The Bernau Altarpiece [right side wing]: The Golden Legend (Aurea Legenda)

Title

[cda 2016]

Painting on wood

Medium

Painting on wood

[cda 2016]

Right side wing: The Martyrdom of the Theban Legion; The Mass of St Gregory; St Clare of Assisi and Genevieve; St Leonard freeing the Prisoners; The Evangelist Mark; a Bishop with Children; St Servatius of Tongeren; St Anthony visiting St Paul of Thebes.

First legend: Under their commander St Maurice

First legend: Under their commander St Maurice the Christian soldiers in the Theban Legion refused to sacrifice to the Emperor Maximian. Consequently at Agaunum on the Rhone (now Saint-Maurice) orders were given to have them beheaded. The panel depicts this bloodbath. Roman soldiers attack their Christian counterparts with swords, and although also armed the latter resign themselves to death and pray.

Second legend: A vision of Christ as the Man of Sorrows appeared to Pope Gregory and his two deacons while they were celebrating the Mass. He alighted from the tomb wearing the crown of thrones and displaying his stigmata. Behind him the tools of his Passion are visible: the cross, the ladder, the lance; the sponge and three nails. The three heads shown in a ring of cloud should also be read in this context: Judas with the money-bag around his neck, Herod wearing an oriental turban and Peter and the maid to whom he denied knowing Christ. The legend recounts that the pope and Church Father Gregory received a vision of Christ in the Church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome. The motif aquired great significance and was widely disseminated, in particular as folkloristic evidence for the presence of the body of Christ in the Eucharist.

Third legend: St Clare is depicted as a nun wearing a black habit that conceals her neck and head. She holds a monstrance in her hands. She was the daughter of a noble family and became one of the first followers of St Francis. In 1212 as an eighteen year old she took her vows of poverty, chastity and obiedience. She founded a monastic female community the 'Second Order', which later became known as the Poor Clares. The precious monstrance in her hands is a late gothic piece worked in gold with decorative figures that reference an event in the saint¿s life. In about 1240 when plundering Saracens from Friedrich II's army threatened Assisi St Clare had herself brought to the gates of the monastery with the Holy Sacrament to ask for God's help. According to the legend the invaders who had already climbed over the monastery wall were so shocked that they beat a hasty retreat. The female saint standing opposite her, wearing modern secular clothes is probably Genevieve of Paris. Her attribute the candle has been misunderstood here. According to the legend she assisted against the 'Holy Fire' and on her way to church her candle was blown out by a devil and relit by an angel.

Fourth legend: Leonard was a Franconian nobleman, who supposedly lived at the court of the Merowingian king. The Golden Legend tells of his daily visits to the prisoners and recounts how he managed to convince King Chlodwig to liberate them. He turned down the diocese offered to him and instead chose to live as a hermit, curing cripples and helping the needy. Later he founded and became the abbot of Noblac monastery near Limoges. The panel depicts a young man with a tonsure already wearing a Benedictine habit and holding an abbatial staff. He opens the stocks himself to free the prisoners.

Fifth legend: Mark is depicted sitting at a lectern writing the gospel. As the bishop of Alexandria he wears a cope and mitre and as one of Peter's pupils he is represented as a young man. The lion, his symbol lies like a placid pet at his feet. The artist has created an image of a scholar in his small study similar to the many representations of St Jerome. This motif was particularly popular during the rise of humanism.

Sixth legend: Two small children are shown lying at the feet of a bishop who has raised his hand in blessing. A third child sleeps beside them, or perhaps he is also dead. The bishop who performed the miracle and is shown on the panel wearing vestments and holding a crosier cannot be clearly identified. It could be Valentine with the epileptic. He also cured a blind child, or Nicholas who raised three pickled boys from the dead.

