Tag Archives: Santiago de Compostela

Saint Roch: The Saint “Par Excellence” Against Disease

04 Saturday Apr 2020

Posted by in Tomb / Sarcophagus

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IMG_3552

Christian Jorhan, Heilige Rochus (Saint Roch), polychromed limewood (Landshut, Germany 1760/1770). Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremburg, Germany.  Photo by Reliquarian.

For centuries, the anxious and sick have invoked the saints to prevent or cure virtually every conceivable human affliction.  The intercession of Saint Blaise, for example, has traditionally been sought to relieve throat ailments while appeals to Saint Erasmus have sought help for intestinal disorders, stomach diseases, or birth pains.[1]  In the 14th century, the plague introduced a fearsome new threat to the health and well-being of European society, and a number of saints burnished or established reputations as protectors against the disease.  Chief among these was Saint Roch (also San Roque or San Rocco), a devout pilgrim who came to be regarded as “the saint par excellence against pestilence.”[2]

Roch Legends

Not much is definitively known about Saint Roch other than that he was born in Montepelier, France in the 13th or 14th century and that he tended to the sick during an outbreak of plague in Italy.[3]  According to legend, he left Montpelier at the age of 20 on a pilgrimage to Rome and, finding vast areas of Italy stricken with plague, he dedicated himself to the care of the sick.[4]  He visited various cities and regions—Rome, Rimini, Novara, Acquapendente—healing the sick merely by making the sign of the cross on them until he himself contracted the disease.[5]  Determined not to become a burden on any hospital, he resolved to straggle into the forest to die.[6]

25.120.239a, b

Saint Roch, oak, paint, and gilt (Normandy, France, early 16th century).  The Met Cloisters, New York.  Photo courtesy the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Death, however, eluded him.  Having entered the forest near Piacenza without food, he was fed by a dog that miraculously appeared everyday with a loaf of bread in its mouth.  Eventually, he was healed of plague by an angel and, after recovering, he returned to Piacenza where he cured many more people—as well as their sick cattle.[7]

It is unclear how Saint Roch eventually died.  Some stories claim he returned to Montpelier and was imprisoned by his uncle, who did not recognize him, and he eventually died in prison.  Other stories suggest he was arrested as a spy and died in captivity in Lombardy.  Regardless of how he died, many miracles were attributed to him shortly after his death.[8]  For example, he was credited with having ended an outbreak of plague in Constance in 1414 when the Council of Constance was then in session.[9]  

Saint Roch - Met Museum 2

Master of the Biberach Holy Kinship, Saint Roch and the Angel, limwood with traces of paint (Swabia, German, c. 1520).  The angel who healed Saint Roch of the plague can be seen here attending his wound.  Photo courtesy the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Saint Roch was initially buried in Montpelier, however, his relics were subsequently stolen in 1485 by wily Venetians intent on securing his powerful protection for their own city.[10]  A bustling commercial center, Venice suffered frequent bouts of plague at the time.  According to one account, “[t]he [Venetian] conspirators sailed to Montpelier under pretense of performing a pilgrimage, and carried off the body of the saint, with which they returned to Venice, and were received by the doge, the senate, and the clergy, and all the people, with inexpressible joy.”[11]  (The Venetians seemed to have a proclivity for stealing holy relics.  In 828, the Venetians similarly pilfered the body of Saint Mark from Alexandria, Egypt.  The perpetrators concealed their prize under layers of pork and cabbage to dissuade Muslim officials from inspecting their cargo.)  Today, the relics of Saint Roch may be found at Chiesa di San Rocco in Venice.  Saint Roch’s feast day is 16 August.

Roch Paintings . . . And Other Depictions in Art

Saint Roch’s attributes in art include a small leg wound, a dog carrying a loaf of bread, and pilgrim paraphernalia.[12]  In Catholic iconography, his emblems are probably among the least harrowing.  Admittedly, there is something unsettling about the plague wound he is frequently shown displaying in his groin, but the wound is far less gruesome than the attributes of many other saints—Saint Erasmus’s intestine-coiled windlass and Saint Lucy’s plate of eyeballs immediately spring to mind.  

