MEDIEVAL IMAGES OF SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX - PA008.jpg


Category	Painting
Origin: artist/workshop	Johann Koerbecke (fl 1446-1471)
Date	15C/3
Reference No	Inv No 10644
Size	94x78.7
Provenance	Cistercian Abbey of Marienfeld ?
Present Location	Munich, Alte Pinakothek
Bibliography	EM2:7 (Griesser 1961, 102-3); Stange 1951-61, 6:14-20; Aurenhammer 1959-67, 339; Posset 2003,312
	Goldberg & Scheffler 1972, 181-4; Dijon 1953, 56; Paffrath 1990, 69; Posset 1998, 308
Illustration From	Paffrath 1990, ill 25
Other illustrations	Stange 1951-61, 6: ill 29; Posset 2003,313

Country	Germany

Description:
Johann Koerbecke was born in Muenster in c 1407. His main work was the altarpiece finished in 1457 for the abbey of Marienfeld where he also restored the great hanging crucifix. It is therefore possible that this Amplexus painting from c 1470, originally one of the wings of an altarpiece, was also commissioned by Marienfeld. A nimbed Bernard carrying a crozier and wearing a flowing black cowl is reaching up to the crucified figure of Christ who has his arms detached from the Cross and on Bernard's shoulders ready to embrace him. The setting is a room with a tiled floor in what appears to be in the monastery with a cloister seen through the window and a wall beyond and beyond this some houses. An exchange between the figures is indicated by the two scrolls. Christ's scroll appears to say 'In charitate perpetua dilexi te . h[e?]re . z'' ('I have loved thee with a perpetual love...'), and Bernard's 'Gloria, te dom.ie...mea'..

Description:

Johann Koerbecke was born in Muenster in c 1407. His main work was the altarpiece finished in 1457 for the abbey of Marienfeld where he also restored the great hanging crucifix. It is therefore possible that this Amplexus painting from c 1470, originally one of the wings of an altarpiece, was also commissioned by Marienfeld. A nimbed Bernard carrying a crozier and wearing a flowing black cowl is reaching up to the crucified figure of Christ who has his arms detached from the Cross and on Bernard's shoulders ready to embrace him. The setting is a room with a tiled floor in what appears to be in the monastery with a cloister seen through the window and a wall beyond and beyond this some houses. An exchange between the figures is indicated by the two scrolls.
Christ's scroll appears to say 'In charitate perpetua dilexi te . h[e?]re . z'' ('I have loved thee with a perpetual love...'), and Bernard's 'Gloria, te dom.ie...mea'..