Title of work: The Bernward Doors Place of origin: Hildesheim, Germany Date: 1015 Artist: Unknown artist Current location: St Mary’s Cathedral, Hildesheim, Germany |
A description of the exhibition
The Bernward Doors have persevered through centuries as one of the finest examples of Ottonian art and its aspiration to the magnificence of the Roman Empire. They were commissioned by Bishop Bernward of Hildesheim with a view to creating a cultural supremacy for the seat of his diocese, as a part of Charlamagne’s doctrine, introduced some 200 years previously, of renewing the glory of classical Rome. Indeed, Bernward’s conception of the Doors followed his travels to the church of Santa Sabina in Rome. While the focus of most discussion surrounding these Doors has been on the typological correlation of the doors’ narrative panels, observation of the doors alongside the ecclesiastical politics of the 11th century Holy Roman Empire, uncovers a compelling tale surrounding the depiction of women, and their perceived threat to the virtue of the church. In example, the first scene on the door shows the Creation of Eve. The focus on Eve that this establishes causes the viewer to notice her culpability in the Fall of Man, which is shown with a stress on the sexual nature of her sin. Thus, the Bernward Doors define the first woman, and by extension all impious women, as the embodiment of a threat to the spiritual way of life, a topical subject in a time of ecclesiastical reform. Eve’s juxtaposition with Mary highlights the corruption of sinful women like Eve and gives a visible model of purity to any penitents that walk through the Doors. Such a focus on the compositional parallels between the two women and the attitude towards women that they encapsulate in an exhibition provides a more comprehensive understanding of the Bernward Doors’ social context, garnering a greater appreciation of their artistic and historical merit. The narrative cycle presented by the Doors is hardly understated, but a more secular modern audience would benefit from an explanation of the didactic effects of the stories on the contemporary religious community that they would have been a part of.
These colossal bronze doors stood at the southwestern entrance to Hildesheim Cathedral, where penitents would have passed through, having confessed their sins. The two doors depict, on the left-hand door, scenes from the Book of Genesis and, on the right-hand door, scenes from the Gospels, which tell the story of humanity’s salvation through the actions, and eventual crucifixion, of Christ. Images of Adam and Eve’s temptation and the Original Sin are directly contrasted with depictions of Christ being presented to Herod or Pontius Pilate and crucified, thus presenting a didactic and clear narrative about the salvation of mortal sin through sacrifice. The simplicity of the scenes, in a departure from the high drama of Carolingian reliefs that were popular at the time, allows the stories to present the moral values of the 11th century Roman Catholic Church without decoration or ornamentation detracting from the lessons that the narrative imparts.
Historical Context
The Bernward Doors, monumental in their depiction of the salvation of humanity, tell not only of the sins of man and suffering of Christ but also demonstrate the pedagogic morality of the Ottonian-era church and give a salacious account of the dynamics between actors within the liturgical community. They are reflective of the wider Carolingian fascination with the art and style of the Roman Empire as well as the narrower patronage of the Bishop Bernward himself, who served as the Bishop of Hildesheim, Germany, from 993 C.E. until his death in 1022. Despite being successors of other similar works,[IMA the doors are outstanding in their focus on the roles of women (specifically Eve and Mary in this narrative), particularly when considering Bernward’s own relationship to the women in the church. Furthermore, the typological composition of each individual scene reveals the inseparable relationship between human sin and its subsequent absolution in Jesus’ actions, typifying the church’s role in the salvation of its modern community. The didactic nature of these doors cannot be understated, both in terms of its moralising approach towards women, and the message of salvation for the sins of humanity. Perhaps the most accessible way to understand this message is from the visual typological correlation of certain aspects of the scenes. The narrative displayed on the Bernward Doors is arranged in a cyclical manner, but horizontally adjacent scenes are those that demonstrate the most visual and symbolic similarities. On the top level, we see the scenes of the Creation of Eve (the outstanding nature of which will be explored subsequently) and the Ascension of Christ into the Kingdom of Heaven (see below).
In both panels, a winged figure surveys the scene, beginning the typological correlation. In the first image, an angel hangs over God and Eve; in the secon, a bird sits in a tree, which has been suggested to symbolise the Holy Spirit[2]. the However more significantly, the first and last panels both show a divine figure – God and Christ respectively – stood over a mortal in an act of creation in one scene or reassurance in the other. Thus, the viewer is told of the salvation offered by the sacrifice and ascension of Christ for man’s original sin. The visual correlations of the scenes becomes more conspicuous as one moves down the doors and is manifest particularly in the third-tier panels that depict the Fall of Man on the left-hand door, and the Crucifixion on the right-hand door. The Tree of Knowledge, as shown in the image below echoes the shape of the cross in the panel opposite, directly underscoring the redemption of Adamic sin in Christ’s crucifixion. It has been pointed out by some scholars that the lack of nails in the Crucifixion panel demonstrates that, unlike other contemporary depictions of the Passion and Crucifixion, the message is less about the torture of Christ, but instead the redemption of humanity through his sacrifice:[3] thus the imagery of the Bernward Doors serves less as a mere pictorial narration of the stories of the Bible (though the stories themselves are so fraught with morality and value that any depiction would be innately didactic), but their compositional elements directly evidence the lessons of the church, and an intense focus on the possibility of salvation through the worship of Christ.
