Suger from Saint-Denis

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Abbot Suger on a medieval window in Saint-Denis cathedral (12th century)
Suger on a medieval window

Suger [ syˈʒe ] (* 1081 ; † January 13, 1151 in Saint-Denis near Paris ) was a French church prince and statesman.

Life

Suger was born around the year 1081. Various possibilities are mentioned as the place of birth, including Chennevières-lès-Louvres . His family probably belonged to the minores milites , a form of the lower nobility. As a ten-year-old he came to the Abbey of Saint-Denis near Paris as an oblate . Suger went to the school belonging to Saint-Denis, to which the later King Ludwig VI until 1092 . went. In 1106 he was sent to the Pope as envoy of the monastery and his superior also later entrusted the talented young man with diplomatic missions, which allowed him to contact the royal court, the pope and the great royal courts of France. In 1118 and 1121 he came to Rome as the king's ambassador.

During a stay in Rome in 1122 he was elected abbot of the Saint-Denis monastery. Soon he started successfully to reform and renovate the monastery. In 1124 it was thanks to his fate that the princes of France united with the king against a German-English invasion. During the visit of Pope Innocent II. In Cluny in 1131 he was speaker of the king and the entire episcopate.

In 1137 Suger was able to start building the new abbey church, which had been the burial place of the Franconian / French kings since 639 (choir consecration 1144). In 1147, together with Bernhard von Clairvaux, he campaigned for the Second Crusade , in which he even wanted to take part - regardless of his weak constitution. When Louis VII then embarked on the crusade, Suger was elected regent . He performed this task with flying colors. Since that time he has also been called "father of the fatherland" because he put all his work into the service of the French kingdom.
In view of the very narrow power base of the king at that time, it was particularly important to him to increase his spiritual prestige - as the representative of Christ.

Under Ludwig VI. and Ludwig VII. Suger had significant influence on the state. He reorganized the finances, improved the judiciary, promoted agriculture, trade and industry and favored the cities.

Suger died on January 13, 1151 in his monastery. He was buried in the basilica of the monastery, which also served as the burial place of the French kings and which was later elevated to the cathedral of Saint-Denis. When the royal tombs of Saint-Denis were sacked during the French Revolution , his grave was opened and looted on October 22, 1793, and his remains were buried in a mass grave outside the church.

power

Facade of the abbey church / basilica Saint-Denis

His most important work is the abbey church of Saint-Denis, in the planning of which he played a key role. (Only the substructure of the choir and the west yoke with the facade and the tower set are preserved - as he had planned them.) Elements that were already known to Norman and Burgundian (e.g. Laon ) architecture ( ribbed vaults and pointed arches , services ), were placed in a context for the first time in this building, which allowed the rooms to merge and light up. By removing many of the retaining walls that were considered necessary at the time, he was able to use large windows for interior design for the first time in the history of building. The building was much more light-flooded than the churches of its time. In addition, the building was simpler and more delicate than Romanesque buildings. This is considered the foundation of a new architectural style: the Gothic .

For a long time it was considered certain that Suger used the harmony theory of Augustine and the light metaphysics of Pseudo-Dionysius as a kind of spiritual basis for his church building - commented on by Johannes Scotus Eriugena and Hugo von St. Viktor . According to his vision, the church should represent the harmonies of God's creation and the enlightenment of the believer. A realization of these ideas was seen in the architectural forms of the choir of the abbey church and the creation of a markedly light-flooded overall room. In return, the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, the appearance of which he was told by the pilgrims and which he wanted to emulate with a splendid interior decoration, as well as the Solomonic Temple in Jerusalem, the extent of which can only be found in the Bible and with the same intention, namely to God Adoration was built, the ideal "models" with whose quality he wanted to be measured. However, it has not been proven whether Suger does the above. Read writings and thus the new building of St. Denis, which was consecrated to Saint Dionysius of Paris , is based on a special, philosophical ( Platonic ) concept. The topos of divine light can be found e.g. B. already in the Bible again ( Joh 8,12  EU and many more).

