Wall painting of the crucifix in the sleeve tunic (St. Lambertus, Düsseldorf)

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Mural of the Volto Santo today. A better fig Wilgefortis

The wall painting of the crucifix in the sleeve tunic in the Lambertus Church in Düsseldorf dates from the second half of the 15th century and is a work of the Cologne School . It was originally covered with fabric and whitewashed. The work of art shows a male figure with a beard who hangs on the cross in a long robe. The violinist kneels at the foot of the altar and is thrown a golden shoe by the figure on the cross (the so-called shoe miracle). The double depicted coat of arms is remarkable: according to older literature, it should show the Bergisch lion , in the background the colors of the state coat of arms of Saxony can be seen. In particular, Clemen believes that the wedding of Gerhard VII von Jülich-Berg with Sophie von Sachsen-Lauenburg could be the basis for the depiction: “The union of the Bergisch lion with the Saxon colors indicates the marriage of Duke Gerhard II with Sophie von Sachsen-Lauenberg in 1441 ” .

Previous research

Regardless of its interpretation, the Secco mural in St. Lambertus initially shows a Volto-Santo representation (Holy Cross of Lucca), as was common on murals north of the Alps in the 14th and 15th centuries with the cross on top Altar with nimbus, candlesticks and minstrel or the shoe miracle as a symbol of the cross of Lucca. In the literature, the Düsseldorf mural was and is referred to as Volto Santo as well as Kümmernis . In contrast, Schnürer / Ritz voted in 1934 for the depiction of the Volto Santo. They contradicted the older view from around 1870, as did Paul Clemen in 1894 ("Wilgefortis or Kümmernis" - see above !!). In his correction in 1930, Clemen wrote of a Volto Santo "in connection with the legend of sorrow". More recently, Norbert Nussbaum in 1984 and Hermann J. Richartz in 2004 described the picture as sorrow. Dehio-Rheinland 2005 again as Volto Santo. In her publication from 2008, Gisela Cursiefen decided to interpret it as worry.

Image interpretation

In the literature, the picture is dated between 1444 and 1484 in terms of style ("Cologne School") and based on heraldic attributions. With this time frame, a formal interpretation as sorrow comes into question, for the representation of which in southern Germany from 1470 native templates for murals of the Volto Santo, namely a crucifixus in a tunic on an altar with a minstrel on the side, were adopted. (Only the southern German sorrow is connected with the Volto-Santo representation.) The cult of sorrow did not arise in southern Germany until 1470, after the older Flemish-southern Dutch Wilgefortis / Sint Ontkommer cult had been introduced from the Rhine. Now the Wilgefortis / Ontkommer has been venerated in the area on the Lower Rhine and on the southern Baltic Sea coast (Rostock) since around 1400, for which completely different representations were used. Here Wilgefortis is tied to the cross standing on earth or nailed to Sint Ontkommer, surrounded by the characters of the legend such as father, suitor, executioner, but without (!) A minstrel. If you want to claim the picture in Düsseldorf for the "Kümmernis" veneration, you have to prove that the cult of the southern German Kümmernis with its V.-S. representation was transferred to the Lower Rhine. There is no evidence of this import in the Rhineland for the 15th century. Heinz Finger and Ulrich Brzosa do not mention the cult of Wilgefortis and Kümmernis for Düsseldorf in their representations. Especially since even in the southern German area of ​​origin the six early depictions for the worship of sorrow in Swabia and Franconia cannot be dated before the last quarter of the 15th century, if not around the turn of the century. Second, in the early days of the cult, there are generally no personal images of the benefactors for sorrow. Thirdly, as Wilgefortis / Ontkommer had done before, sorrow was often venerated with an altar and liturgy. We have no historical news about this downright cult for St. Lambertus or for Düsseldorf in general before 1500.

