MEDIEVAL IMAGES OF SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX - GL17.jpg

Category Glass
Origin: artist/workshop Cologne workshop
Date 16C/1
Reference No
Size 65x84
Provenance Altenberg Cistercian Abbey, cloister
Present Location Aachen, Ludwig Collection
Bibliography VP3:2:4 (PL185:305-6); LA 215; Paffrath 1984, 81-3

Eckert 1953, 74
Illustration From Paffrath 1984, ill 18
Other illustrations Eckert 1953, pl 14

Country Germany
Description:
1505/32. The scene of Bernard's visit to the saintly Carthusian bishop Hugh of Grenoble and to the Carthusians at La Grande Chartreuse c 1125. On meeting Bernard the bishop prostrated himself on the ground which so shocked Bernard that he too fell to the ground. Hugh is shown here in the Carthusian habit and wearing a mitre kneeling before Bernard. The scrolls have Hugh saying 'Greetings, most beloved Father Bernard' to which Bernard replied 'I thank you, most blessed father'. Bernard was welcomed at the Chartreuse by Prior Guigo and his monks but the prior was shocked at the luxury of the harness of Bernard's horse. He told one of his monks of his surprise as shown by his scroll: 'Such harness does not indicate poverty!' The monk told Bernard who appeared to be equally surprised as he had not even noticed this himself. The horse he had borrowed from an uncle, a Cluniac monk. The prior marvelled that what he had spotted immediately had passed Bernard by. The prior and his monks are on the left while the horses are on the far right together with the kneeling figure of a lady, the donor of the panel with her coat of arms at her feet.