MEDIEVAL IMAGES OF SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX - GL83.jpg

Category Glass
Origin: artist/workshop attributed to Conrad Wirz, Erlenbach, Zuerich
Date 16C/1
Reference No West Cloister Walk, 8:1
Size 47x49
Provenance Wettingen Cistercian Abbey
Present Location Wettingen, West Cloister Walk
Bibliography Anderes & Hoegger 1989, 284; Hoegger 2002 ;Posset 2003, 38

Hoegger 1998, 304
Illustration From Anderes & Hoegger 1989, 152
Other illustrations Hoegger 1989, ill 409 ;posset 2003, 381

Country Switzerland
Description:
One of the large number of small rectangular donor panels from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in the cloister of Wettingen. They were introduced after the cloister was rebuilt following the fire in 1507, the first, of which this is one, during the abbacies of Johannes Mueller (1486-1521) and Andreas Wengi (1521-8). The donor of this panel is not identified or known, but may have been the abbot of another Cistercian monastery. This is one of three Amplexus panels from before 1530, one from before the fire (see GL81) and one contemporary with this one (see GL82) and similar in design but with the central scene reversed. A proportionately larger Bernard in a grey cowl is receiving the lifeless-looking body of Christ from the T- Cross, His arms limp and falling straight down. The inscription INRI is above the Cross. A skull lies at the foot of the Cross which is set in a landscape with trees, a town, a lake with boats, and in the background mountains with a blue sky and birds flying. The scene is set within an arch flanked by two columns surmounted by music-making angels on each side at the top and with the date '1521' on a red panel in the centre.