In contrast, the mural shows the significant features of a northern Alpine Volto Santo depiction, as it was used to worship the cross of Lucca. These include the relatively large image area, the great height of the attachment and, above all, the signs of personal admiration - here instead of a figurative representation of the donor (s) her / his coat of arms. The picture has the dimensions H. 2.40 mx W. 1.65 m. The installation height is approx. 3.50 m. Compare, for example, picture area and mounting height in Bamberg approx. 9 m² / approx. 10 m; Marburg 2.2 m² / approx. 3 m; Rostock 20.5 m² / 4.32 m; Weißenburg 11.6 m² / approx. 3 m. It is characteristic that the place above the south portal excludes liturgical veneration with an altar. The murals were devotional and memorial images of phases in life in which the donor had a special relationship with the Luccheser Cross and its miraculous salvation offer. Above all, the connection between the image and the founder figure or coat of arms corresponds to the social conditions of the admirers. From the 14th to the early 15th century, the admirers came from the nobility, patriciate and high-ranking clergy. Schnürer / Ritz rightly write of a "... cult of the rich." The nobility and patriciate got to know the Volto Santo mainly during their service as horsemen in Italy during the 14th century, the clergy during their studies in Bologna, Ferrara, etc.

Heraldic Problems and Dating

For the identification of the donors (and thus also for the dating) on ​​the basis of the twice reproduced coat of arms (a shield divided in white over green, a blue crowned red lion striding to the right with a double tail), the literature offers two different heraldic and thus temporal approaches. The elder regards the coat of arms as a kind of combined coat of arms of Duke Gerhard VII von Jülich-Berg (r. 1437–1460, † 1475) and Sophie von Sachsen-Lauenburg (approx. 1430–1473), marriage in 1444, and dated accordingly the picture in the forties of the 15th century. On the other hand, Gisela Cursiefen convincingly assigns the double coat of arms to the widely ramified von der Horst family, namely their Rhenish-Bergische branch, which had its residences in the vicinity of Düsseldorf. However, your further evidence to specifically identify the donors of the mural is partially wrong. She suggests the two brothers Gerard and Konrad von der Horst as donors because they were members of the Hubertus Order. With this she connects a dating between 1468 and 1475 or 1477 and 1484. Even if this connection between the Hubertus Order and Volto Santo did not actually exist, the assignment of the image foundation to these two von der Horst brothers is justified. Konrad was von Berg's heir and thus belonged to the court society. After all, the documented age of the two brothers falls mainly in the second half of the 15th century. Due to which life experiences Gerard and Konrad turned to the veneration of the Volto Santo, it must remain open for the time being. Adoration of sorrow is in any case to be ruled out. Giesela Cursiefen's reflections on this have no appropriate historical or piety-historical foundation. The age of the brothers then corresponds to the late style-critical dating of the aristocratic picture foundation. The striking architectural balustrade around the Altarmensa with its pinnacle on the right at the back and the finials (crabs) on the openwork parapet can also be found very similarly on the left wing and on the middle panel of the so-called Sebastian Altar from 1493 by the Younger Master of the Holy Tribe (active in Cologne from 1450 to around 1515), but not on works by Stefan Lochner († 1451). This architectural motif only emerged in Cologne in the second half of the 15th century.

Contrary to popular belief, the mural in St. Lambertus was not created for the cult of sorrow, but for the veneration of St. Cross of Lucca attached, as well as the other murals of the Volto Santo in the vicinity in Bonn, Roxel, Schwerte and Soest (all no longer visible today or destroyed).

