St. Nicolai (Kalkar)
The Catholic Church of St. Nicolai in Kalkar near Kleve and Xanten on the Lower Rhine is known, among other things, for its nine (originally at least 16) carved reredos , its church windows , its choir stalls , the historic Seifert organ and its Marien chandelier .
History and architecture
The Nikolaikirche is a three-aisled hall with two parallel choirs and a built-in west tower. Construction probably began as early as 1230. In 1409 there was a fire. Under the direction of the Klevisch-Ducal master builder Johann Wyrenberg , the three-aisled hall that exists today was almost completed in various construction phases up to the consecration in 1450. The choir was vaulted in 1421. Around 1900 the church was extensively restored. Towards the end of the Second World War, the roofs were partially covered and the roof above the south aisle was destroyed, with three vaults collapsing there. In addition, there was damage to the masonry of the tower. During the reconstruction, the roofs were repaired until 1949 and then the wall and vault damage was removed.
Altars
The altars were made by Master Arnt von Zwolle ( high altar , George altar ), Jan van Halderen (high altar), Jan Joest (high altar), Henrik Douvermann (seven pains altar), Hendrik Grotens (seven pains altar), Ferdinand Langenberg ( seven-pain altar), Derick Baegert (Georg altar), Ludwig Juppe ( Marienaltar , Georg altar), Kersken of Ringberg (Crispin-Crispinianusaltar), Arnt van Tricht (Trinity altar, Johannes altar ), Master Rutger ( John altar ), a student masters Arnts ( Jakobus altar ) and unknown artists (Anne altar, George altar, Marien altar) mostly created in the first half of the 16th century .
High altar
Trinity altar
Seven Sorrows Altar
Anne Altar
James altar
George altar
The George altar was started around 1480 by a master Arnt von Zwolle and completed in 1492. The George altar is the earliest work that Arnt created in the Nikolaikirche. In the middle part behind two narrow columns it offers a spacious landscape panorama with nine scenes from the legend of St. Georg, all of which are summarized in one picture. The main scene in the middle shows St. George on horseback defeating the dragon. The master Arnt von Zwolle is also called Arnt von Kalkar.
In the last quarter of the 15th century, sculpture on the Lower Rhine was mainly influenced by this carver. He was mainly active in Kalkar and Zwolle and it is from these two places that he got his name in art history. He is not only responsible for the George altar, but also for the first phase of the high altar, which he left unfinished in his studio when he died in 1492.
The main scene close up: Aja, the king's daughter, kneels to the right of Gregor. The saint is beheaded on the far right. The story of the legend of George is briefly as follows: George was a soldier in Cappadocia in ancient Asia Minor and died in 303 as a martyr under Diocletian. According to a legend, a dragon received two sheep a day from the threatened population of Silene. When the number of sheep was no longer sufficient, a sheep and a child were sacrificed until finally the king also had to deliver his own daughter, Princess Aja, to the monster. When the weeping princess met the brave Georg and described her misfortune to him, he hunted the dragon, fought and defeated him. The moment when George kills the dragon with a spear or a sword is the most famous scene in the legend of George.
The sculptor emphasized this central theme by emphasizing the plasticity - the group is carved almost completely round - and also given it a larger scale. Arnt von Zwolle can be traced back to Kalkar from 1460, but in 1484 he lost several close relatives as a result of a plague epidemic and moved to Zwolle. There he continued his workshop, which shaped the style of late Gothic sculpture in the Lower Rhine-Dutch border area for decades. It was so indispensable that Kalkar commissioned him to continue the George Altarpiece, which was begun in 1480.
The sculptural work of the master Arnt is characterized by an extremely exciting and at the same time graceful figure style, which he gives a graphic character through the hard, detailed treatment of the surface. We are at the end of the Middle Ages, when copper engraving and woodcuts came to the fore as their own genre for the first time in art history and also influenced other art forms.
The predella is not part of the original composition of the altar and was not made by Arnt. It dates from the early 16th century (in the stage sets of the predella Lamentation of Christ, St. George's Mass, Martyrdom of St. Erasmus.). The side wing paintings were created at the same time. On the inside they show two scenes from the legend of St. Ursula, on the outside the dragon fight of St. George and St. Christophorus.
High altar
The high altar was started by Arnt von Zwolle in 1488, but left unfinished when he died in 1492. From 1498 Jan van Halderen worked on it and from 1498–1500 it was completed by Ludwig Juppe from Marburg. The wing paintings were created by Jan Joest from Wesel in 1506-08.