The wound, known as a bubo, is the result of swollen lymph glands caused by Yersinia pestis, the bacterium responsible for bubonic plague.[13]  Commonly transmitted by fleas, the bacterium quickly travels to the lymph nodes once it enters the bloodstream.  There, the bacterium multiplies causing the lymph nodes to swell into a painful mass.  According to Wendy Orent, these buboes can “turn black and rotten, and begin to slough, revealing and destroying tissue and muscles, sometimes down to the bone.  Other times, the buboes ripen and discharge large quantities of foul-smelling pus.”[14]  Although buboes can occur in the neck or armpits, Saint Roch is commonly shown with a bubo in his upper thigh.

IMG_3553

Christian Jorhan, Heilige Rochus (Saint Roch) (detail), polychromed limewood (Landshut, Germany, 1760/1770). Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremburg, Germany.  In this detail, Saint Roch points at the bubo caused by bubonic plague clearly evident in his leg.  Photo by Reliquarian.

Representations of Saint Roch also frequently show him accompanied by the miraculous dog credited with feeding him in the forest.  Interestingly, as Phyllis McGinley points out in her charming book Saint-Watching, dogs make surprisingly few appearances in stories about the saints.[15]  Perhaps that is what makes Saint Roch’s canine companion so memorable.  Or perhaps the image of a kindly dog with a loaf of bread in its mouth simply cannot fail to enchant.  In any event, Saint Roch’s dog is undoubtedly one of the more delightful emblems of any saint.  

IMG_3554

Christian Jorhan, Heilige Rochus (Saint Roch) (detail), polychromed limewood (Landshut, Germany, 1760/1770). Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremburg, Germany.  A miraculous dog is said to have brought Saint Roch loaves of bread in the forest.  Photo by Reliquarian.

Lastly, Saint Roch is often depicted in pilgrims’ clothes, alluding to his pilgrimage to Rome.  Sometimes his status as a pilgrim is indicated by a scallop shell pinned either to his hat or his cloak.  Seashells were a common symbol of pilgrimage, and several other saints, including Saint James the Greater, share this attribute in art.  (The seashell initially indicated a pilgrimage to Saint James’s shrine at Compostela, Spain, but it later developed into a more generic symbol of pilgrimage.)[16]  Sometimes, however, either in addition to or instead of a seashell, Saint Roch may be represented with crossed keys on his clothes.  The crossed keys are a reference to Saint Peter and, by extension, Rome.  Saint Peter was the first Bishop of Rome, and his primary symbol in art is a key or set of keys representing the keys to heaven.[17]  (In scenes known as the traditio clavum, Christ is shown giving Saint Peter the keys of heaven)].  Other symbols of pilgrimage could include a broad-brimmed hat, a staff, and a small purse.[18]

Saint Roch - Stained Glass Window

Stained Glass Panel with Saint Roch, the van Merle Family Arms, and a Donor (detail), pot metal, white glass, vitreous paint, and silver stain (Cologne, Germany, 16th century).  Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.  In this detail, note Saint Roch’s pilgrim staff and the crossed keys on his hat.  Crossed keys denoted a pilgrimage to Rome.  Photo courtesy the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Roch Solid

Since at least the early 15th century, Saint Roch has been recognized as a powerful protector against plague and other infectious diseases.  Unsurprisingly, the COVID-19 pandemic has revived interest in Saint Roch and other saints associated with outbreaks of disease, including Saint Rosalia and Saint Corona.[19]  For some, however, Saint Roch is and always will remain “the saint par excellence against pestilence.”[20]  

High Altar - Church of San Rocco

High Altar with Tomb of Saint Roch, Chiesa di San Rocco (Church of Saint Roch), Venice, Italy.  Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

[1] See, e.g., Rosa Giorgi, Saints in Art 66–68, 119–20 (Thomas Michael Hartmann trans., Stefano Zuffi ed., 2002)

[2] 3 Butler’s Lives of the Saints 338 (Herbert J. Thurston, S.J. & Donald Attwater eds., 2d ed. 1956).

[3] Id.

[4]  Id.

[5] Id.

[6] Id.  

[7]  Id. (“W]hen he was convalescent he returned to Piacenza and miraculously cured many more folk, as well as their sick cattle.”)

[8] Id.

[9] Anna Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art 36 (1887).

[10] Butler’s Lives of the Saints, supra note 2.

[11] Jameson, supra note 9, at 36.

[12] Giorgi, supra note 1, at 320.

[13] Wendy Orent, Plague: The Mysterious Past and Terrifying Future of the World’s Most Dangerous Disease (2004).

