San Zeno Maggiore
The Church of San Zeno is one of the most important churches in Verona . It was built in the 12th and 13th centuries. While a large part of the church is dominated by the Romanesque , Gothic forms can already be seen in the ceiling . The campanile (bell tower) and the large round window in the facade are particularly impressive . On June 16, 1973 she received the honorary title of Basilica minor .
history
The first church was built in the 4th century on the spot where today's basilica stands. This church was rebuilt in the 9th century by the architect Pacifico on the orders of King Pippin . When the Frankish King Charles , later called the Great , overthrew the Lombard Empire, he installed his son Pippin as King of Italy and had him reside in Verona. With him, the monastic orders, who were particularly committed to the papal Catholic Church and who previously had little chance under the anti-papal Lombards , were able to gain power and influence. The gigantic Benedictine Abbey of San Zeno, a fortified monastery town, was built at the gates of Verona and was the favorite stay of the German kings when they went to Rome for their coronation. King Pippin and the Veronese Bishop Ratoldo transferred numerous dioceses to this abbey in a document from the year 807, including the church of the same name, San Zeno in Bardolino.
At the end of the 11th century, the reconstruction of the church began and after the earthquake of 1117 it continued without hesitation. In 1135 the church in its present form was essentially finished. The free-standing campanile was completed in 1178. A little later, the decorative design of the facade with the rose window and the portal system was continued. The defense tower (Torre di San Zeno) on the left dates from the 13th century. It is the only remaining remnant of the Benedictine abbey, which was largely destroyed, mainly due to the vandalism of the French occupation forces. In it is a well-preserved wall-filling fresco of an enthroned ruler in which Emperor Friedrich II is seen and which is supplemented by fragments of two contemporary frescoes on the side wall. These show the wheel of Fortuna and an imperial eagle.
description
facade
The facade dates from the 12th century and is one of the most important Romanesque church facades. It was built in two working phases that can be distinguished from one another in terms of style and construction. Slender pilaster strips , placed like strings in front of the basilica cross-sectional facade, emphasize the vertical , it is interrupted by a dwarf gallery at the level of the tympanum . Around 1200 the facade was fitted with a large wheeled window, which Brioloto de Balneo, a sculptor who died before 1226, named it. The window with the sculptures of a man enthroned, then falling and then rising again, arranged on the round, is interpreted as a wheel of fortune and a symbol of fate and is related to a relief of the Last Judgment in the gable above, which was removed in the 20th century and rebuilt without any decoration .
Portal system
The vestibule, the portal and the marble reliefs are partly the work of an architect and sculptor named “Maestro Nicolao” and his workshop, who also worked on the Verona Cathedral and the one in Ferrara. This first phase falls in the years 1135 to 1138. Between about 1150 and 1225 there was a reorganization that modified and reassembled the previous, already finished elements. It may be related to the bronze doors, which suggested an enlargement of the portal. That master "Guillelmus", who calls himself on the upper ledge, probably a student or successor of Nicolao, was certainly involved here. The entrance area alone offers a wealth of sculptural works of art. The porch itself, the tympanum, the bronze doors and the marble reliefs on the sides can be highlighted as related themes.
Tympanum
The tympanum shows Zenon of Verona in the middle , to whom the church is consecrated. He knocks down the hell dragon and shows the patricians on horseback on the right and the infantry on the left the standard of the city - a representation that in the time of the city republic had an openly political character, in that the people appeared as the subject of the picture. The protected position of this tympanum under the canopy has guaranteed the preservation of the colors. Below the miracles of the saint are depicted.
canopy
The blessing hand of God appears at the top of the canopy, and to the side Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist . The round arch of the canopy is also adorned with reliefs, here with representations of the month , and even the shaded underside, which shows a dragon. Such depictions of beasts at church entrances have apotropaic meaning, that is, had the function of keeping evil spirits away from the interior of the church. The two lions that support the pillars of the canopy, which symbolize law and faith and which have been used as toys by the children of the area for centuries, serve the same purpose, which explains their very different wear and tear.
Reliefs
The stone slabs on the side of the portal canopy show scenes from the life of Jesus by the master Guillelmo on the left, perhaps from the middle of the 12th century, on the right the slightly older creation story of Niccolò from 1135.
