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DOI Artikel:Timmermann, Achim: A promise of paradise: microarchitecture, baptism and the font ciborium of St. Severus in Erfurt =
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.35031#0194
186
ACHIM TtMMERMANU
P. D/erc ManN Return to Paradise
fE4dPf E///e, AfM^ee JeA drG
Conceptual associations between what may be called 'baptismal architecture', the me-
taphor of the/bny and Paradise (both earthly and heaveniy) were ałso visualised in
mediaeval images of the Garden of Edenu ^ An early case in point is provided by a well-
known miniaturę of the Fountain of Life in the Carolingian Gospełs of St. Medard of
Soissons (early-9th-century), which appropriates significant design features of the Lateran
Baptistery (or a similar such structure), including the piscina (here rendered as a hexagon),
the T7?o/cy of eight polychrome coiumns, as weii as the horizontal entablature.^ Like a
magnet, this precious, though spatiahy ambiguous structure has attracted a whołe menage-
rie of animals, which are poised above and on either side of the refreshing pool, ready to
quench their thirst.
Recent literaturę on the Garden of Eden (and mediaeval gardens in generał) includes: Snr /a Grrg co/7nn<? on cig/.*
./nrdnrs d E/ /u? En /Woyg/: dgg. exh. cat., Paris 2002; Marie-Therese GOUSSET and Nicole FLEE1RIER
[eds], E&77.' Egy'a7*dA 777gA'gro/ d morg7*y Eg77E7/77777 M7*g X///g-XV/g dgc/g, Paris 2001; Pierre-Gilles G1RAULT (ed.),
&7 Moyg77 Agg. exh. cat., Paris 1995; Silvia LANDSBERG, Edg MgAgra/ Cnr&77, London 1995; Rene ERNST
Victor STUIP & Claudia VELLEKOOP [eds], EnAg/r dr & Middg/ggMwg/r ('UmgcdGg Epdrogg/r tot & Mgd/gTBdgG
11). Utrecht 1992; Patricia MENARD, yg/rAny g^ yg7*ggry dmij A /Tt^n^rg 777gd7gr<3/g. Tlaran' IX: 1987, pp. 41-69;
Dieter HENNEBO, Cd'rfg7? dgy MiEgAFg^, Mlinchen and Ztirich 1987; Elizabeth B. MACDOUGALL [ed.], AfgdAw/
Garr/g77A (WAA Dn/nTw/rw Goły Go/A^nd7777 077 Ag NEtory of Eo/rAcnpg ArcdEgcmrg' 1983), Washington D.C.
1986; Marilyn STOKSTAD & Jeny STANNARD, Go7dg7?y of Ag Mdd/g Aggy. exh. cat., Lawrence 1983; John HA-
RVEY, MgAogro/ Gordg77A, London 1981.
^ Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France, MS lat. 8850, fol. 6v. This miniaturę is discussed A gAfg/7Ao by UNDER-
WOOD, Tdg F0M77AA of E/fg... (as in notę 28), pp. 67-73.
ACHIM TtMMERMANU
P. D/erc ManN Return to Paradise
fE4dPf E///e, AfM^ee JeA drG
Conceptual associations between what may be called 'baptismal architecture', the me-
taphor of the/bny and Paradise (both earthly and heaveniy) were ałso visualised in
mediaeval images of the Garden of Edenu ^ An early case in point is provided by a well-
known miniaturę of the Fountain of Life in the Carolingian Gospełs of St. Medard of
Soissons (early-9th-century), which appropriates significant design features of the Lateran
Baptistery (or a similar such structure), including the piscina (here rendered as a hexagon),
the T7?o/cy of eight polychrome coiumns, as weii as the horizontal entablature.^ Like a
magnet, this precious, though spatiahy ambiguous structure has attracted a whołe menage-
rie of animals, which are poised above and on either side of the refreshing pool, ready to
quench their thirst.
Recent literaturę on the Garden of Eden (and mediaeval gardens in generał) includes: Snr /a Grrg co/7nn<? on cig/.*
./nrdnrs d E/ /u? En /Woyg/: dgg. exh. cat., Paris 2002; Marie-Therese GOUSSET and Nicole FLEE1RIER
[eds], E&77.' Egy'a7*dA 777gA'gro/ d morg7*y Eg77E7/77777 M7*g X///g-XV/g dgc/g, Paris 2001; Pierre-Gilles G1RAULT (ed.),
&7 Moyg77 Agg. exh. cat., Paris 1995; Silvia LANDSBERG, Edg MgAgra/ Cnr&77, London 1995; Rene ERNST
Victor STUIP & Claudia VELLEKOOP [eds], EnAg/r dr & Middg/ggMwg/r ('UmgcdGg Epdrogg/r tot & Mgd/gTBdgG
11). Utrecht 1992; Patricia MENARD, yg/rAny g^ yg7*ggry dmij A /Tt^n^rg 777gd7gr<3/g. Tlaran' IX: 1987, pp. 41-69;
Dieter HENNEBO, Cd'rfg7? dgy MiEgAFg^, Mlinchen and Ztirich 1987; Elizabeth B. MACDOUGALL [ed.], AfgdAw/
Garr/g77A (WAA Dn/nTw/rw Goły Go/A^nd7777 077 Ag NEtory of Eo/rAcnpg ArcdEgcmrg' 1983), Washington D.C.
1986; Marilyn STOKSTAD & Jeny STANNARD, Go7dg7?y of Ag Mdd/g Aggy. exh. cat., Lawrence 1983; John HA-
RVEY, MgAogro/ Gordg77A, London 1981.
^ Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France, MS lat. 8850, fol. 6v. This miniaturę is discussed A gAfg/7Ao by UNDER-
WOOD, Tdg F0M77AA of E/fg... (as in notę 28), pp. 67-73.