[14] Id.

[15] Phyllis McGinley, Saint-Watching 75 (1969).

[16] Giorgi, supra note 1, at 320.

[17] Id. at 297–310.

[18] See, e.g., Jean Sorabella, “Pilgrimage in Medieval Europe,” (Apr. 2011) Metropolitan Museum of Art, https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pilg/hd_pilg.htm.

[19] See, e.g., Bishop Jugis Asks for Intercessory Prayer to End Coronavirus, Catholic News Herald (Mar. 16, 2020), https://catholicnewsherald.com/88-news/fp/5575-bishop-jugis-asks-for-intercessory-prayer-to-end-coronavirus.

[20] Butler’s Lives of the Saints, supra note 2, at 338.

The Way of Saint James: Pilgrimage to the Tomb of a “Son of Thunder”

09 Saturday Mar 2013

Posted by in Altarpiece

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Twelve Apostles Altar

Twelve Apostles Altar, Church of Saint James (St. Jakobskirche), Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany. Photo by Reliquarian.

The Way of Saint James

According to tradition, Saint James, one of the twelve Apostles, was martyred by beheading in the year 44.  After the rediscovery of his relics in 814, pilgrimages to his tomb in Compostela, northern Spain, became extremely popular.  Compostela even rivaled Jerusalem and Rome as a destination for pilgrim travelers during the Middle Ages.  Consequently, routes to Saint James’s shrine, including one through Rothenburg, Germany, crisscrossed Europe, marking the path to the saint’s tomb.  Today, the Way of Saint James (Camino de Santiago) continues to direct travelers to the remains of the fiery-tempered Apostle whom Jesus once called a “Son of Thunder.”

Invitation to a Beheading

Saint James was beheaded in Jerusalem during the Christian persecutions of King Herod Agrippa I.  According to Clement of Alexandria, Saint James’s accuser was so moved by the courage and conviction James showed at his trial that he subsequently repented and declared himself a Christian.  As a consequence, the man was sentenced to be beheaded alongside Saint James.  As both men were led to execution, the accuser turned to James and begged for his forgiveness.  According to Butler’s Lives of the Saints, “St James, after pausing a little, turned to him and embraced him, saying, ‘Peace be with you’.  He then kissed him, and they were both beheaded together.”[1]

A Tomb by the Sounding Sea

Saint James - Colmar

Isenheim Altarpiece, Matthias Grunewald (sculptures by Nicolas of Hagenau) (detail), 1510-1515, Colmar, France. On the carved predella of the Isenheim Altarpiece, Saint James can be seen holding a large seashell in his right hand. His pilgrim’s cap is also adorned with a shell. Photo by Reliquarian.

Early chronicles suggested that after his death, Saint James’s remains were transported from Jerusalem to the northern coast of Spain where they were buried contra mare Britannicum, “close to the British sea.”[2]  The location of the tomb, however, remained a mystery until, centuries later, in about 814, the tomb was rediscovered under miraculous circumstances.[3]  According to legend, a local monk named Pelayo was guided by a star to a secluded spot in the woods near the Galician coast.[4]  There he discovered a marble sarcophagus that contained human bones, apparently very old.[5]  Bishop Teodomir, the local bishop, proclaimed the remains to be those of Saint James, long believed to have been buried in the region.  After learning of the discovery, King Alfonso II journeyed to the site to venerate the relics and ordered that a church be built on the spot.  The modest church established by King Alfonso II later grew into the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, the ultimate destination of pilgrims traveling the Way of Saint James.

King Alfonso II’s journey to the tomb of Saint James is considered the first pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, and it set the example for subsequent generations of pilgrim travelers.  Departing from Oviedo, the location of his royal court, King Alfonso II likely took the Roman road known as the Camino Primitivo to Compostela.  As the popularity of Saint James’s shrine grew, other routes gradually came into regular use, such as the Camino del Norte, another Roman road, which skirted the coast.  By the 11th century, the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela had become an international phenomenon, drawing visitors from all over Christendom and establishing Santiago de Compostela as a rival to Jerusalem and Rome for pilgrims.[6]  In a paper discussing the history of the pilgrimage, Laurie Dennett opines that interest in Saint James’s relics had begun to shift the “conceptual geography of Christian Europe, giving it a new pole in the west, a new focus for popular devotion, that balanced the Byzantine east with its spiritual centre at Jerusalem.”[7]  She further notes that “Santiago de Compostela even seemed to rival the pretensions of Rome,” at least for a time.[8]

St. Jakobskirche and the Twelve Apostles Altar

The St. Jakobskirche (Saint James’s Church) in Rothenburg ob der Tauber was once an important stop on the pilgrimage road to Santiago de Compostela.  Known more widely as the home of the Altar of the Holy Blood, the church also houses the impressive Twelve Apostles Altar (Zwölfbotenaltar), a carved altarpiece with a painted predella and painted wings, which incorporates several images of Saint James.