The carved panel depicts an almost unmistakable abundance of scenes from the life of Jesus with the crucifixion in the raised central section as the coronation. It can be seen how the whole table is composed of individual carved trunks. That this is so clear was of course not intended in the original, because the following painting would have ensured uniformity. A colored version, as was customary for carved altars at that time, never came about (either due to a lack of money or due to changes in contemporary tastes). (cf. Guido de Werd , Michael Jeiter: St. Nicolaikirche Kalkar. 2002 Munich, Berlin, p. 72f)
The main scenes: lower left the carrying of the cross; above that Christ in Gethsemane, and still higher and lower the two scenes of Judas with the soldiers and the betrayal of Judas. On the next section in the middle the fainting of Mary and Veronica with the handkerchief. Then further to the right the soldiers are fighting over the skirt of Christ; at the top right the Descent from the Cross and the Entombment below.
Detailed shots show scenes under the crucifixion, u. a. the haggling over the robe of Christ in the upper right part. Here it becomes particularly clear with what incredible attention to detail and technical brilliance these scenes have been carved, especially in the folds of the clothes and the design of the hairstyles. The effort to give each face an individual facial expression is also remarkable.
The overall design for the altar clearly comes from Arnt himself. He also intended to do all the carving work himself. The wood for the casing of the shrine was bought by the Brotherhood of the Church: boards in Amsterdam, Kampen and Nijmegen, heavy wood in the Klevian Forest. While the preparations for the new high altar proceeded quickly in Kalkar in 1491, Master Arnt was working on the groups for the shrine and predella in distant Zwolle. For this purpose, he had divided the wood into large and small blocks that were matched in size and thickness.
In 1492, the church administration received the news of the master's demise after a large down payment had been made shortly beforehand. Next, of course, the unfinished carvings were brought to Kalkar, no matter what condition they were in. Then you look for an artist who was able to complete the work that has been started. This dragged on and after several unsuccessful attempts it was not until 1498 that Jan van Halderen completed some groups, including a. here the entry into Jerusalem and the last supper in the Predella zone. However, the decline in quality was recognized, for example, in the uniform treatment of the garments and the inadequate variation in the types of figures. And in the same year 1498 Ludwig Jupan was given the actual completion of the altar. Ludwig Jupan, who is identical with the master Loedewich, was to carve the altar of Mary in the same church a few years later.
Church window
What finally makes St. Nicolai unique is the connection between these medieval works of art and the modern church windows. Around the year 2000, the Wiesbaden biologist, physicist and glass painter Karl-Martin Hartmann redesigned a number of the church windows that had previously been destroyed and had been kept unadorned. As motifs he used, among other things, Feynman diagrams , images of three-jet events , spectroheliograms (including a representation of the comet Hale-Bopp ), a photographic image of the galaxy cluster Abell 2218 , in which the gravitational lensing effect predicted by Albert Einstein could be observed.
The windows combine the historical form of representation and proclamation communication of the church windows in Catholic churches with the latest findings on the genesis of the universe to a kind of reformulation of the history of creation .
Church window by Karl-Martin Hartmann
Further equipment
Other noteworthy furnishings are the Marien chandelier, the choir stalls and numerous paintings.
Mary chandelier
Crucifixion (painting)
Marientod (painting)
organ
The organ was built in 1968 by the organ building company Seifert (Kevelaer). The instrument has electric play and stop actions . It is located in an ornamental case that was built for the previous instrument.
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Pairing :
- Normal coupling: II / I, III / I, III / II, I / P, II / P, III / P
- Super octave coupling: III / I, III / II
- Sub-octave coupling: III / I, III / II
literature
- Georg Dehio: Handbook of the German art monuments - Rhineland. 1967.
- Hans Peter Hilger: St. Nicolai parish church in Kalkar. Parish of Sankt Nicolai (Kalkar). Boss, Kleve 1990, ISBN 3-89413-181-0 .
- Hans Huth: Artist and workshop of the late Gothic. Darmstadt 1967. (On the meaning of color in medieval sculpture).
- Ludwig Juppe, Franz Josef Nüß (ed.): The passion altar of the master Loedewich in the St. Nikolaikirche in Kalkar. Insel, Wiesbaden 1956 ( Insel-Bücherei. 625/1)
- Guido de Werd : The St. Nikolaikirche in Kalkar. Munich-Berlin. 2nd edition 1986.
Individual evidence
- ^ Hartwig Beseler, Niels Gutschow: Kriegsschicksale Deutscher Architektur. Loss - damage - reconstruction. Volume I. Karl Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1988, ISBN 3-926642-22-X , p. 511.
- ↑ cf. Parish website
Web links
- The page of the Church of St. Nicolai in Kalkar There are also pictures of all the altars and windows.
- An article about St. Nicolai in Time
Coordinates: 51 ° 44 ′ 17 ″ N , 6 ° 17 ′ 31 ″ E