Sylvester Chapel (Goldbach)
The Sylvester Chapel in Goldbach, a district of Überlingen , is a small pre-Romanesque church on the shores of Lake Constance . Its wall paintings from the Carolingian era from the middle of the 9th century, which are considered to be the oldest in the Lake Constance area, as well as an Ottonian picture cycle with scenes from the life of Jesus Christ from the early 10th century are significant . The frescoes are related to those of the Georgskirche (Reichenau-Oberzell) , although poorly preserved, and come from painters from the Reichenau monastery .
history
Foundation and first equipment phase
The date of construction of the chapel is not exactly certain. According to the latest opinion, the chapel was donated around the year 840 by an Alemannic count named Alpger (Albgar) and furnished with relics of Marcianus (also: Martianus), the first bishop of Tortona and early Christian martyr . Count Alpger is probably a nobleman from Linzgau , who was initially an advisor at Pippin's court in Italy and from 810 to Charlemagne and who in 842 owned a large part of his goods in Italy, the Carolingian monastery of Sant ' Ambrogio near Milan . Walahfried Strabo (809–849), a Reichenau abbot, diplomat and poet, provided a dedication poem for the chapel. Alpger and Walahfried, who also worked as diplomats at the Carolingian court, must have known each other personally. Monks of the Reichenau Monastery decorated the interior with a meander ornament under the ceiling that looked like a perspective, as well as Walahfried's inscription. It is not known whether there was also a cycle of pictures with stations from the life of the saint.
In the early Middle Ages, the parish church consolidated the network of parishes on the east bank of the Überlinger See , together with the parish of St. Michael (Aufkirch) , the parish church responsible for Überlingen , and the parish of Seefelden , which may have been in the 7th century as part of the first Christianization was created by the Frankish Empire . They belonged to the diocese of Constance .
Second equipment phase
The Ottonian frescoes were created 100 to 150 years after the foundation, when the chapel was raised by 2.20 meters and a choir room was added to the east . The donor of this renovation was possibly the noble couple Winidhere and Hiltepurg, who are shown on a donor picture above the choir arch. This expansion is dated to the early 10th century (according to the older view the late 10th century). The addition of the floor left space for a generous cycle of wall paintings depicting the life of Jesus. In the choir a circle of the twelve apostles was created on benches with Christ in their midst. The frescoes were also made by monks from the Reichenau monastery, possibly by the same group of painters who decorated the Georgskirche there . The wall paintings were applied as a fresco on a fresh layer of plaster, which completely covered the older paintings. A number of windows were also installed; the original lower windows were walled up.
In the course of the following centuries the structure changed several times. In the 14th century the east wall of the choir was opened and three windows and a sacrament niche were built into the north wall. Around this time the patronage changed to St. New Year's Eve . In the 15th century, the square porch was merged with the nave, which also received windows with a Gothic fish-bubble ornament , and the choir arch was converted into a pointed arch . In the 16th century, a tracery window followed on the south wall of the choir, through which it received more light. In the 17th century the Gothic choir arch was rounded off again. The interior of the church was painted over four times between the 14th and 18th centuries, and some of it was decorated with new paintings. The poor condition of most of the murals is due to these renovations.
Rediscovery of church decorations
The wall paintings of the apse were not rediscovered until 1899, those of the nave in 1904, at a time when Carolingian-Ottonian paintings were being searched for everywhere in churches in the Lake Constance area. The St. George's Church had only been discovered two decades earlier. Until then, the little church in Goldbach had been considered an insignificant late Gothic building. Between 1899 and 1905 the Überlingen painters and restorers Mezger exposed the murals of the choir and the ship. The first illustrated book of the newly discovered frescoes was published as early as 1902. In 1958 they were cleaned and fixed again. Recently, fragments of frescoes have again been uncovered and restored. Despite the efforts, parts of the frescoes are lost forever due to the renovations and the necessary destruction of the plaster layers during the restoration.
architecture
The nave (6.2 × 10.2 m) is architecturally very simple. The south wall has two high Gothic windows with fish-bubble ornaments and two smaller windows in between. In the lower part of the wall, the old window niches are preserved, which served as windows before the walls were raised in the 10th century. The windows on the north wall are roughly symmetrical to the south wall; However, instead of two there is only one small central window in the area of the upper picture frieze. The room has a flat wooden ceiling and a small wooden gallery for the organist above the entrance to the west.