Seventh legend: According to the legend an eagle protected Servatius, the bishop of Tongeren from the rays of the sun while he slept. The panel shows a sumptuously dressed young woman in front of the bishop with lizards climbing up her dress. She appeared to him in a dream and could be interpreted as the personification of heresy as Servatius contested the hererdoxy of the Arians, an act that was also equated with vanquishing the dragon.

Eighth legend: Paul of Thebes was the first Christian hermit. The son of rich parents he fled from Christian persecution into the mountains. There he spent his entire life in a cave without ever receiving anybody. However, shortly before his death he was visited by St Anthony, also a hermit, who lived first in a ruin on the Nile and then in the desert [...]. The panel shows Anthony wearing the habit of the order named after him exhibiting a T-shaped cross. The two old men are shown with rosary beads and a book lost in contemplation. The raven that supplied Paul in the desert brings them nourishment.

[Sachs 1989, 81, 111-113]

Attributions: Follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder
Anonymous Master from the Cranach Workshop

Attributions

Follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder	[Sachs 1989]
Anonymous Master from the Cranach Workshop	'unknown, formal member of the Cranach Workshop' [Heydenreich, cda 2016]

Production date: about 1515-1519

Production date

about 1515-1519

[cda 2017]

Dimensions: Dimensions of upper support: 129.5 x 115 cm

Dimensions

Dimensions of upper support: 129.5 x 115 cm
Dimensions of lower support: 129 x 115 cm
[Heydenreich, cda 2016]

Signature / Dating: None

Owner: St. Marien zu Bernau
Repository: St. Marien zu Bernau
Location: Bernau bei Berlin

CDA ID: DE_StMB_NONE-001f
FR (1978) Nr.: FR-none
Persistent Link: https://lucascranach.org/en/DE_StMB_NONE-001f/

Provenance

High altar of the church of St. Marien zu Bernau
1942 dismantled for restoration and stored in the Bode-Museum, Berlin; lost during the war
1946/47 rediscovered in the attic of a school in Berlin
29.12.1957 reconsecrated in the church of St. Marien zu Bernau
[Sachs 1989, 15]

Literature

Reference on page

Catalogue Number

Figure / Plate

Knüvener 2011

Author	Peter Knüvener
Title	Die spätmittelalterliche Skulptur und Malerei in der Mark Brandenburg
Volume	Bd. 14
Journal	Forschungen und Beiträge zur Denkmalpflege im Land Brandenburg
Place of Publication	Worms
Year of Publication	2011
Pages	221-229

Show Literature

Sachs 1989

Author	Hannelore Sachs
Title	Der Flügelaltar von St. Marien zu Bernau
Place of Publication	Berlin
Year of Publication	1989

Show Literature

Schade 1974

Author	Werner Schade
Title	Die Malerfamilie Cranach
Place of Publication	Dresden
Year of Publication	1974
Link	http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/schade1974

Show Literature

Braunsdorf 1958

Author	Ingeburg Braunsdorf
Title	Der Hochaltar von St. Marien in Bernau
Place of Publication	Berlin
Year of Publication	1958

Show Literature

Jerchel 1939

Author	Heinrich Jerchel
Editor	Brandenburgische Provinzialverbande
Title	Die Kunstdenkmäler des Kreises Niederbarnim
Series	Die Kunstdenkmäler der Provinz Brandenburg
Volume	3, 4
Place of Publication	Berlin
Year of Publication	1939

Show Literature

Kugler 1830

Author	Franz Kugler
Title	Denkmäler der bildenden Kunst des Mittelalters in den preußischen Staaten
Place of Publication	Berlin
Year of Publication	1830

Show Literature

Research History / Discussion

The following [text] presents a little known example of religious art, which with its 39 carved figures and 68 painted panels is 8 meters high and 5 meters wide and is as such the largest carved altarpiece in Mark Brandenburg, an area that is otherwise not renowned for its art treasures. [...]