Additionally, the typological similarities between various panels demonstrates the values ascribed to women during Bernward’s tenure as the Bishop of Hildesheim. This is mainly done through the juxtaposition of the figures of Eve and Mary: Eve is presented as the archetype of the impious woman and reflects the threat of such women to the church’s values; Mary is shown to be the model of sacrality, a virginal antitype of Eve’s libidinous impiety. Aside from the compositional connection between the two characters, the focus on the female actors within these stories is established from the very beginning of the cycle. In a divergence from artistic convention, the Creation of Man is shown through the formation of Eve. Although much past historical discussion treated the first panel as depicting the Creation of Adam, more recent scholarly discussion of the Doors, in consideration of their relation (or lack thereof) to other depictions of the Creation of Adam, have identified the panel as depicting the formation of Eve.[4] As Tronzo mentions, the formation of Eve isn’t the natural beginning of Genesis’ narrative, and so its inclusion as the first scene here emphasises the culpability of Eve in the fall of man.[5] The initial focus on Eve draws a link between her and Mary, purely by virtue of their status as the main female actors in these scenes. Eve’s immoral nature is reiterated by the focus on the sexual nature of her sin. In the panel depicting the temptation, Eve reaches towards Adam with the apple in her hand, positionally replacing her breast from the viewers point of view (see below).
Thus, the libidinous nature of the original sin is established. The condemnation of Eve and the veneration of Mary grew extremely popular during the Carolingian period: this is attributed to the popular hymn Ave Maris Stella, which reads “Hail star of the sea / Gracious mother of God, / Ever virgin … Bring us forth in peace / Changing the name of Eve.”[6] The iconography of Bernward’s own gospels describes Mary’s role as redeeming Eve’s sin: below a two-page presentation of Eve and Mary, who are adjacent to sets of closed and open doors respectively, an inscription reads: “The door of paradise, closed by the first Eve, now is open to all through the holy Mary.”[7]. Therefore, it is through the juxtaposition of Mary and Eve that Bernward warns the clergy of the threat of unholy women to the church and its values, while continuing to underscore the redemptive qualities of the church through Mary as with Christ himself.
A historical explanation of this attitude is offered upon the examination of Bernward’s relationship to senior women in the Church: namely, Sophia, the daughter of Otto II and the abbess of the convent at Gandersheim.[8] In Thangmar’s biography of Bernward, Sophia is portrayed as haughty and obstinate, with details of their disputes including Bernward’s admonishing her during mass and Sophia physically barring Bernward from entering Gandersheim.[9] According to other modern biographers, Bernward’s contests with Sophia and her colleagues at Gandersheim occupied a large part of his life – thus we begin to understand his almost vitriolic depiction of women on the Bernward Doors.[10]
The status of Eve and Mary, when considered alongside the biography of Bernward and his disputes within the clerical community, arises as what Tronzo describes as “the major theme of the doors”[11]. While the theme of redemption is certainly a reasonable evaluation of the Doors’ narrative, the comparison of Eve and Mary allows the viewer to relate the idea of sin and redemption to actors, rather than their actions, and thus makes the ideas of wrongdoing and salvation less abstract. It is, therefore, through female allegory that the Doors convey the values of Bernward’s church and present the malevolence of impiety and dissension from the word of the church.
[1]Weinryb, Ittai. “Making.” Chapter. In The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages, 16–54. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016. doi:10.1017/CBO9781316402429.002. [2] Hildburgh, W. L. “A Mediaeval Bronze Pectoral Cross: Contributions to the Study of the Iconography of the Holy Trinity and of the Cross.” The Art Bulletin 14, no. 2 (1932): 81. https://doi.org/10.2307/3050821 [3] Ibid, Hildburgh, Medieval Bronze Pectoral Cross, pg.81 [4] Tronzo, William. “The Hildesheim Doors: An Iconographic Source and Its Implications.” Zeitschrift Fur Kunstgeschichte 46 (1983): 357., Cohen, Adam S., and Anne Derbes. “Bernward and Eve at Hildesheim.” Gesta 40, no. 1 (2001): 19–38. https://doi.org/10.2307/767193., [5] Tronzo, “The Hildesheim Doors”, pg. 363. [6] Cohen and Derbes, Bernward and Eve, pg. 36. [7] Cohen and Derbes. Bernward and Eve, pg. 31. [8] Glocker, Winfrid, "Sophia", Neue Deutsche Biographie 24 (2010), p. 591 [online version]; URL: https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd129821780.html#ndbconten [9] Thangmar, Vita Bernwardi episcopi Hildesheimensis, MGH Scriptores IV (Hannover 1841; reprinted New York 1963), 765, Cohen and Derbes, Bernward and Eve, pg. 30 [10] F.F. Tschan, Saint Bernward of Hildesheim, volume I, (Notre Dame, 1942-51), 157 [11] Tronzo, Hildesheim Doors, 366.
Bibliography
Cohen, Adam S., and Anne Derbes. “Bernward and Eve at Hildesheim.” Gesta 40, no. 1 (2001): 19–38. Accessible from: https://doi.org/10.2307/767193.
Glocker, Winfrid, "Sophia", Neue Deutsche Biographie 24 (2010), p. 591 [online version]; URL: https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd129821780.html#ndbcontent
Hildburgh, W. L. “A Mediaeval Bronze Pectoral Cross: Contributions to the Study of the Iconography of the Holy Trinity and of the Cross.” The Art Bulletin 14, no. 2 (1932): 81. https://doi.org/10.2307/305082
Thangmar, Vita Bernwardi episcopi Hildesheimensis, MGH Scriptores IV (Hannover 1841; reprinted New York 1963), 765.
Tronzo, William. “The Hildesheim Doors: An Iconographic Source and Its Implications.” Zeitschrift Fur Kunstgeschichte 46 (1983): 357.
Tschan, Francis J., Volume I, Saint Bernward of Hildesheim I, (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1942).
Weinryb, Ittai. “Making.” Chapter. In The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages, 16–54. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016). https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781316402429.
Photo credits: Victoria and Albert Collection