Volto Santo of Lucca

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Volto Santo of Lucca

The Volto Santo (from Latin vultus sanctus, "holy face") from Lucca is a wooden crucifix created in the high Middle Ages in the cathedral of Lucca . Since it was a highly venerated miraculous image and one of the most important pilgrimage destinations of the Middle Ages, the image type of the Volto Santo spread to many European regions.

description

The crucifix depicts the crowned Savior, dressed in a belted tunic , not suffering, but as a triumphant, with a long beard, open eyes and standing upright in front of the cross. The picture was given a crown early on. It contains relics from the trunk of the cross as well as from the crown of thorns and the robe of Jesus, so it is also a reliquary . Its material is walnut, the height is 2.50 m.

history

Transfer of the Volto Santo to Lucca. Fresco 1508/09

While the oldest historically verifiable traces of the Volto Santo date back to the 11th century, the legendary reports about the cult image (also probably not written until the 12th century) go back to the beginnings of Christianity. According to this, Nicodemus named in the Gospel of John is said to have formed the image of Christ after his resurrection, guided by angels and without his own intervention. In 742 the crucifix was brought to the Tuscan port of Luni (lat. Luna). After an argument between Luni and Lucca, the latter was able to win it over in the end. What is certain is that since the end of the 11th century, a larger than life crucifix in Lucca Cathedral has been venerated by the faithful as an authentic image of the Savior. In 1119 a ciborium ("tempietto") was built over it, which was renewed in 1484 by Matteo Civitali .

Grosso from Lucca from 1209 with the holy face

In the 12th century the cult of the miraculous image took off and developed Lucca into a European pilgrimage destination. The economic significance of this fact becomes evident in the coin image of the silver grossi minted in Lucca .

In the early 13th century the old crucifix ("Volto Santo I") was replaced by the one that still exists today, with a very similar motif, but more modern in style. It was probably made around the sculpture school of Benedetto Antelami . The clothed and belted Christ on the cross in its early form is interpreted by Reiner Haussherr as a representation of the apocalyptic Christ, comparable to the Majestas Domini .

aftermath

Like few other pictorial types of the Middle Ages, the Luccheser crucifix had an influence on other European expressions of the crucified. Since the end of the 11th century, crosses of the same type, known as "Majestades", have been made in Catalonia and Roussillon . Replicas of the later type can be found in Italy, France and England. The cross was also sought out by pilgrims from the north, be it as a final destination or as a stopover on the way to Rome, and its image was spread in northern Europe. In the course of this popular veneration, the majestic character is lost and the image becomes an image of grace that is invoked as a “divine helper” (cf. the expressions of Saint Hulpe ). Several similar crosses from Germany go back to the model from Lucca. Haussherr differentiates the Volto Santo type from other forms of the clothed Christ as follows: “Christ hovers upright with horizontally outstretched arms in front of the cross. He is dressed in a long, wide-sleeved tunic. A ribbon-like belt is looped around the hips and, knotted in front of the middle of the body, ends in two long, symmetrical ends. The eyes of the crucified one are wide open, the hair parted in the middle. The two halves of the whiskers lay against each other below the chin like wings, or flow into each other. ”But many depictions are mixed forms with other traditions of the clothed crucified from the Ottonian period.

Woodcut from 1492 with the minstrel legend

In the late Middle Ages, the legend of the poor minstrel, which can be traced back to Lucca in literary terms as early as the 12th century, is narrated on replicas of the Volto Santo. Its content is as follows: In front of the cross a minstrel in need once made music, for whom the crucified one rewarded with his thrown down golden shoe. The violinist, who was then accused of theft, had proven his innocence by asking again in front of the picture, and was thrown the second shoe.

Because at that time the meaning of the tunic as a male garment was no longer known to everyone, this led to a mix-up and iconographic mixture with depictions of the Holy Sorrows , in which the minstrel legend was an integral part. It can be found on woodcuts and many wall paintings.