First of all, you have to know that these panels were not placed in the original order on both sides, but were later moved. As a result, the bottom two panels on both sides deal with completely different topics. Here the creation story begins on the second level from the bottom with the "creation of animals" and next to it the "creation of Adam". The chronological order therefore goes from bottom to top. All of these scenes are framed in a large door scheme, as can also be seen on the main portal. The wide vertical and horizontal bands of this large field are richly decorated according to the principle of the Lombard braided or tendril band, which here has become pilaster strips with capitals. A similar decoration scheme was used in illumination.
The individual field of the "Creation of Animals" is made up of different parts that offer different levels of resistance to the effects of the weather. The figure of God on the left has been preserved in all the fine folds of the garment, while some of the animals show clear signs of wear and tear.
The other scenes are the "Creation of Eve from Adam's rib" at the bottom left, next to it the "Tree of Sin with the Snake", at the top the "Expulsion from Paradise" and to the right of it the "Condemnation to work". Here, too, the individual fields are separated by braided ribbons, the typical design elements of the Lombards.
Theodoric reliefs
Some stone slabs on the facade of the church are particularly difficult to convey to today's understanding, especially since they are still poorly preserved. In addition, their importance in research is controversial.
There are two strange scenes: Theodoric's hunt on the left and Theodoric is chased into hell on the right. These relief scenes, which are only rudimentarily preserved, shed light on a fundamental dispute in the early history of Christianity: the struggle of the Arians against the Catholics.
Two more panels on the other side of the portal show the “duel between Theodoric and Odoacer” from the famous battle of ravens , which actually belongs to Germanic history, as well as the scene “Two fighting warriors on foot” (probably work by Nicolao). The two fields are separated in the middle by a once graceful female figure.
In the DuMont art guide the authors write accordingly: One suspects a representation of the fight between the anti-pope Italian King Berengar II and the victorious German King Otto I over the beautiful Adelheid , with whose flight from the Rocca di Garda the end of the Italian national kingdom started. This interpretation has not been proven, but it is also not improbable. In any case, the basic situation is characteristic of the entire contemporary history of northern Italy. Because even on the two lower “stone slabs”, a king not appreciated by the Pope finds a propagandistically effective end.
On the right, a rider on horseback is chasing a deer, which lures him straight into the gate of the underworld - Lucifer is standing on the far right at the entrance to hell. This scene is the so-called "Theodoric the Great's ride in hell". He is identical to the Germanic hero Dietrich von Bern .
Dietrich von Bern was an Arian , and the Arians did not consider Jesus to be a god-like, but only a god-like being, so for them the Pope, who was appointed by Jesus, was not a representative of God on earth and wrongly claimed his power. This view of the Roman papacy led to centuries of clashes between the Catholic Church and the Arians, which ultimately failed.
The hatred of the Holy See for this disrespect of the Arians was still alive six centuries later when this relief was made. At that time the church was at the height of the dispute with the German emperor for supremacy in Christendom and could therefore not afford any new doubts about its sole authority.
In order to brand every other political position towards the Pope as a heretical work of the devil, the Arian Gothic king Theodoric from the 6th century was once again tried here at the portal of San Zeno in Verona in the 12th century and demonstratively sent to hell.
Bronze doors
The two door leaves of San Zeno enjoy particular fame. It is the richest of all preserved Romanesque bronze doors (from the period between 800 and 1200, around twenty such doors have been preserved in place in Central Europe, if the imported pieces from Byzantium are not included). As is often the case with medieval bronze portals in Italy, the wings are not cast in one piece, but the individual relief panels were nailed to wooden door wings. The bronze panels were not originally made for this door and are not from the same period. Your dating is not entirely certain. The panels of the older style, around 1100, are mainly attached to the left wing, the later ones from around 1200 mainly on the right wing.
The order of the picture panels is also disrupted. This emerges from the inconsistencies in the course of the narrative. For example, the expulsion from Paradise occurs twice. Perhaps the reliefs were intended for two different doors.