[Sachs 1989, 7]

The Lives of Christ and the Virgin displayed on Sundays. When the inner wings are closed a screen displaying 32 panels is visible. These are brightly coloured and painted on a gold ground. The Live of Christ is illustrated with scenes each containing only a few figures. The Passion is shown in a central position on the reverse of the two wings that close the shrine and thrust forward by the depth of the shrine. Preceding events are shown on the outer wing panels to the left and right.

When the second set of wings is closed the altarpiece displays a final screen consisting of series of almost square panels. The images seem more colourful because the medieval gold ground has been abandoned here. Generally only one saint is represented in a realistic landscape by either an event from his/her life or the martyrdom. On the altarpiece this third thematic cycle presents the most motifs if we include the Legend of St Nicholas that is always visible on the predella and the carved figures in the shrine and on the superstructure. The cult of the saints, which evolved out of the medieval belief in the intercession of the saints between God and Mankind, spread like the cult of the Virgin in the late Middle Ages.[...]. Written sources from the time of the Christian persecution by the Romans is the basis for the saints legends, which over the centuries were assumed by popular poetry, and frequently enriched by motifs from pagan myths.

[Sachs 1989, 81-99]

Die Datierung des Bernauer Altars wird mit der Fertigstellung des Chorneubaus der Marienkirche 1519 in Zusammenhang gebracht,(Fußnote 1289) ein denkbares, wenngleich etwas spät anmutendes Datum. Auch im Hinblick auf die nahezu fehlende Rezeption der Cranachgrafik wäre eine frühere Entstehung denkbar.

[Knüvener 2011, 227]

Connected Works

The Bernau Altarpiece [right side wing]: The Golden Legend (Aurea Legenda), about 1515-1519

Images

Technical studies

02. 2016Technical examination / Scientific analysis

Infrared reflectography

Underdrawing

The Martyrdom of the Thesbian Legion

DESCRIPTION

Tools/Material:

- fluid, black medium, brush

Type/Ductus:

- freehand and relatively schematic underdrawing

- thin lines

Function:

- relatively binding for the final painted version; the lines define the main contours and describe essential details and facial features; no representation of volume with hatching strokes

Deviations:

- some corrections were made to forms during the painting process; small changes (e. g. bushes in the background)

INTERPRETATION

Attribution:

- not possible (not Cranach workshop)

The Mass of St Gregory

DESCRIPTION

Tools/Material:

- fluid, black medium, brushes of varying widths

Type/Ductus:

- detailed and freehand underdrawing after a pre-existing design

- thin to somewhat broader lines

Function:

- relatively binding for the final painted version; the lines define the main contours and describe essential details and facial features; no representation of volume with hatching strokes

Deviations:

- minor corrections were made to forms during the painting process; small changes (e. g. altarpiece and chalice)

INTERPRETATION

Attribution:

- not possible (not Cranach workshop)

Sts Clare of Assisi and Genoveve

DESCRIPTION

Tools/Material:

- fluid, black medium, brush

Type/Ductus:

- relatively detailed and freehand underdrawing

- thin lines

Function:

- binding for the final painted version; the lines define the main contours and describe essential details and the facial features; no representation of volume with hatching strokes

Deviations:

- almost no corrections were made to forms during the painting process; small changes (e. g. in St Clare’s face and in the robe at the left)

INTERPRETATION

Attribution:

- not possible (not Cranach workshop)

St Leonard liberates the Prisoners

DESCRIPTION

Tools/Material:

- fluid, black medium, brush

Type/Ductus:

- relatively detailed and freehand underdrawing after a pre-existing design

- thin to slightly broader lines

- isolated construction lines

Function:

- relatively binding for the final painted version; the lines define the main contours and describe essential details and facial features; no representation of volume with hatching strokes

Deviations:

- only very minor corrections were made to forms during the painting process; small changes

INTERPRETATION

Attribution:

- not possible (not Cranach workshop)

St Mark the Evangelist

DESCRIPTION

Tools/Material:

- fluid, black medium, brush

Type/Ductus:

