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DOI Artikel:Dobrzeniecki, Tadeusz: A Gdańsk panel of the Pitié-de-Nostre-Seigneur: notes on the iconography
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18817#0064
fixus depingi ut passio ejus signum subjaceł oculis infigatur et oculis, cordis sacerdotis qui allo-
ąuitur Patrem quasi praesentem.60
Much influenced by Sicard William Durandus of Mendę (1230—1296) repeated in his Rationale
Divinorum Officiorum the passage we are interested in and yet introduced some changes de-
serving our attention: In quibusdam tamen codicibus et maiestatis Patris et imago depingitur
crucifixi: ut sacerdos quasi praesentem videat quem invocat et quem alloquitur dicens Te igitur etc.
et passio quae hic repraesentatur cordis oculis ingeratur."1
Ca. 1400 a German translation of Durandus' handbook was ordered by Albrecht the Illrd
of Austria.82 Once more we are faced with the same mention on the illustration at the beginning
of the Canon: Ieddoch in ettleichen puechern so ist gemalt daz pild der maieystat des vatters und
der marter...63
Both influential liturgists cjuoted above obviously lean to distinguish two images in the
representation called by us the Throne of Mercy: God the Father in majesty (maiestas Patris)
and the Crucified (Passio Christi) This differentiation can be easily understandable if we take
into consideration the way of joining them in a single image, in the representation that had
to visualize by pictorial means the sense of the Eucharistic prayer Te igitur. This prayer ex-
presses the idea akin to that of the verse of St PauPs Epistle to the Romans: "Whom God hath
set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the
remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God" (Quem proposuit Deus pro-
pitiationem per fidem in sańguine ipsius ad ostensionem iustitiae sue). It was that thought
that became the source of the representation of God the Father exposing to the public view
the Crucified as the propitiatorium, the sign of Reconcilliation.
However, already about 1200 a new image was created by artists in which Most High instead
of the transversal beam of the cross is holding the stretched arms of His sorrowful Son. The
symbols of the four Evangelists surro mding the mandorla praised God with the words written
on scrolls.84 Formally, this image may be considered as an intermediary stage between the
Throne of Mercy and the later theme of the Pietas Christi. The present study resulted from
a conviction that these representations convey various and distinct meaning.85 Both of them,
however, were born in close connection with the liturgy86 and both expressed the differentiated
content of the Redemption dogma. The common idea joins them — God the Father bef ore
the eyes of the whole world reveals that in Christ being shown by Him He got reconciled with
mankind.
Translated by Paulina Rutkowska
80. Innocentius III 1216), Dc sacrificio missae, PL 217, 840: In secreta (i.c. in canone) recolilur niemoria passionis; propter
quod inter praefationem et eanonem in plerisąue sacramenlariis imago Christi depingitur, ut non solum intellectus litterae,
verum eliam aspectus picturae memoriam passionis Dominicae inspirel; see the initial with the image of the Crucified in
Sacramentarium Gellonense ca. 755 — 787, Paris, Bibl. Nat. lat. 12048, fol. 143°, W. Braimfels, Die Welt der Karolinger
und ihre Kunst, Miinchen, 1968, p. 64, fig. 31, the work was kindly made available to me by Professor St. Lorentz.
81. Lib. IV, cap. 35 §10 (ed. Lugdun. 1562, fol. 512).
82. A. Strnad, Herzog Albrecht III. von Oslerreich im spaleń Mittclalter, Diss. Wien 1961.
83. G.H. Buijssen, Durandus Rationale in spdlmi.telhochdeulscher Obersetzung. Das vierte Buch nach der Hs. CVP 2765, Assen,
1966, p.208.
84. Psalterium et Cantica proplietarum, ca 1200. Miinich, Universitatsbibliothek, cod. ms 24, fol. lv [in:] Bayerns Kirche
in Mittelalter. Handschriften und Urkunden. Katalog der Ausslellung, Miinchen, 1960 No. 199, fig. 44.
85. This differentiation of the meaning is testified by the juxtaposition of these representations in the program of the same
altarpiece, see II. Appuhn, "Der Auferstandcne und das Heilige Blut zu Wienhausen", Niederdeutsche Beitrdge zur Kunst-
geschichte, I, 1961, p. 73 — 138.
86. O.v. Simson, "Uber die Bedeutung von Masaccios Trinitiitsfrcsko in S.Maria NovelIa", Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen,
VIII, 1966, p. 126 mentions that W. Schrade in his book (unfortunately inaccessible to me) Die Romanische Malerei,
Koln, 1963, p.212: hal denn auch auf den liturgischen Ursprung des Thernas verwiesen und den Gnadenstuhl ais Veran-
schaulichung der Opfergebete gedeulet; the vahiable article of K. Hoffmann, "Sugers Anagogisches Fenster in St Denis",
Wallraf-Richartz Jahrbuch, XXX, 1968, p. 57 — 88 concerning the problem of Gnadenstuhl reaches me already after fini-
shing this study.
