Ursula bust
An Ursula bust is a form of medieval reliquary bust that was made in Cologne around 1300 to 1450 in connection with the cult of Saint Ursula and her supposedly 11,000 companions. Most of the busts are made of wood; in the early days of the cult there were also a number of busts made of precious metal or with metal fittings. They are hollow and have a removable head cover to accommodate bones. In the chest, in which other bones were kept in addition to the skull, there is often an opening for viewing.
origin
Reliquaries in head or bust form can be traced back to the 9th century; they went back to a custom of giving the container of a relic the shape of the part of the body that was kept. This tradition had its origins in the ban on showing relics without a container. There were also reliquary containers in the shape of feet or arms.
In Cologne, the veneration of Saint Ursula increased significantly in the 13th century after large burial grounds of Roman origin had been discovered. The bones were interpreted as those of Ursula's companions, who had grown from eleven to 11,000, and were suddenly “blessed” with rich relics. For example, the Ursula monastery alone had around 1,800 skulls, and there were 1,200 in the Altenberg monastery . The numerous pilgrims who then traveled to Cologne were often buyers of Ursula busts. A papal ban on the export of Ursula relics towards the end of the 14th century dampened the buoyant trade.
Shapes and material
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The busts were made purposefully, the head had to be large enough to hold a skull, and the cavity of the thorax could accommodate other bones. These could be viewed from the outside through openings in the chest, thereby circumventing the papal prohibition and allowing the wishes of the religious audience to be met.
There are two basic shapes: While most busts end below the chest, there are some with shoulders and arms that are shaped down to the hips. Depending on the shape, sizes range from 25 to 76 centimeters. In order to maintain the proportions but still accommodate a skull bone in the bust, the head of the bust was enlarged backwards.
The material for the wooden busts was mostly walnut or oak, the lids in the skull were made of softer wood and attached to the back of the head with a hinge. Shapes down to hair and eyes were carved in great detail. A multi-layer application of chalk served as a frame , followed by layers of pigment ( bolus ) in different colors for the face and hair. One can distinguish between types with a naturalistic, flesh-colored face and those with a silver-plated face. The finish was a gilding of the robe and hair, with gold leaf and gold varnish being used.
Art historical significance
The craftsmanship of the busts varies, but is consistently considered to be a good level of figurative sculpture. The importance of art history lies in the large number of pieces that were created and preserved over a known period and in a locally narrowly limited radius, which enables a precise comparison of styles and conclusions to be drawn about other figurative sculptures of the epoch and region.
In his extensive work on the Ursula busts, Oskar Karpa distinguished 17 types in a stock of 150 busts in 1934, which he dated differently. The development goes from a very “stylized”, spiritualized facial expression to a more naturalistic image of a “fresh, Cologne girl”, which corresponds to the beauty ideal of that time with a high forehead, a narrow, straight nose and a small mouth.
Occurrence
In the Romanesque St. Ursula Church in Cologne , the center of Ursula veneration, 120 Ursula busts are still kept today, most of them in the so-called Golden Chamber , where a large number of other bones are stored. Around thirty Ursula busts are in the possession of the Museum Schnütgen ; two of them on permanent loan to the Cologne City Museum . Individual busts can be found all over Europe to this day.
literature
- Oskar Karpa: Cologne reliquary busts from the Gothic period from the Ursula circle. (= Series of publications Rheinischer Verein für Denkmalpflege und Heimatschutz , Volume 27, Issue 1). Düsseldorf 1934.
- Joseph Solzbacher, Veronika Hopmann: The legend of St. Ursula . Cologne 1964
- St. Ursula and her eleven thousand virgins. Exhibition catalog Wallraf-Richartz-Museum , 6 July to 3 September 1978. Cologne 1978.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Hiltrud Westermann-Angerhausen , Dagmar Täube : The Middle Ages in 111 masterpieces from the Museum Schnütgen Cologne Cologne 2003, p. 85.
- ↑ Karpa: Cologne reliquary busts from the Ursulakreis p. 22 (very small busts can be explained by the fact that in the meantime children's skeletons had also been found that were used as relics).
- ↑ a b Hopmann, The history of the veneration of Ursula , in: The legend of Saint Ursula ; P. 70f