Imervard Cross in Brunswick Cathedral

The following list initially contains places with early, usually wooden sculptures from German-speaking countries:

  • Braunschweig, cathedral. Imervard Cross , around 1173, the most important work of the Volto-Santo succession, it probably goes back to the older Luccesian version.
  • Emmerich, crucifix in St. Martin , around 1170, (cross and arms renewed, replica after the older Lucceser cross)
  • Dates, St. Amandus , about 12th century
  • Lethmathe, St. Kilian , lecture cross, 12th century
  • Brilon, Provost Church of St. Petrus and Andreas , so-called Pankratius Cross, metal, around 1110–1130
  • Münster, State Museum
  • Münster Cathedral - high altar
  • Münster, Diocesan Museum
  • Marburg, University Museum (from Obernkirchen)
  • Aschaffenburg, museum (from Dingolfing)
  • Zurich, National Museum
  • Hülfensberg near Geismar
  • Bamberg, St. Gangolf
  • Beber, (district of Bad Münder, Lower Saxony), St. Magnus Church
  • Hanover, Landesgalerie, crucifix from Buer.
  • Sankt Hülfe (Diepholz). The medieval seal image of the church shows a cross of the Santo Volto type that was certainly there.
  • The much-cited Stedinger seal also shows such a lost cross, the original location of which we do not know, but around which there are numerous absurd hypotheses.

The following list contains a selection of Volto Santo depictions from the late Middle Ages. An alternative designation as sorrow cannot be ruled out in all cases.

The feast of Santa Croce

The Holy Face seen through the bars

The Volto Santo takes the position of a city patron in Lucca, whose feast is celebrated on September 14th for the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. The image of the cross is festively adorned with jewels. The evening before, there is a festival procession from the Church of San Frediano to the cross in the cathedral. The Volto Santo used to be carried in the festival procession. The path of the procession is illuminated by candles on the projecting walls of the houses. In addition to representatives of the political community, music groups and people in historical costumes, groups from the parish of the Archdiocese of Lucca , who previously had to pay their tax on this date, also take part. The procession ends with the performance of a choral music called motettone , which is rewritten every year by a Lucche composer. On the feast day itself, a pontifical mass is held in the cathedral .

In addition, a fair is held in the Settembre Lucchese and various cultural events are offered.

Literary reflexes

Dante mentions the Volto Santo in the Divine Comedy in the 21st Song of Hell. A devil rules a Luccheser councilor who is immersed in liquid pitch: "The Volto Santo has no place here, very different from the Serchio you swim here." ( Qui non ha loco il Santo Volto: qui si nuota altrimenti che nel Serchio ! )