St Jakobskirche

View of St. Jakobskirche from the city walls.  Photo by Reliquarian.

Completed in 1466, the altarpiece is the work of Hans Waidenlich and Friedrich Herlin with carvings in the Multscher tradition by an unknown sculptor.[9]  Herlin, who may have been from Rothenburg, moved to Nördlingen later in his career and is closely identified with the Twelve Apostles Altar, which he signed: “This work was made by Friedrich Herlin, painter, mcccclxvi.  Saint James pray to God for him.”[10]

In Carved Splendor:  Late Gothic Altarpieces in Southern Germany, Austria, and South Tirol, Rainer Kahsnitz identifies the Twelve Apostles Altar as “one of the best-preserved altarpieces from the Late Gothic period.”[11]  Although little is known about the origins of the altarpiece, Kahsnitz speculates that it must have replaced an earlier work at St. Jakobskirche.[12]

Twelve Apostles Altar - Detail

Twelve Apostles Altar (detail).  Photo by Reliquarian.

The corpus of the altarpiece depicts the Crucifixion, with Mary (to the left) and Saint John the Evangelist (to the right) below the cross, flanking the dying Christ.  Next to Mary stands Saint James wearing a pilgrim’s hat decorated with a scallop shell, a symbol of pilgrimage.  Two other shells dangle from his wrist, and he is shown with a pilgrim’s staff, another defining attribute of the patron saint of pilgrims.[13]  The other carved figures below the cross are Saint Elizabeth (to the far left), who is carrying a loaf of bread and a pitcher; Saint Leonard (next to Saint John), the patron saint of prisoners of war; and Saint Anthony the hermit (to the far right), who is shown with a bell.  According to Kahsnitz, the altar was kept permanently closed following Rothenburg’s adoption of the Reformation.[14]  This helped preserve the sculptures and the paintings on the inner wings.[15]

SS James and Peter

Saint James and Saint Peter. Friedrich Herlin’s predella depicts Saint James with his traditional attributes in art:  a pilgrim’s staff and a seashell.  To the right of Saint James is Saint Peter with several of his symbols:  a set of keys and a book.  Photo by Reliquarian.

Saint James appears again on Herlin’s predella with a shell in one hand and a pilgrim’s staff in the other.  To his left, Saint Peter carries two of his traditional attributes: a set of keys and a book, which he peers into with the aid of spectacles.  All twelve Apostles are represented on the predella, arranged in pairs behind a Late Gothic balustrade.[16]  In addition to other paintings, the back of the predella also features a depiction of the veil of Saint Veronica:  the image of Christ’s face with a crown of thorns imprinted on a veil or shroud.[17]

Sons of Thunder

Saint James is often known as “the Greater” to distinguish him from Saint James, son of Alphaeus, known as “the Lesser.”  He was the son of Zebedee and brother of Saint John the Evangelist, and he was the first Apostle martyred.  Saint James and his brother John apparently earned the epithet Boanerges, or “Sons of Thunder,” on account of their “impetuous spirit and fiery temper.”[18]  Nevertheless, as noted in Butler’s Lives of the Saints, James, John, and Peter, the Apostles “who from time to time acted impetuously, and had to be rebuked, were the very ones our Lord turned to on special occasions.”[19]  James, John, and Peter were the only Apostles to witness the agony in the garden of Gethsemani and were the only ones present for the Transfiguration.

Modern Pilgrims

The Way of Saint James continues to be a popular with pilgrims even today.  According to the Confraternity of Saint James, an organization founded “to bring together people interested in the medieval pilgrim routes through France and Spain to Santiago de Compostela,” the last several decades “have seen an extraordinary revival of interest in the pilgrimage to Santiago.”[20]  Once considered “one of the greatest of all Christian shrines” in the Middle Ages,[21] the route from the border of France and Spain known as the Camino Francés was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993.[22]

Twelve Apostles Altar 3

Twelve Apostles Altar, Church of Saint James (St. Jakobskirche), Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany. Photo by Reliquarian.

