Battle in the bench-end - a glimpse from Erfurt cathedral

 

This blogpost provides yet another detail from the glorious late-medieval choir benches in Erfurt cathedral. The scene itself is familiar from the corpus of Latin medieval art, namely the duel between to figures who are not knights, yet behave as if they were. This motif appears in various media, not only carved in wood but also drawn in manuscript illuminations. While I do not know how exactly to read this motif, it appears to be a variant of the reversion of the world, by which the roles, customs and ideals of the real world are turned upside-down and inside-out. We see women fighting instead of men, we see, possibly, a funnel being used as a helmet, and we see a hog being used as a rider. Perhaps we should also understand the landscape, the branches of a grapevine, as a contrast to the field of battle where tournaments normally are held. 

This detail from one of the bench-ends in Erfurt cathedral provide an excellent example of the masterful carvings made my medieval artists, and reminds us that the medieval visual world was immensely rich in detail and content.

Saint George in Skive

 
Today, April 23, is the feast of Saint George, a saint with whom I am particularly fascinated, and about whom I have already written several blogposts (see below). Due to the widespread popularity of Saint George in the later Middle Ages, there are several depictions and narrations of his legend - in text and image - which survive from Latin Christendom. In this cultural geography, Latin Christendom, the figure of Saint George became increasingly well known in the course of the twelfth century, possibly because his legend made it possible for him to be reactualised and reimagined as a chivalric figure. This hypothesis is supported by the shift from illuminations focusing on his elaborate and gruesome passion narrative to his victory over the dragon. From the fourteenth century onwards, however, the popularity of Saint George skyrocketed thanks to two converging and related factors: The popularity and accessibility of Legenda Aurea, through which the legend was disseminated more broadly and to new audiences, and Saint George's inclusion among the fourteen holy helpers, a group of saints with changeable configuration which emerged in Germany. 

For this year's feast of Saint George, I present you with one depiction which, as I argue in a forthcoming article, is a consequence of impulses from both Legenda Aurea and German religious trends. The depiction in question comes from the Church of Our Lady in Skive, a church from c.1200 and decorated with an extensive programme of wall-paintings in 1522.

The image in question is found in a section of one of the vaults in the nave of the church. In these vaults, saints are predominantly depicted in pairs, and Saint George is shown together with Saint Knud Dux (also known as Saint Knud Lavard). The depiction of Saint George is both typical and untypical at the same time. Since the saint is shown as emerging from a flower - as are almost all the other saints, with the curious exception of Erasmus - the choreography of the scene is different, as there is no horse, and George wields a sword rather than a lance. The position of the saint above the dragon, however, and the saint wearing contemporary armour, are both common features. Interestingly, since Saint George emerges from a flower, the artist has taken the opportunity to increase the drama of their encounter by making the dragon tangle his tail around the stem of the flower, thereby seeking to topple his antagonist. 

The wall-paintings at Skive are intriguing, both for their variety, their typicality, and their untypicality. There are still several questions that remain to be answered, and even more questions that will never be answered in a fully satisfactory way. For instance, we do not know why Saint George is paired with Saint Knud Dux. The number of such details and the various possible interpretations mean that we scholars will continue to grind our brains against the wall-paintings in Skive for generations to come, and that's part of the fun of it. 

Similar blogposts concerning Saint George 

Saint George and Saint Edward the Confessor in comparison 

Saint George in Odense 

Saint George in the Old English Martyrology 

Saint Alexandria, the martyr-queen 

Saint George in Ribe  

The changing iconography of Saint George 

Saint George at Sanderum  


Similar blogposts concerning Skive Church 

Saint Martin in Skive 

Saint Olaf in late-medieval Denmark 

Saint Thomas of Canterbury in Skive 

Saint Servatius in Skive 

Saint Catherine of Alexandria in Erfurt cathedral

 
Earlier this week I spent a few days in Erfurt, Germany, for a conference. It is one of the most beautiful cities I have visited, and I left rich with impressions and a desire to return at the first opportunity. While I still need to read more about the city to be able to provide lengthy blogposts of all the things I encountered there, I will provide a few glimpses of particularly noteworthy details from the many important historical buildings or the cityscape. 

The first glimpse is of this bench end in the choir of Erfurt cathedral, carved sometime in the late Middle Ages, these choir benches are covered in figures and scenes that both speak of high quality craftship and the florid medieval imagination. This bench end was of particular interest to me, in part because it depicts Saint Catherine of Alexandria - recognisable by her wheel by which she was threatened to be tortured - who is a saint I always appreciate encountering. Secondly, this bench-end intrigues me because of the squirrels running along the sides of Saint Catherine. Squirrels are not necessarily rare in medieval art, but this might be the first time I have seen them in the context of choir benches, and they make for a lovely contrast to the pairs of wyverns at the top and the bottom. 

The Resurrection in Ål stave church

 

As we have now entered the paschal week, I give you a short blogpost containing one of the most exquisite pieces of Norwegian medieval church art, namely the resurrection of Christ from Ål stave church in Hallingdal. The resurrection scene is part of a larger biblical cycle from the thirteenth century, painted on the inside of the wooden ciborium. The depiction follows wider iconographic traditions in Latin Christendom, which shows that Norwegian artists were familiar with impulses outside of Norway. 

The painted ciborium is currently housed in the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo. Unfortunately, Ål stave church was torn down in 1880, but the cycle of wall-paintings has fortunately survived. The entire cycle can be seen here.