Published by Deutscher Kunstverlag (DKV)

Volume 80 Issue 2

July 2017

Issue of Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte

Contents
Journal Overview

Accessible December 30, 2017

Frontmatter

Page range: i-ii

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Themenschwerpunkt: ›Reframing‹ in Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit

December 30, 2017

›Reframing‹ – Umarbeitung, Ergänzung und Neurahmung von Kunstwerken in Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit. Einleitung

Stefanie Seeberg, Susanne Wittekind

Page range: 171-175

Abstract

A book cover encloses the manuscript inside. If it is elaborate, it distinguishes the manuscript as a precious and valuable object (as a frame does for a painting), all the more so when an old manuscript is clothed in a new and costly cover. In conjunction with added texts and other traces of use, one can grasp from this ‘reframing’ a shift of a text’s meaning. This is especially true of Gospel Books, which were handled as symbols of God in liturgical contexts. From the High Middle Ages on, treasure inventories and oath formulae were added to Gospel Books. They indicate the importance of an old Gospel Book for the religious community as a material proof of the age and rank of their church. Gospel Book covers from the High and Late Middle Ages demonstrate this by using spolia, old-fashioned forms and material, or invoking venerated founders. Often shaped as pendants, they seem to be arranged for display.

December 30, 2017

Neue Einbände für alte Handschriften

Susanne Wittekind

Page range: 176-200

Abstract

December 30, 2017

Aneignung und ›Neuinszenierung‹ von Evangeliaren in institutionellem und liturgischem Gebrauch – drei Fallbeispiele

Doris Oltrogge

Page range: 201-218

Abstract

The paper presents three case studies of ancient Gospel Books which were reworked and adapted to changing liturgical and monastic practices. The reasons for the choice of a specific older manuscript are discussed, which could be the real or presumed connection with the foundation, but also the archaic character of the script. The methods of reworking include visual signs like bookmarks, nota bene signs, or display scripts to emphasize lecture texts. Whereas these revisions concentrate on the Gospel Book as a textbook, in another case the transformations focus on the whole manuscript as an object. The introduction of miniatures, purple pages, and gold script combined modern elements with allusions to ancient practices to create a tradition of ancient fundatio .

December 30, 2017

Vom liturgischen Textil zum Werbebanner? Zwei byzantinische Goldstickereien im Dom zu Halberstadt

Patricia Strohmaier

Page range: 219-246

Abstract

Two church banners made from a garment of late-fourteenth-century Italian lampas display two late-twelfth-century purple veils embroidered with gold. Bishop Konrad of Krosigk, having acquired a treasure of relics, textiles, and liturgical objects during the Fourth Crusade, donated these to his cathedral. The article focuses on how the two veils, which originally had veiled the chalice and the paten in the Byzantine mass, were reused and reframed. There is evidence that at first they were displayed upon or close to the altar, representing the cathedral’s new wealth by their costly appearance and Greek inscriptions evoking the splendor of Byzantine textile production. When sewn on church banners in the fifteenth century, they assumed the role of an advertisement for the Byzantine treasure, an attempt to reaffirm the marginalized cathedral’s prestige.

December 30, 2017

Vom Ambo zum Retabel – Das Klosterneuburger Goldschmiedewerk von Nikolaus von Verdun

Heike Schlie

Page range: 247-272

Abstract

The only signed work by Nicholas of Verdun, the metalwork which adorned the former ambo in the Klosterneuburg Monastery, was integrated into a foldable altarpiece around 1330 and thus transformed into a new medium. Besides being reframed, it was combined with new monumental paintings on the rear side of the triptych. It was not only handled differently and defined spatially in completely different terms, but the precious enamel- and metalwork could be hidden from sight by closing the wings. The added plates of metalwork at the center of the middle panel break up the hieratical and Eucharistic program of the original work, focusing the program on devotional affects. The metalwork and paintings form a sophisticated iconic reference system, pointing to the provost Stephan of Sierndorf, who had ordered the reframing. His painted figure, kneeling before the crucified Christ, reveals itself not only as the image of the donor, but also as the ideal beholder of the work or a further exemplum of perfect piety.

December 30, 2017

›Reframing‹ mittelalterlicher Skulpturen: Verschönerung, Umnutzung, Neuinterpretation?

Ulrike Bergmann

Page range: 273-291

Abstract

Medieval wooden sculptures were in most cases reframed several times during their history. Sculptures have thus been repainted or reused in different contexts. The reasons for these reframings have been different, for example change of taste, use, or place, or repair of damage. Sculptures of the Virgin Mary were especially subject to these later changes, because they were the focus of veneration and thus were exposed to touching hands, burning candles, and incense. In addition, the image of the Virgin was often exposed to fashionable new stylings. Medieval reframings can only be traced by very close examination of the object and are difficult to link with a specific historical context. Therefore, this study concentrates on some examples of medieval sculptures in Cologne, which have been the subjects of intense studies by restorers and art historians.

December 30, 2017

Neupräsentationen und Umdeutungen des Heiligen Kreuzes von Polling vom 13. bis zum 18. Jahrhundert

Stefanie Seeberg

Page range: 292-309

Abstract

The center of the baroque altarpiece of the Augustinian Monastery of Polling in South Germany forms the so-called Holy Cross. Its current presentation, dated from 1763, is the last of a sequence of four well-documented presentations of a Romanesque wooden cross since 1230. This cross is an excellent example for analyzing and comparing several methods of re-presenting a historic art object as well as for understanding the motivation for such re-presentations, which are grounded on changes of the spiritual function of the object. In its first reframing, the cross received a covering of gilded parchment and a painting of the crucifix on this ground coat. In a fundamental publication from 1994, this covering was compared with a reliquary holding the old venerated wooden cross. However, looking at the context of medieval instructions for painters and the material evidence of extant contemporary paintings, this interpretation becomes questionable: the covering with parchment was a common and technically motivated procedure rather than a spiritually motivated one.

About this journal

Founded by Wilhelm Waetzold and Ernst Gall in 1932, the Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte is published quarterly by Deutscher Kunstverlag. As the leading international German-language journal of art history it is one of the foremost periodicals of the academic discipline world-wide. Scholarly articles undergo a double-blind peer review by two independent experts; contributions are accepted in German, English, French, and Italian.

The Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte is a journal covering the whole range of art-historical matters. It offers a space for contributions dealing with all epochs and subjects, and using all methodical approaches. Open to art-historians from all points of the compass, it should at the same time serve to retain the polyglot nature of the discipline.

Organisation

The editorial office of the Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte is located at the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte in Munich. Since January 2020, Gerrít Walczak is Managing Editor.

The publisher delegates editorship to five Editors covering different areas of the discipline. For the sake of openness and plurality, Editors will generally serve for five years. The annual withdrawal of a member of the editorial board, and the subsequent by-election of a new Editor, assures steady change while maintaining continuity.

The Editors are nominated by an advisory committee, whose members are recruited from the institutes of art history at German universities, or operating outside higher education, and from the three German art historical research establishments at Florence, Paris, and Rome. Each institute or research establishment is invited to send a representative. Additionally, the board of directors of the Verband Deutscher Kunsthistoriker, the directorate of the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte and Deutscher Kunstverlag are represented each by a consultative member. All members serve on the committe for six years unless their term is extended.

Submissions

The Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte accepts only contributions that have not been published elsewhere. Submissions are welcome in German, English, French, and Italian. Translations of essays either previously published or about to be published as well as outtakes from books in the making will not be processed. The editorial office assumes that articles and reviews are not parallely submitted to other journals. Articles will first be assessed by the editorial office and the editorial board, then passed on anonymously to two external referees