Still, some scholars question whether Saint James ever preached in Spain and whether the remains interred at Santiago de Compostela really are those of Saint James.  Butler’s Lives of the Saints states, “Outside of Spain almost all eminent scholars and critical students of history answer both questions in the negative.”[23]  Several authors have argued that Saint James’s visit to Spain is “improbable” because Saint James was martyred in Jerusalem in the year 44 and because he was “unheard of in Spain before the end of the seventh century.”[24]  Additionally, while it may be “quite possible that the relics recovered, after they had been lost, are identical with those which were venerated at Compostela in the middle ages, . . . the authenticity of medieval relics is always difficult to establish and in this case it is more than dubious.”[25]

Nevertheless, thousands of people continue to follow the Way of Saint James to Santiago de Compostela each year.  While there are “as many reasons for this revival as there are pilgrims,” the Confraternity of Saint James observes that “many people make the pilgrimage at a turning point in their lives, and . . . many are helped to come to terms with personal crisis by a period of separation from all that is familiar, and the shared hardship of the road.”[26]

Pilgrim's Hat

Pilgrim’s Hat, felt, silk braid, shell, bone, jet (c. 1571). This pilgrim’s hat is currently on display at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, Germany, along with a matching pilgrim’s cloak and staff.  The matching set of pilgrim’s garb belonged to Stephan Praun III, a pilgrim to Santiago de Compostela.  Photo by Reliquarian.

Saint James - Metropolitan Museum

Saint James the Greater, pine with paint and gilding, South German (1475-1500), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The influence of Veit Stoss, who worked in Nuremberg and Krakow, is evident in the carving of the statue’s robes and face.  Photo by Reliquarian.

[1] 3 Butler’s Lives of the Saints 183 (Herbert J. Thurston, S.J. & Donald Attwater eds., 2d ed. 1956).

[2] Laurie Dennett, “2000 Years of the Camino de Santiago:  Where Did It Come From?  Where Is It Going?,” The Confraternity of Saint James, http://www.csj.org.uk/2000-years.htm (citing martyrologies by Florus of Lyons and Usuard of St. Germaine-des-Prés).  Dennett observes that “by the late 8th century, a literary tradition had developed which held that the burial place of St James lay in Spain, even if the site had not yet been identified.”  She further notes, “Interestingly, it was not until after the purported discovery of the tomb in about 814 that a corresponding tradition evolved concerning the Apostle’s return to Palestine and death, and the transportation of his mortal remains back to Spain for burial.”  Id.  The mare Britannicum is the present-day English Channel.

[3] See id.

[4] Id.

[5] Id.

[6] Id.

[7] Id.

[8] Id.

[9] See Rainer Kahsnitz, Carved Splendor:  Late Gothic Altarpieces in Southern Germany, Austria, and South Tirol 58 (2006).  Kahsnitz explains that the sculptures “were executed by a carver from the circle around the Ulm sculptor Hans Multscher (active there from 1427 until his death in 1467).  In their compact three-dimensionality they are based more strongly on Multscher’s earlier works from the 1450s, at which time the sculptor was probably Multscher’s pupil.”  Id. at 61.

[10] Id. at 58.  A clever Latin inscription on the frame of the altarpiece also dates the work to 1466.  It begins, “Bis duo c quoque sexagintaque sex quoque mille . . . .”  Id.

[11] Id.

[12] Id.

[13] See George Ferguson, Signs and Symbols in Christian Art 112 (1959).  Ferguson observes that the pilgrim’s staff is “used alone and in combination with various other objects as an attribute of numerous saints who have been noteworthy for their travels and pilgrimages.”  Id.  Other saints commonly depicted with staffs include Saints Christopher, John the Baptist, Jerome, Philip the Apostle, Ursula, and Roch.  Id.

[14] Kahsnitz, supra note 9, at 58.

[15] Id.

[16] Id. at 60.

[17] See, e.g., Rosa Giorgi, Saints in Art 119 (Stefano Zuffi ed. & Thomas Michael Hartmann trans., 2002).