Heinrich Heine satirically described the procession and the mass in the chapter The City of Lucca in the Travel Pictures (Travel Pictures, Third Part, 1830).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Based on the translation report of the 12th century given by Schwarzmaier p. 340. Other sources with a different list of cross relics.
  2. ↑ Haussherr, p. 132
  3. ↑ For details on the tradition and the genesis of the legends, see Haussherr, p. 137 ff. And Schwarzmaier, p. 339 ff.
  4. ↑ Schwarzmaier, p. 349ff. - For the narrative topos of the Acheiropoieton , an image created by divine power, cf. in this context Hagemann, pp. 108-112.
  5. ↑ Haussherr, p. 141 ff.
  6. ↑ cf. the article "Tempietto del Volto Santo" on this important work of Renaissance architecture in the Italian Wikipedia.
  7. ↑ The dating and attribution of this version, named “Volto Santo II” in the art-historical discussion, are based on the historical analysis of Geza de Francovich (see lit.), which is generally accepted by research.
  8. ↑ Haussherr, pp. 163–167
  9. ↑ Manuel Trens: Les Majestates Catalanes (Monumenta Catalaniae XIII), Barcelona 1966; Haussherr, pp. 143-146
  10. ↑ Haussherr, pp. 146–152
  11. ↑ Haussherr, p. 142f.
  12. ↑ Other depictions of the clothed crucified Christ, although often referred to as the Volto-Santo type, have little or nothing to do with the decisive characteristics of the Lucceser picture: Neufahrn near Munich; Cathedral Münster, Rostock, formerly St. Nikolai, now St. Marien, a. a.
  13. ↑ Donat de Chapeaurouge: The violin legend of the Volto Santo , in: Music and history: Festschrift Leo Schrade for the 60th birthday. Cologne 1963, pp. 126-133.
  14. ↑ Volto Santo representations are but (according to the Swiss-Vüllers, pp 96-107) is not cause for the emergence of sorrow images.
  15. ↑ Hegemann, pp. 97-104
  16. ↑ Critical to these: Karl Sichart: St. Hulpe. On the interpretation of the Stedinger seal , in: Bremisches Jahrbuch 44, 1955, pp. 55–70. - Rolf Köhn: The hereticization of the Stedinger by the Bremen Synod of Lent . In: Bremisches Jahrbuch 57, 1979, here p. 25 f.
  17. ↑ Arndt Müller: The Volto Santo mural in the Carmelite Church in Weißenburg i. Bay. In: Weißenburger Blätter H. 1/2012. Weißenburg i. Bay. 2011, pp. 5–23 ( digitized text ).
  18. ↑ L. Schmidt: The Linz Volto-Santo-Fresko , in: Art Yearbook of the City of Linz 1964, pp. 59–67; Gregor Martin Lechner: The Volto-Santo in St. Martin in Linz / Danube In: 1200 years Martinskirche Linz . Linz 1999. pp. 77-83.
  19. ↑ Arndt Müller: Pictures of Volto Santo and St. Sorrow in the Ries and its surroundings . In: Rieser Kulturtage, Documentation Volume XVI / 2006. Nördlingen 2007, pp. 309-354.
  20. ^ Andreas Röpcke: Twice St. Hulpe. Investigations into a Low German cult figure of the late Middle Ages. In: Mecklenburgische Jahrbücher 128, 2013, pp. 7–37, here p. 9 and Fig. 2–3.

literature

  • Gustav Schnürer and Joseph M. Ritz: Sankt Kümmernis and Volto Santo. ( Research on Folklore 13/15). Düsseldorf 1934 (fundamental, rich in material, but no longer relevant in important core statements).
  • Geza de Francovich: Il Volto Santo di Lucca , in: Bolletino storico Lucchese 8, 1936.
  • Reiner Haussherr : The Imerward Cross and the Volto Santo type. in: Zeitschrift für Kunstwissenschaft 16, 1962, pp. 129–170.
  • Friedrich Gorissen: The Cross of Lucca and the H. Wilgefortis / Ontkommer on the Lower Rhine. A contribution to hagiography and iconography. In: Numaga 15, 1968, pp. 122-148.
  • Ernst Hagemann: On the iconography of Christ crucified in the belted tunic . In: Low German Contributions to Art History Volume 13, 1974, pp. 97–119.
  • Hansmartin Schwarzmaier: Lucca and the Empire up to the end of the 11th century , Tübingen 1974.
  • Manuel Trens: Les Majestates Catalanes (Monumenta Catalaniae XIII), Barcelona 1966;
  • Lexicon of Christian Iconography, Vol. 4, Freiburg 1972, Col. 471–472.
  • Peter Spranger : The violinist von Gmünd: Justinus Kerner and the story of a legend. Schwäbisch Gmünd ²1991, ISBN 3-926043-08-3 ( digitized ; review ).
  • Regine Schweizer-Vüllers: The saint on the cross. Studies on the female image of God in the late Middle Ages and the Baroque period. P. Lang, Bern a. a. 1997, ISBN 3-906757-98-6 .
  • see also the literature on the article Kümmernis .