Proserpine sarcophagus

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Proserpine sarcophagus, Aachen Cathedral Treasury
Front with the main picture

The Proserpina sarcophagus is a Roman marble sarcophagus from the 1st quarter of the 3rd century AD, in which Charlemagne was possibly buried on January 28, 814 in Aachen Cathedral . It is exhibited today in the Aachen Cathedral Treasury .

Emergence

The sarcophagus was made of Carrara marble in a Roman workshop in the 1st quarter of the 3rd century . It is one of a large number of other Roman sarcophagi depicting the robbery of Persephone .

description

The sarcophagus, 205 cm long, 50 cm wide and 49 cm deep in the inner area of ​​the opening, is adorned on the front with an elaborate, multi-figure relief, while the narrow sides are occupied by three-figure groups in relief. A modern transport break from the 19th century runs through the front relief of the otherwise well-preserved sarcophagus box.

The relief on the frontal side shows the robbery of Persephone and shows 15 gods and divine beings in the depicted scene. The central group of the scene moved to the right is taken by Hades , who kidnaps Persephone in his chariot. He is supported by Athena , who can be seen behind him , Eros in front of him shows him the way. His carriage is pulled by a team of four horses. The team is led by Hermes on the right edge of the relief, the hellhound Kerberos can be seen between his feet . The god of the underworld, Tartarus, appears under the horses' front hooves . In a wagon pulled by the queue, Demeter pursues her daughter's kidnapper from the left . A smaller person drives the car and drives the snakes while Demeter wields two torches in their hands. Two of her assistants have fallen to the ground in front of her and are trying to protect the fruit of their fallen baskets. Aphrodite , Hades' ally in his robbery, hovers above them .

The narrow left side shows two young girls and a boy picking flowers, while the narrow right side from the viewer is occupied by a boy carrying fruit and two shepherds.

reuse

Whether Charlemagne was buried in the Proserpine sarcophagus as early as 814 is controversial. The sources on the death and burial of Charlemagne do not explicitly mention him. Nevertheless, it was assumed that this sarcophagus could have been under "the columns and the marble", which Karl, according to Einhard's Vita Caroli Magni , chap. 26, brought from Rome and Ravenna to Aachen for the construction of his palatine chapel . In this case, he would have been buried in the sarcophagus like a Western Roman ruler.

On the other hand, the historian Dieter Hägermann suspected that the Proserpine sarcophagus was only used to store Karl's bones in 1165 after Friedrich Barbarossa discovered the Charles grave. The reason given by Hägermann is that the sources on the burial of Charles in the year 814 do not report anything about the sarcophagus, but report about the burial of Charles in the floor of the Aachen Palatine Chapel. Hägermann believes that it is unlikely that such a splendid marble sarcophagus, decorated in relief, should have been sunk into the church floor.

The reason why a sarcophagus with “pagan” motifs was chosen for the bones of a Christian emperor could be due to a Christian interpretation of the Persephone story: The fact that Demeter succeeded in the continuation of the myth of the kidnapping of Persephone by asking her The fact that their daughter was allowed to return to earth for two-thirds of the year may have been reinterpreted as an indication of the resurrection .

Charles's bones must have been removed from the sarcophagus by 1215 at the latest, because they have been in the Karlsschrein since that year . From this time on, the empty sarcophagus stood in the lower octagonal aisle of the Aachen Cathedral - only the front was visible through a grille - presumably together with the wooden figure of Charles from the 14th century, which is exhibited in the treasury today, which was probably part of a so-called Charlemagne memory . In 1794 Napoleon I had the sarcophagus brought to Paris together with the ancient columns of the minster, but in 1815 it returned to Aachen and was installed in the Nikolauskapelle, since 1843 in the Michael's gallery of the Nikolauskapelle, which has not been open to the public. Trying to heave the sarcophagus onto the gallery, it was seriously damaged. It has been shown in the Cathedral Treasury since 1979.

Remarks

  1. Dieter Hägermann: Charlemagne, ruler of the West. Propylaen, Munich 2000, p. 628ff.

literature

Web links

Commons : Proserpine Sarcophagus  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Coordinates: 50 ° 46 ′ 30.1 ″  N , 6 ° 4 ′ 58.3 ″  E