literature

  • Without an author, without a title (reviews, communications etc .: Düsseldorf). In: Organ für Christian Kunst, Vol. 20 (1870), No. 5. Cologne 1870, p. 60. [1] , accessed August 9, 2020.
  • Woldemar Harless (Harleß): untitled (Miscellen No. 9. Düsseldorf). In: Yearbooks of the Society of Friends of Antiquity in the Rhineland (1870), booklet XLIX (49). Bonn 1870, pp. 186–187 [2] , accessed August 9, 2020.
  • Paul Clemen (Ed.): The art monuments of the city and the district of Düsseldorf. Düsseldorf 1894 (The Art Monuments of the Rhine Province. Volume 3, Section 1). Reprint Warburg 1995. ( online )
  • Paul Clemen: The Gothic monumental paintings of the Rhineland . 2 volumes. Düsseldorf 1930. Here text volume.
  • Gustav Schnürer - Joseph M. Ritz: Sankt Kümmernis and Volto Santo . (Research on Folklore 13/15). Düsseldorf 1934.
  • Norbert Nussbaum: St. Lambertus in Düsseldorf . Cologne 1984 (Rheinische Kunststätten, issue 293).
  • Rainer Budde: Cologne and its painters 1300-1500 . Cologne 1986.
  • Heinz Finger: Neuss and Düsseldorf as medieval pilgrimage sites . In: Dieter Geuenich (Ed.): Adoration of saints and pilgrimages on the Lower Rhine. Essen 2004, pp. 119–131.
  • Hermann J. Richartz: St. Lambertus Basilica, Düsseldorf Old Town . Lindenberg 2004.
  • Georg Dehio: Handbook of the German art monuments. North Rhine-Westphalia I. Rhineland . Munich / Berlin 2005.
  • Arndt Müller: Images of the Volto Santo and St. Sorrow in the Ries and its surroundings. In: Rieser Kulturtage, Documentation Volume XVI / 2006. Nördlingen 2007, pp. 309-354.
  • Gisela Cursiefen: Volto Santo or Sorrow . An enigmatic mural in the St. Lambertus Basilica in Düsseldorf. Bristol / Berlin 2008 (Tenea).
  • Arndt Müller: The Volto Santo mural in the Carmelite Church in Weißenburg i. Bay. In: Villa nostra - Weißenburger Blätter. History, local history, culture. Issue 1 (January) 2012. Weißenburg i. Bay. (City Archives), pp. 5–23 [3] , accessed August 9, 2020.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Paul Clemen 1894, p. 44. The year of the wedding was 1444. Sophie von Sachsen-Lauenburg († 1473) .
  2. ↑ Schnürer / Ritz 1934, p. 231.
  3. ↑ Without author 1870 and Harless 1870, p. 186.
  4. ↑ Clemen 1894, pp. 34–51 (44), Fig. 12 on p. 46.
  5. ↑ Clemen 1930, p. 326.
  6. ↑ Nussbaum 1984, pp. 9-10, Richartz 2004, pp. 23-24, Dehio 2005, p. 292.
  7. ↑ Cursiefen 2008, pp. 75–77.
  8. ↑ Müller 2012, p. 13.
  9. ↑ Finger in Geuenich 2004 a. Ulrich Brzosa: The History of the Catholic Church in Düsseldorf - From the Beginnings to Secularization. Cologne 2001.
  10. ↑ Müller 2007, p. 318.
  11. ↑ According to Heinz Peters: The equipment. In: The collegiate and parish church of St. Lambertus in Düsseldorf. Ratingen 1965, p. 146.
  12. ↑ Müller 2012, p. 12, note 20.
  13. ↑ Schnürer / Ritz 1934, p. 310.
  14. ↑ Müller 2012, p. 6.
  15. ↑ Clemen 1894, p. 44; also Schnürer / Ritz 1934, p. 231.
  16. ↑ Cursiefen 2008, pp. 57–61.
  17. ↑ Cursiefen 2008, pp. 61– 63.
  18. ↑ Cursiefen 2008, pp. 70–77.
  19. ↑ Budde 1986, pp. 126–127 Fig. 109.
  20. ↑ Schnürer / Ritz 1934, p. 223 (Bonn), 230-231 (Roxel); Dorothea Kluge: Gothic wall painting in Westphalia. Münster 1959, p. 28 (Schwerte) and p. 185 (Soest).