The choir floor plan is almost square (4.9 × 4.8 m) and was supplemented in the 10th century. On the south wall there is a parabolic window that indicates the old age of the church. Three flat steps under a round arch lead to the choir. To the left and right of the steps there is a corner altar; on the left a sculpture presumably of Marcianus or, less likely, of St. Silvester from the 14th century, on the right a figure of Mary .
Mural
Latin inscription
The oldest wall painting on the Sylvester Chapel dates from the Carolingian era and was probably made around 840, right after the church was built. It is a meander ornament that originally ran around the church interior directly below the ceiling, and underneath a band of inscriptions in capital letters . The complexly structured meander, which appears perspective, is a frequent design element of the Reichenau School, which can also be found in the Reichenau Georgskirche and the Konstanz Minster .
The inscription is a Latin poem in pentameters from the pen of Reichenau Abbot Walahfried Strabo . 53 letters have been preserved in the chapel itself, including the following words: “SED SATANAS NON”… “[IN] VIDIAE FACIBVS CONCITVS ARME LE [VAT]”. The complete seal is handed down in a manuscript from the Fulda monastery (reg. Lat. 496) from the year 850. She praises the martyr Marcianus , the first bishop and city saint of Tortona . It also speaks of Count Alpger, who "built this church with God's help" and placed it under the protection of the saint. The poem is in said collection under the title “in ecclesia sancti martiani. In golhdbah ”(“ In the Church of St. Marcianus in Goldbach ”), was clearly intended for this chapel.
Founder picture
On the east wall, which opens in an arch to the choir, two donors are shown, the aristocratic couple Winidhere and Hilteburg, who can be found in an entry in the Reichenau fraternity book (Zurich, central library, from the end of the 9th or at the latest beginning of the 10th century) Rh. Hist 27, p. 7, col. D1). Since a Count Alpger was identified as the original donor of the church, these people could have been the donors of the great church renovation at the beginning or end of the 10th century.
In the central axis, a figure of Christ was originally shown, analogous to the choir, to which both figures are related. Each of the two donor figures is assigned a church patron who accepts the gift and guides them, so to speak, to Christ enthroned in the middle. To the left of the choir arch is a female figure whose name is given in the inscription as "IHLTEPVR [C]" (Hilteburg). She is standing by Bishop Marcianus, according to the outdated view of Martin von Tours , who inclines his head towards Christ and at the same time guides and protects Hilteburg with his arm around Hilteburg's shoulder. What she originally held as an offering can no longer be recognized; it may have been a reliquary .
To the right of the choir arch, in a symmetrical position, you can see the male donor "VVINIDHERE" (Winidhere), who, bowing slightly, hands over a small church building. The church model with four windows on the long wall, gable roof and roof skylights worked out in great detail and is similar to the Goldbacherstrasse chapel. As a church patron, Winidhere is accompanied by a saint whose name only the letters CIANUS can be read. The older research assumed that it must be about Saint Priscianus , while according to the latest information the first patron Marcianus should be meant. The wealthy Winidhere family belonged to the closest circle of founders of the Reichenau monastery , in whose convent there are three monks from this family between 820 and 950. The saints are, as is customary with donor pictures of the time, shown larger than the donors themselves. The lower area of the choir arch has been painted over with floral motifs.
The pictures of the donors are more recent than the inscription of Walahfried. Older research concluded from the illustration that the chapel was donated by the Winidhere and Hilteburg couple and furnished with relics of Saint [...] cianus. Since the Reichenau monastery came into possession of relics of Priscianus in 847, this date was assumed in older research as the earliest date for the foundation of the church and Saint Priscian as the first church patron. The second patronage was in any case for St. Martin of Tours .
Life of jesus
A cycle of originally 16 scenes from the life of Jesus comes from the second furnishing phase . Four of them are well preserved, six others are partially and six are completely lost. The north and south walls of the nave are divided into two picture zones by horizontal meanders. There was space for four pictures twice on each page.