Under Suger, St. Denis became the central location of the intellectual and political forces of the rising monarchy, the crystallization point of the national idea of ​​France and thus the starting point of the style that stands for a new connection between church and French royalty: the Gothic cathedral .

He described and justified his work as the creator of the new monastery church in Libellus de consecratione ecclesiae Sancti Dionysii and De rebus in administrationem sua gestis . Other writings from his hand are Vita Ludovici VI. and ordinatio .

Editions of his writings

  • Œuvres complètes . Edited by A. Lecoy de la Marche. Paris, 1867. Reprinted in Hildesheim and New York 1979. ISBN 3-487-06862-1 .
  • Abbot Suger on the Abbey Church of St.-Denis and its Art Treasures. Edited, Translated and Annotated by Erwin Panofsky (1946). Second Edition by Gerda Panofsky-Soergel. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press 1979 (xix, 285 pp., 31 plates with illustrations) - ISBN 0-691-00314-9
  • Oeuvres . 2 volumes. Edited by Françoise Gaspari. Paris 1996/2001. ISBN 2-251-34048-3 and ISBN 2-251-34052-1 .
  • Selected writings . Edited by Andreas Speer . 2nd Edition. Darmstadt 2005. ISBN 3-534-18494-7 .

literature

  • François Combes: L'abbé Suger. Histoire de son ministère et de sa régence . Paris 1853.
  • Alfred François Nettement: Suger et son temps . 3. Edition. Lecoffre Fils et Cie., Paris 1868.
  • Hubert Glaser : Beati Dionysii qualiscumque Abbas: Studies on self-confidence and historical image of Abbot Suger von Saint-Denis , Munich 1957 (dissertation)
  • Otto Cartellieri : Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis . Berlin 1898. Reprint: Kraus, Vaduz 1965.
  • Louis Grodecki : Études sur les vitraux de Suger à Saint-Denis (XIIe siècle) . Paris 1995. Book series : Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi .
  • Lindy Grant: Abbot Suger of St. Denis. Church and state in early twelfth-century , London 1998, ISBN 0-582-05150-9 .
  • Rolf Große : Saint-Denis between nobility and king. The time before Suger (1053–1122) . (Supplement to Francia , 57). Thorbecke, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-7995-7451-4 , perspectivia.net
  • Peter Kidson: Panofsky, Suger and St Denis . In: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes , Vol. 50, (1987), pp. 1-17.
  • Conrad Rudolph: Artistic Change at St Denis: Abbot Suger's Program and the Early Twelfth Century Controversy Over Art , Princeton 1990.
  • Erwin Panofsky : Abbot Suger von St.-Denis , in: Sense and Interpretation in the Fine Arts. Dumont Verlag, Cologne, 1978, ISBN 3-7701-0801-9 .
  • Otto von Simson : The Gothic Cathedral. Contributions to their creation and importance . 5th edition. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1992, ISBN 3-534-04306-5 .
  • Christoph Markschies : Is there a “theology of the Gothic cathedral”? Again: Suger from Saint-Denis and Saint Dionys from Areopagus . (Treatises of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, Philosophical-Historical Class 1995.1), Winter, Heidelberg 1995, ISBN 3-8253-0272-5 .
  • Martin Büchsel : The birth of the Gothic. Abbot Sugers concept for the Abbey Church of St. Denis . (Rombach Sciences: Series of sources on art 5), Rombach, Freiburg i. Br. 1997, ISBN 3-7930-9160-0 .

Web links

Commons : Suger de Saint-Denis  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Erwin Panofsky: Abbot Suger of St. Denis . in: Sense and Interpretation of idbildenden Kunst. Cologne 1978, p. 140 .
  2. ↑ Otto Simson: The Gothic Cathedral . S. 138 f .
predecessor Office successor
Adam Abbot of Saint Denis
1122–1151 		Odo II
personal data
SURNAME Suger from Saint-Denis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Suger
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French abbot and statesman
DATE OF BIRTH 1081
DATE OF DEATH January 13, 1151
Place of death Saint-Denis near Paris