba , catalog výstavy, Královská kanonie premonstrátů na Strahově, Prague 1988, pp. 27-29
  • Pavel Kalina: The "Přemyslovský" Crucifix of Jihlava . Stylistic Character and Meaning of a Crucifixus dolorosus, Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch LVIII, 1996, pp. 35-64
  • Monika von Alemann-Schwartz: Crucifixus dolorosus . Contributions on the polychromy and iconography of the Rhenish forked crucifixes, dissertation, Bonn 1976
  • Géza de Francovich: L'origine e la diffusione del crocifisso gotico doloroso . In. Art History Yearbook of the Bibliotheca Hertziana, 2, 1938, pp. 143–263
  • I. Zahradník: Kříž Přemyslovský v Jihlavě . Památky archeologické a místopisné 19, 1900–1901, pp. 491–496

Web links

Commons : Fork Crosses  - Collection of images, videos and audio files