DOI issue:
Nr. 3-4
DOI article:Timmermann, Achim: A promise of paradise: microarchitecture, baptism and the font ciborium of St. Severus in Erfurt =
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.35031#0190
182
ACHIM TlMMERMANN
5. 52. Ma/y, F/Y//?A/z//7 a/z o/cn Go/c/t
Ton/ a/7/2 covcn f737G
d. 52. Ma/y, Fa/on 2^e<AJ,
Taa/ c/don/am
2ca. /34G //Y///z .s'07///zoa.s/'
YbMgm ca/?/ ygrara' — for their chur-
ches.^ Such appeals can be multiplied, be-
ing also madę by French, Itałian and German
bishops.^
The artistic Solutions which late-media-
eval craftsmen and their advisors put for-
ward in the face of these challenges can be
divided into two principal categories. The
first includes font covers proper, circular or
polygonal pyramids that can be directly lo-
wered onto the font. Two prominent exam-
ples are fumished by the font covers of St.
Mary's in Frankfurt an der Oder (1376)^ (ill.
5) and Vienna's 52g/bHMćw? (1481).'^ In ad-
dition to effectively sealing off the conse-
crated font water, both covers also serve as
platforms for extensive cycles of imagery,
and as such far exceed the minimum requ-
irements of the Church and its anxious bi-
shops. At Frankfurt, the cover - here cast,
like its font, from bronze - thus features an
elaborate cycle of typological, hagiographi-
cal and allegorical imagery, while its coun-
terpart at Vienna stages within a series of
traceried niches representations of the Se-
ven Sacramentsr^ In both cases the font
cover and its imagery function as a kind of
visual gxp//cMtT< of the consecrated water
which they surmountA
Francis BOND, Fo/z/y onF Fon/ Fonony, London, New
York, Toronto 1908, pp. 281, 284.
See in particular the dissertation by Silvia SCHLEGEL,
Dzo 7konognop/z/'o nz/2/o/oFodz'c/zor 7ozz/&^cko/z. Rheinische
Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat, Bonn 2007, chapter 2.
Hannelore SACHS, Dzo F/*onzo/ozz/ó 4or Afarzonkzrc/zo
zzz Fron^MO. [in:] Arne EFFENBERGER [ed.], A2o/o/-
/kn/zy/ no// <2or 3pó'/onfzFo Fz'y z^n? ozzygo/zo/z<2o/z Y2;2/o/o/-
/on, Berlin 1982, pp. 185-197. See also Heinrich TROST,
et alii [eds], Fozzrk Fron22żzn//D<2oz* ('D/o Fon- nn<2
Fzzny/<2onDzzo/o zn For DDF'), Berlin 1980, pp. 221-4,
with figs.
19 Cf. in partie.: Karl OETTINGER, Doy Fzz^kork non 3/.
3/o^/zon z/z W/'on. Wien 1948.
For Seven Sacrament imagery and its impact on late
mediaeval font iconography (especially in England), see:
Annę ELJENHOLM NICHOLS, SoonNo 3/'g/M.' F/zo /co-
nogrop/zy p/T/zo Focnonzon/y, 2250-7544, Wood-
bridge and Rochester, NY 1993.
In contrast to these figurative examples from the Holy
Roman Empire, late mediaeval font covers in England
ACHIM TlMMERMANN
5. 52. Ma/y, F/Y//?A/z//7 a/z o/cn Go/c/t
Ton/ a/7/2 covcn f737G
d. 52. Ma/y, Fa/on 2^e<AJ,
Taa/ c/don/am
2ca. /34G //Y///z .s'07///zoa.s/'
YbMgm ca/?/ ygrara' — for their chur-
ches.^ Such appeals can be multiplied, be-
ing also madę by French, Itałian and German
bishops.^
The artistic Solutions which late-media-
eval craftsmen and their advisors put for-
ward in the face of these challenges can be
divided into two principal categories. The
first includes font covers proper, circular or
polygonal pyramids that can be directly lo-
wered onto the font. Two prominent exam-
ples are fumished by the font covers of St.
Mary's in Frankfurt an der Oder (1376)^ (ill.
5) and Vienna's 52g/bHMćw? (1481).'^ In ad-
dition to effectively sealing off the conse-
crated font water, both covers also serve as
platforms for extensive cycles of imagery,
and as such far exceed the minimum requ-
irements of the Church and its anxious bi-
shops. At Frankfurt, the cover - here cast,
like its font, from bronze - thus features an
elaborate cycle of typological, hagiographi-
cal and allegorical imagery, while its coun-
terpart at Vienna stages within a series of
traceried niches representations of the Se-
ven Sacramentsr^ In both cases the font
cover and its imagery function as a kind of
visual gxp//cMtT< of the consecrated water
which they surmountA
Francis BOND, Fo/z/y onF Fon/ Fonony, London, New
York, Toronto 1908, pp. 281, 284.
See in particular the dissertation by Silvia SCHLEGEL,
Dzo 7konognop/z/'o nz/2/o/oFodz'c/zor 7ozz/&^cko/z. Rheinische
Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat, Bonn 2007, chapter 2.
Hannelore SACHS, Dzo F/*onzo/ozz/ó 4or Afarzonkzrc/zo
zzz Fron^MO. [in:] Arne EFFENBERGER [ed.], A2o/o/-
/kn/zy/ no// <2or 3pó'/onfzFo Fz'y z^n? ozzygo/zo/z<2o/z Y2;2/o/o/-
/on, Berlin 1982, pp. 185-197. See also Heinrich TROST,
et alii [eds], Fozzrk Fron22żzn//D<2oz* ('D/o Fon- nn<2
Fzzny/<2onDzzo/o zn For DDF'), Berlin 1980, pp. 221-4,
with figs.
19 Cf. in partie.: Karl OETTINGER, Doy Fzz^kork non 3/.
3/o^/zon z/z W/'on. Wien 1948.
For Seven Sacrament imagery and its impact on late
mediaeval font iconography (especially in England), see:
Annę ELJENHOLM NICHOLS, SoonNo 3/'g/M.' F/zo /co-
nogrop/zy p/T/zo Focnonzon/y, 2250-7544, Wood-
bridge and Rochester, NY 1993.
In contrast to these figurative examples from the Holy
Roman Empire, late mediaeval font covers in England