MEDIEVAL IMAGES OF SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX - GL56.jpg

Category Glass
Origin: artist/workshop Cologne workshop
Date 16C/1
Reference No
Size 100x87
Provenance Altenberg Cistercian Abbey, cloister
Present Location Shrewsbury, England, St Mary's Church, north window
Bibliography Paffrath 1984, 213-4

Eckert 1953, 121; Paris 1990, 291; France 1998, 27
Illustration From Paffrath 1984, ill 63
Other illustrations Eckert 1953, pl 34

Paris 1990, ill 250; France 1998, ill 12
Country Germany
Description:
1505/32.One of the few Altenberg scenes not based on any of the literary sources. He is here acknowledged as the great writer, standing in the centre surrounded by his books, sermons, and letters lying on the table before him. Among them his 'De gratia et libery arbitrio' and a volume of sermons may be identified, and a Templar kneeling on the right carries a copy of his 'De laude novae militiae ad milites templi', while a volume of Letters may be seen on the shelf below the table. He is surrounded by other recipients, first and foremost Eugenius III, a former disciple from Clairvaux, to whom he is handing a copy of 'De consideratione'. A scroll above Bernard's head has him saying to the pope: 'Expelle symoniam de Ecclesia' (Expel simony from the Church) to which the pope replies: 'Expelle tu inertiam de Claustro' (Expel slothfulness from the Cloister!). Others around the table receiving books are, on one side, a bishop, a cardinal, and an abbot, and, on the other, a king, some noblemen, and two kneeling Templars.