Andreas Pater describes the different styles of the two masters as follows: “The figures of this [older] sculptor seem ancient, almost clumsy. He simplified architectural forms, garments and faces as much as possible. The signs and gestures seem all the more powerful. This master does not care about the upright standing of his figures. Space and landscape are not an issue for him. Nothing should distract from the immediacy of the actions and the happening. His figures are separated by worlds from the noble beauty of antiquity. […] The other master created the Old Testament stories and the Zeno legend of the right half of the door. His style is delicate and elegant. His prophets are dignified old people, and the linear beauty of their rich robes is reminiscent of the miniatures of precious manuscripts. An almost 'classical' grandeur and calm separates his art from the coarse gripping force of the other master. "
Longhouse
The nave was built between around 1118 and 1135. The three-aisled room is characterized by a powerful change of columns . Of the candle arches only the western one has survived. The eastern Schwibbogen broke off later. The church has neither a transept nor a crossing.
Two opposing principles are combined in the spatial conception of this church. The older one is the so-called Ravennatic. This refers to the early Christian tradition of leaving the inner walls of the nave between the lower arcade zone and a narrow upper window zone flat in order to be able to attach paintings and mosaics in a wide band. The other conception comes from the north and clearly structures the wall with vertical plastic elements, as they rise up here from every pillar as a service. So San Zeno occupies a middle position in this development.
The design of the crypt , which is halfway up the choir, is striking . These large, multi-layered crypts, which lift the choir up like a stage, are characteristic of northern Italian architecture of the 12th century. The prerequisites for this lie in the imperial cathedral in Speyer , whose grandiose crypt system was taken up in northern Italy: here too, a takeover of German models.
In the east all three naves descend towards the crypt and rise towards the choir, thus dividing into two church rooms one above the other; from the ship you can see into both. With this, San Zeno goes beyond traditional architecture.
Choir and cloister
The choir obviously does not match the facade, but was rebuilt in a Gothic style in 1386, taking on the layered ornamentation that has now become fashionable. The cloister was built in 1123 and rebuilt from 1293 to 1313.
The Mantegna altarpiece
On the high altar is the triptych of the San Zeno altar commissioned by the former abbot Gregorio Correr from Andrea Mantegna and created between 1457 and 1460 .
Choir and crypt
View into the choir room
San Zeno Altar by Andrea Mantegna
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literature
- Erich Hubala : Verona: S. Zeno Maggiore , in: Manfred Wundram (Ed.): Reclams Kunstführer, Oberitalien Ost , Stuttgart 1965, pp. 1071-1080.
swell
- ^ Durliat, Marcel: Romanesque art. Freiburg im Breisgau 1983, p. 572
- ↑ Wolter von dem Knesebeck, Harald: Pictures for Friedrich II.? The wall painting of the Torre Abbaziale of San Zeno in Verona , in: Dominion rooms , rule practice and communication at the time of Emperor Frederick II , ed. by Knut Görich , Jan Keupp, Theo Broekmann (Contributions to the History of the Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, 2), Munich 2008, pp. 207–227.
- ↑ Biographical information on Brioloto (it.)
- ↑ Hubala, Northern Italy, p. 1072.
- ↑ The literature speaks of “middle of the 12th century”, “around 1200” or “1217–1225”.
- ↑ Hubala, Northern Italy, p. 1075.
- ↑ Walter Pippke, Ida Pallhuber: Lake Garda, Verona, Trentino. Cologne 1989, p. 317.
- ↑ Walter Pippke, Ida Pallhuber: Lake Garda, Verona, Trentino . Cologne 1989, p. 317.
- ↑ Andreas Pater in PAN 8/86, p.51
- ↑ Crypts were already common in Italy, they even have their origin in Rome. Hall crypts like this one appear before the year 1000; but huge complexes like those in S. Zeno are clearly inspired by German architecture. Lit .: Ernst Adam: Pre-Romanesque and Romanesque . Frankfurt 1968, p. 164.
Web links
- Website of the municipality 's Basilica of San Zeno Maggiore (English ..)
- The Romanesque bronze plaques on Bayerischer Rundfunk
Coordinates: 45 ° 26 ′ 33.3 " N , 10 ° 58 ′ 45.5" E