- relatively detailed and freehand underdrawing after a pre-existing design

- thin lines

- occasional construction lines

Function:

- binding for the final painted version; the lines define the main contours, describe essential details and facial features, no representation of volume with hatching strokes

Deviations:

- only very minor corrections to forms during the painting process; small changes (e. g. the perspective of the lectern)

INTERPRETATION

Attribution:

- not possible (not Cranach workshop)

A Bishop with Children

DESCRIPTION

Tools/Material:

- fluid, black medium, brushes of varying widths

Type/Duktus:

- detailed and freehand underdrawing after a pre-existing design

- very thin to broader lines

Function:

- relatively binding for the final painted version; the lines define the main contours, describe essential details and facial features; no representation of volume with hatching strokes

Deviations:

- minor corrections were made to forms during the painting process; small changes

INTERPRETATION

Attribution:

- not possible (not Cranach workshop)

St Servatius of Tongeren

DESCRIPTION

Tools/Material:

- fluid, black medium, brushes of varying widths

Type/Ductus:

- relatively detailed and freehand underdrawing after a pre-existing design

- very thin to somewhat broader lines

Function:

- relatively binding for the final painted version; the lines define the main contours, describe essential details and facial features; no representation of volume with hatching strokes

Deviations:

- some corrections were made to forms during the painting process; small changes (e. g. the eagle’s claws, the facial features of the saint)

INTERPRETATION

Attribution:

- not possible (not Cranach workshop)

St Anthony visits Paul of Thebes

DESCRIPTION

Tools/Material:

- fluid, black medium, brushes of varying widths

Type/Ductus:

- relatively detailed and freehand underdrawing after a pre-existing design

- thin to somewhat broader lines

Function:

- binding for the final painted version; the lines define the main contours and describe essential details and facial features; no representation of volume with hatching strokes

Deviations:

- only very minor corrections were made to forms during the painting process; small changes

INTERPRETATION

Attribution:

- not possible (not Cranach workshop)

[Sandner, Heydenreich, Smith-Contini, cda 2017]

photographed by Ingo Sandner
photographed by Gunnar Heydenreich

Condition Reports

Date1989

The dimensions of the shrine are 285x260 cm, those of the wing panels 285x130 cm; the carved figures in the shrine are 60-65 cm in height. The painted panels are upright rectangles measuring 55x65 cm and are framed by a band that is 2 cm in width and is decorated with a pattern on the Passion scenes. The four images on the predella are each 50 x70 cm. The original polychromy on the shrine has to a greater extent been preserved. However, the wood exhibits extensive loss in the ornaments: the figures are frequently missing their attributes, along the hems of the robes the imitation precious stones made with wooden nails and rosettes have largely been lost. The shields for the coats of arms on the central superstructure are empty.

[Sachs 1989,15]

written by Hannelore Sachs

Conservation History

Date1950 - 1957

woodworm damage

The conservation treatment was carried out ca. 1950 - 1957 by Dr. Härtzsch in Berlin. The information is cited from a thesis by Ingeburg Braunsdorf on the Altarpiece in Bernau, Berlin Humboldt-Universität 1958 (type-written)

[Sachs 1989, 15]

restauriert von Härtzsch

Citing from the Cranach Digital Archive

Entry with author: <author's name>, 'The Bernau Altarpiece [right side wing]: The Golden Legend (Aurea Legenda)', <title of document, data entry or image>. [<Date of document or image>], in: Cranach Digital Archive, https://lucascranach.org/en/DE_StMB_NONE-001f/ (Accessed {{dateAccessed}})
Entry with no author: 'The Bernau Altarpiece [right side wing]: The Golden Legend (Aurea Legenda)', <title of document, data entry or image>. [<Date of document, entry or image>], in: Cranach Digital Archive, https://lucascranach.org/en/DE_StMB_NONE-001f/ (Accessed {{dateAccessed}})

Help us to improve the Cranach Digital Archive.

Please contact us, if you have noticed a mistake.