[18] Butler’s Lives of the Saints, supra note 1, at 182.

[19] Id.

[20] The Confraternity of Saint James, The Confraternity of Saint James, http://www.csj.org.uk/csj.htm; The Present-Day Pilgrimage, The Confraternity of Saint James, http://www.csj.org.uk/present.htm.

[21] Butler’s Lives of the Saints, supra note 1, at 183.

[22] The Present-Day Pilgrimage, supra note 20.

[23] Butler’s Lives of the Saints, supra note 1, at 183.

[24] Id.

[25] Id.

[26] The Present-Day Pilgrimage, supra note 20.

The Altar of the Holy Blood

02 Saturday Mar 2013

Posted by in Altarpiece

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Altar of the Holy Blood

Altar of the Holy Blood, Tilman Riemenscheider, St. Jakobskirche, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany, Limewood (1501-1505).  Photo by Reliquarian.

The Altar of the Holy Blood

The Altar of the Holy Blood, located at the church of Saint James (St. Jakobskirche), Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany, is named for the rare relic it contains:  a small sample of Christ’s blood.  The relic, encased in rock crystal, is set in a cross held aloft by two carved angels, enshrined above the corpus (central panel).[1]  The altarpiece itself is a masterpiece of woodcarving created by the Würzburg sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider between 1501 and 1505.  In the medieval period, the church of Saint James, named for the patron saint of pilgrims, was an important stop on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, and the Holy Blood (Heilig Blut) relic was an object of intense devotion.  Today, the Altar of the Holy Blood, as well as the church’s other great altarpiece, the Twelve Apostles Altar, continue to draw visitors to the church of Saint James and the picturesque, medieval town of Rothenburg.

Tilman Riemenschneider

Rothenburg ob de Tauber

Street view of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany. Photo by Reliquarian.

Tilman Riemenschneider (1460-1531), a sculptor and woodcarver who worked primarily in the prince-bishopric of Würzburg, is considered the “most famous of all German late-Gothic sculptors.”[2]  Although little is known of his early life, it is believed that he learned to sculpt while traveling in the Rhineland and Swabia, possibly in the cities of Strasbourg and Ulm.  In addition to the Altar of the Holy Blood, other celebrated works by Riemenschneider include the Assumption of the Virgin Altarpiece in the Herrgottskirche, Creglingen, Germany, and the Tomb of Emperor Henry II and Empress Cunigunde in Bamberg Cathedral, Bamberg, Germany.

Holy Blood Altar - Corpus 2

Altar of the Holy Blood (detail), Tilman Riemenscheider, St. Jakobskirche, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany, Limewood (1501-1505).  This central panel of the altar depicts the Last Supper.  The central figure here, however, is Judas rather than Jesus.  Photo by Reliquarian.

Design of the Altar of the Holy Blood

The central panel of the Altar of the Holy Blood depicts the Last Supper, although the figure of Christ, who is normally portrayed at the center of such scenes, has been supplanted by Judas, the Apostle who would later betray Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.  In The Limewood Sculptors of Renaissance Germany, 1475-1525, Michael Baxandall writes, “Judas is Riemenschneider’s protagonist, displacing Christ from the centre of the Corpus. . . .  The emphasis on poor Judas invites meditation, though its significances are unlikely to be arcane:  Judas might, for instance, be taken to stand for the lack of discrimination with which God offers grace.”[3]  Citing a sermon from the 1490s by Johannes Pauli, a Franciscan writer, Baxandall observes, “Judas . . . can be a signal of hope to pilgrims poor in spirit.”[4]

The two side panels, or wings, flanking the corpus are carved in low relief and depict two other scenes from Jesus’ life: the Entry into Jerusalem and the Agony in the Garden.  Near the central pinnacle of the altarpiece is a carving of the Christ of Mercy, which is approximately 3 feet tall.

Relic of the Holy Blood (detail)

Relic of the Holy Blood.  The Altar of the Holy Blood (Heilig Blutaltar) is named for the relic it was designed to contain:  a small sample of Christ’s blood.  The relic is set in the center of the cross above, encased in rock crystal.  Photo by Reliquarian.