54
ąuitur Patrem quasi praesentem.60
Much influenced by Sicard William Durandus of Mendę (1230—1296) repeated in his Rationale
Divinorum Officiorum the passage we are interested in and yet introduced some changes de-
serving our attention: In quibusdam tamen codicibus et maiestatis Patris et imago depingitur
crucifixi: ut sacerdos quasi praesentem videat quem invocat et quem alloquitur dicens Te igitur etc.
et passio quae hic repraesentatur cordis oculis ingeratur."1
Ca. 1400 a German translation of Durandus' handbook was ordered by Albrecht the Illrd
of Austria.82 Once more we are faced with the same mention on the illustration at the beginning
of the Canon: Ieddoch in ettleichen puechern so ist gemalt daz pild der maieystat des vatters und
der marter...63
Both influential liturgists cjuoted above obviously lean to distinguish two images in the
representation called by us the Throne of Mercy: God the Father in majesty (maiestas Patris)
and the Crucified (Passio Christi) This differentiation can be easily understandable if we take
into consideration the way of joining them in a single image, in the representation that had
to visualize by pictorial means the sense of the Eucharistic prayer Te igitur. This prayer ex-
presses the idea akin to that of the verse of St PauPs Epistle to the Romans: "Whom God hath
set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the
remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God" (Quem proposuit Deus pro-
pitiationem per fidem in sańguine ipsius ad ostensionem iustitiae sue). It was that thought
that became the source of the representation of God the Father exposing to the public view
the Crucified as the propitiatorium, the sign of Reconcilliation.
However, already about 1200 a new image was created by artists in which Most High instead
of the transversal beam of the cross is holding the stretched arms of His sorrowful Son. The
symbols of the four Evangelists surro mding the mandorla praised God with the words written
on scrolls.84 Formally, this image may be considered as an intermediary stage between the
Throne of Mercy and the later theme of the Pietas Christi. The present study resulted from
a conviction that these representations convey various and distinct meaning.85 Both of them,
however, were born in close connection with the liturgy86 and both expressed the differentiated
content of the Redemption dogma. The common idea joins them — God the Father bef ore
the eyes of the whole world reveals that in Christ being shown by Him He got reconciled with
mankind.
Translated by Paulina Rutkowska
80. Innocentius III 1216), Dc sacrificio missae, PL 217, 840: In secreta (i.c. in canone) recolilur niemoria passionis; propter
quod inter praefationem et eanonem in plerisąue sacramenlariis imago Christi depingitur, ut non solum intellectus litterae,
verum eliam aspectus picturae memoriam passionis Dominicae inspirel; see the initial with the image of the Crucified in
Sacramentarium Gellonense ca. 755 — 787, Paris, Bibl. Nat. lat. 12048, fol. 143°, W. Braimfels, Die Welt der Karolinger
und ihre Kunst, Miinchen, 1968, p. 64, fig. 31, the work was kindly made available to me by Professor St. Lorentz.
81. Lib. IV, cap. 35 §10 (ed. Lugdun. 1562, fol. 512).
82. A. Strnad, Herzog Albrecht III. von Oslerreich im spaleń Mittclalter, Diss. Wien 1961.
83. G.H. Buijssen, Durandus Rationale in spdlmi.telhochdeulscher Obersetzung. Das vierte Buch nach der Hs. CVP 2765, Assen,
1966, p.208.
84. Psalterium et Cantica proplietarum, ca 1200. Miinich, Universitatsbibliothek, cod. ms 24, fol. lv [in:] Bayerns Kirche
in Mittelalter. Handschriften und Urkunden. Katalog der Ausslellung, Miinchen, 1960 No. 199, fig. 44.
85. This differentiation of the meaning is testified by the juxtaposition of these representations in the program of the same
altarpiece, see II. Appuhn, "Der Auferstandcne und das Heilige Blut zu Wienhausen", Niederdeutsche Beitrdge zur Kunst-
geschichte, I, 1961, p. 73 — 138.
86. O.v. Simson, "Uber die Bedeutung von Masaccios Trinitiitsfrcsko in S.Maria NovelIa", Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen,
VIII, 1966, p. 126 mentions that W. Schrade in his book (unfortunately inaccessible to me) Die Romanische Malerei,
Koln, 1963, p.212: hal denn auch auf den liturgischen Ursprung des Thernas verwiesen und den Gnadenstuhl ais Veran-
schaulichung der Opfergebete gedeulet; the vahiable article of K. Hoffmann, "Sugers Anagogisches Fenster in St Denis",
Wallraf-Richartz Jahrbuch, XXX, 1968, p. 57 — 88 concerning the problem of Gnadenstuhl reaches me already after fini-
shing this study.
54