MEDIEVAL IMAGES OF SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX - MA135.jpg

Category Manuscript
Origin: artist/workshop
Date 15C/4
Reference No MS 206, f 56v (detail)
Size 5.4x5.4
Provenance Cistercian Abbey of Rein
Present Location Rein, Stiftsbibliothek
Bibliography Sieveking 1986, 57-9; Posset 2003,324

Schmitt 1990, 163
Illustration From Sieveking 1986, ill 16
Other illustrations Posset 2003,325

Country Austria
Description:
From the magnificent Missal commissioned by the 27th abbot of Rein near Graz, Wolfgang Schroetl (1481-1515) and made in 1492/3 for his own use, and therefore known as the Wolfgang Missal. It was kept by the abbot himself and was used regularly by succeeding abbots until the nineteenth century. Richly decorated, it contains one full-page miniature of the Crucifixion with a portrait of the abbot kneeling at the foot of the Cross, 23 miniatures, and 40 historiated initials. Among them is a miniature of the Amplexus decorating the opening of the Mass for the feast of Bernard within the pink initial on a gold background within a green border P(erfice quaesumus domine), a prayer to Bernard. Within a room that resembles a chapter house, Bernard, nimbed and wearing a purplish-grey cowl, kneels before Christ, shown with arms detached from the Cross and placed on Bernard's shoulders. The figure of Bernard is larger in scale than that of Christ as is traditional in Amplexus images. The portrait of Bernard resembles that of Abbot Wolfgang in the Missal's opening miniature. Bernard has 'tuft'.