The relic of the Holy Blood, as mentioned above, is displayed just above the corpus and below the figure of the Christ of Mercy.  A contract between Riemenschneider and members of the Rothenburg city council from April 1501 describes how the relic was to be displayed.  It states, “[A]bove in the shrine in the Auszug he shall carve in the middle two Angels kneeling opposite each other and holding the Holy Cross, and also above the Cross two gliding Angels . . . ; and at the sides next to the Cross, on the right the image of the Virgin Mary and on the left the Angel Gabriel of the type announcing the angelic greeting to her virgin heart . . . .”[5]

Altar of the Holy Blood (sideview)

Altar of the Holy Blood, Tilman Riemenscheider, St. Jakobskirche, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany, Limewood (1501-1505).  Photo by Reliquarian.

A Monochrome Altarpiece

Unusual for this time period, the Altar of the Holy Blood is not gilded or painted.  Rather, the wood has been left in its natural state, unfinished.  Some sources have argued that Riemenschneider eschewed paint because he preferred the natural beauty of wood.[6]  Alternatively, the altarpiece may have remained unpainted because it would have cost too much to paint.  Julien Chapuis of the Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters at the Metropolitan Museum of Art notes, “Retables were costly undertakings that often resulted from the collaboration of several individuals: a sculptor, a joiner, an ironmonger, and, in the case of a polychrome altarpiece, a painter.”[7]  The Altar of the Holy Blood, meanwhile, was relatively inexpensive.  Baxandall observes, “The sculpture is cheap, monochrome, narrative work . . . .  It was very inexpensive work indeed, Riemenschneider being paid sixty Florins for the sculpture, Harschner fifty Florins for the shrinework, very little for a quite large retable in an important station . . . .”

Baxandall suggests that the absence of color “makes for a degree of alienation” and discourages “personal participation” and the “empathetic relation” one may feel toward other works.[8]  He states, “The monochrome medium is like black-and-white engraving in that it declares itself as a convention, not fully identifiable with the actual person or event.”[9]  In Baxandall’s opinion, the “altarpiece complements rather than abets the kind of pious attention aroused by a relic of the Holy Blood, for Riemenschneider is carving, to use Zwingli’s term, in Geschichteswyß, in a narrative way.”[10]

An Immersive Experience

Nevertheless, the opportunity to see an altarpiece in situ, especially one as significant as the Altar of the Holy Blood with its prized relic, is rare and should not be undervalued.[11]  As Chapuis observes, “very few carved altarpieces have survived intact” despite their ubiquity in the late 15th and early 16th century in Central Europe.[12]  “The destruction of religious images during the Protestant Reformation, along with neglect, changes in taste, fire, and the secularization of ecclesiastic institutions account for this loss,” he explains.  “Many figures and reliefs in museum collections are merely fragments of elaborate, monstrance-like structures, which served as a focus for liturgy, veneration, and pilgrimage.”[13]

Holy Blood Relic - Sign

[1] See generally Julien Chapuis, Late Medieval German Sculpture: Images for the Cult and for Private Devotion, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/grmn_4/hd_grmn_4.htm (describing the four main elements of an altarpiece).

[2] Tilman Riemenschneider, Encyclopedia of World Biography (2004), available at http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Tilman_Riemenschneider.aspx.

[3] Michael Baxandall, The Limewood Sculptors of Renaissance Germany, 1475-1525, at 179 (1980).

[4] Id. at 180.

[5] Baxandall, supra note 3, at 174.

[6] See, e.g., “The Reredos IV:  The German World – Tilman Riemenschneider,” The Society of St. Hugh of Cluny (Nov. 16, 2009), http://sthughofcluny.org/2009/11/the-reredos-iv-the-german-world-tilman-riemenschneider.html (“He was one of the German carvers of altarpieces to leave the carvings in the natural wood and abandon the gilt and painted surfaces of tradition.”); Encyclopedia of World Biography, supra note 2 (“Sensing the beauty of the wood itself, Riemenschneider frequently did not polychrome his altarpieces, a novelty at this time.”).

[7] Chapuis, supra note 1.

[8] Baxandall, supra note 3, at 186.

[9] Id.

[10] Id.

[11] See, e.g., Karen Rosenberg, At the Altar of Renaissance Tuscany, NY Times, February 14, 2013, at C32, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/15/arts/design/piero-della-francesca-in-america-at-the-frick.html?_r=0 (explaining how difficult it can be to “recreate the immersive experience” of a church setting).

[12] Chapuis, supra note 1.

[13] Id.