Top row of pictures clockwise, starting on the north wall (1st – 4th), then on the south wall (5th – 8th):
- 1. (destroyed)
- 2. The storm on the Sea of Galilee
- 3. The healing of the possessed
- 4. (destroyed)
- 5. Healing the leper
- 6. The Awakening of the Young Man of Naim
- 7. Christ in dispute with the Pharisees
- 8. The healing of the gout fragile
Lower row of pictures clockwise, starting on the north wall (9th – 12th), then on the south wall (13th – 16th):
- 9-12 (destroyed)
- 13. The healing of the dropsy
- 14. The awakening of Lazarus
- 15. Christ on the Mount of Olives
- 16. (destroyed)
The motifs of Jesus' miracle activity (2, 3, 5, 6, 13, 14) can also be found in the Georgskirche in Oberzell . In terms of composition, the picture with the youth of Naim (2) is very closely related to the depiction there. So they probably have the same template or at least originated in the same period. In St. Georg, however, there are no Passion paintings. The fact that a passion picture (15) has been preserved in Goldbach is interpreted by some as an indication that an entire passion cycle existed. In any case, the Goldbacher picture program is eight pictures larger and includes not only the miracles but also the passion and preaching activities of Christ.
apostle
The choir is painted on three sides; originally the side facing the nave was also decorated. The east wall originally showed Christ as Maiestas Domini , but the picture was destroyed when the choir windows were installed in the 14th century. To the left and right of the central figure, six apostles each sit on a continuous bench. To the right of Christ sit Peter and - according to the later inscription - Andrew , the other four apostles cannot be identified. On his left, Johannes can be identified as second in the row and Markus as fifth . The others cannot be assigned by name. The apostles are arranged in groups of two that form pairs facing each other.
Above and below the figures, the series of images ends with a perspective meander. The lower area of the north, east and south walls is divided by three painted columns each.
Individual evidence
- ↑ For the church there, see Sant'Ambrogio (Milan) .
- ↑ See Berschin 2005
- ↑ Berschin, Kuder 2012, p. 14, note 16.
- ↑ Quotation from Berschin 2005, p. 31/32. Printed as Walahfried, carm. 68 in Monumenta Germaniae Historica Poetae , Vol. 2, 1884, p. 409. There, however, incorrectly reproduced.
- ↑ Berschin, Kuder 2012, pp. 28f.
- ↑ Berschin, Kuder 2012, p. 24f.
- ↑ See Hecht 1979, Vol. 1
literature
- Walter Berschin , Ulrich Kuder, Reichenauer wall painting 840-1120. Goldbach - Reichenau-Oberzell St. Georg - Reichenau-Niederzell St. Peter and Paul (Reichenau texts and images 15). Mattes, Heidelberg 2012, pp. 9-29. ISBN 978-3-86809-052-9
- Walter Berschin: The chapel of Goldbach and its inscription by Walahfried Strabo. In: Michael Brunner and Marion Harder-Merkelbach (eds.): 1100 years of art and architecture in Überlingen (850–1950). Imhof, Petersberg 2005, ISBN 3-86568-032-1 , pp. 25-36.
- Dorothee Brenner: Überlingen-Goldbach: The Church of St. Sylvester . In: The northern Lake Constance area (= excursions to archeology, history and culture in Germany ). tape 55 . Konrad Theiss, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-8062-2643-0 , p. 234-237 .
- Josef Hecht and Konrad Hecht : The early medieval wall painting of the Lake Constance area. 2 vols. Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1979, ISBN 3-7995-7008-X .
- Albert Knoepfli : Art history of the Lake Constance area: 1. From the Carolingian period to the middle of the 14th century . Thorbecke, Konstanz / Lindau 1961.
- Franz Xaver Kraus: The wall paintings of the St. Sylvester Chapel in Goldbach on Lake Constance. Munich 1902. Digitized
- Karl Künstle, The Art of the Reichenau Monastery in the IX. and the 10th century and the newly discovered Carolingian painting cycle at Goldbach near Überlingen . Festschrift for the 80th birthday of His Royal Highness the Grand Duke Friedrich von Baden, Herdersche Buchhandlung, Freiburg im Breisgau 1906, 2nd edition Freiburg 1924.
Web links
Coordinates: 47 ° 46 ′ 24 ″ N , 9 ° 8 ′ 2 ″ E