DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48462#0046
42
Knut Berg
19. Book of Pericopes, Bremen, Staatsbibi.
cocl. b. 21, fol. 53 v
20. Codex Egberti, Trier, Stadtbibi. cod. 24,
fol. 82 (after Kraus)
miniatures illustrating all the seevents from the Passion. Thus in the same manuscript we would find
Christ crowned with Thorns both according to the type of the Lateran sarcophagus and of the St. Augu-
stine Gospels.
On a stylistic basis it has long been recognized that the Early Christian prototype of Codex Egberti
probably was a Roman manuscript of the fourth Century, close to the Vatican Vergil and the Quedlin-
burger Itala-fragment33. This manuscript would thus be roughly Contemporary with the Lateran sarco-
phagus and the prototype of the Crowning with Thorns in the St. Augustine Gospels. This may help to
explain the stränge form of the Crown itself in the Echternach manuscript. In none of the other early
representations of the Crowning with Thorns is the Crown shown as an actual Crown of Thorns, for as we
have observed this would be contrary to the basic idea of the scene. The Crown in the Echternach
manuscript, however, is enormous and the Thorns very prominent. It is highly unlikely that the Crown
would have been represented like this in the Early Christian prototype. But if we imagine that in the
original prototype it was a Strahlenkrone or a rayed nimbus, it is possible to see how it could have been
transformed into the form of the Crown in the Echternach manuscript34.
Finally it may be of interest to examine the list of illustrations in an old Greek GospeLbook found in a
manuscript in St. Gallen. This manuscript is written by an Insular scribe in the middle of the ninth
33 Boeckler, op. cit., p. 58.
34 In two other Echternach manuscripts, the Codex Aureus in Nürnberg, previously in Gotha, and the Codex Aureus in Escorial,
we find representations of the Crowning with Thorns. The scene in Nürnberg codex shows to the right Christ being led by soldiers
while one of them is putting the Crown on His head, and to the left Simon carrying the Cross (Boeckler, op. cit., fig. 177).
This must clearly be a contraction of the two scenes in the Bremensis. The scene in the Escorial codex is, however, quite different
(ibid., fig. 91) and has nothing to do with the representations of the Crowning with Thorns we have examined here. It follows a
Byzantine prototype with Christ placed symmetrically and frontally between two groups of kneeling and Standing soldiers and
Jews. This prototype, which is always followed in Byzantine art, was to become the basis for most Western representations of
the theme in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
Knut Berg
19. Book of Pericopes, Bremen, Staatsbibi.
cocl. b. 21, fol. 53 v
20. Codex Egberti, Trier, Stadtbibi. cod. 24,
fol. 82 (after Kraus)
miniatures illustrating all the seevents from the Passion. Thus in the same manuscript we would find
Christ crowned with Thorns both according to the type of the Lateran sarcophagus and of the St. Augu-
stine Gospels.
On a stylistic basis it has long been recognized that the Early Christian prototype of Codex Egberti
probably was a Roman manuscript of the fourth Century, close to the Vatican Vergil and the Quedlin-
burger Itala-fragment33. This manuscript would thus be roughly Contemporary with the Lateran sarco-
phagus and the prototype of the Crowning with Thorns in the St. Augustine Gospels. This may help to
explain the stränge form of the Crown itself in the Echternach manuscript. In none of the other early
representations of the Crowning with Thorns is the Crown shown as an actual Crown of Thorns, for as we
have observed this would be contrary to the basic idea of the scene. The Crown in the Echternach
manuscript, however, is enormous and the Thorns very prominent. It is highly unlikely that the Crown
would have been represented like this in the Early Christian prototype. But if we imagine that in the
original prototype it was a Strahlenkrone or a rayed nimbus, it is possible to see how it could have been
transformed into the form of the Crown in the Echternach manuscript34.
Finally it may be of interest to examine the list of illustrations in an old Greek GospeLbook found in a
manuscript in St. Gallen. This manuscript is written by an Insular scribe in the middle of the ninth
33 Boeckler, op. cit., p. 58.
34 In two other Echternach manuscripts, the Codex Aureus in Nürnberg, previously in Gotha, and the Codex Aureus in Escorial,
we find representations of the Crowning with Thorns. The scene in Nürnberg codex shows to the right Christ being led by soldiers
while one of them is putting the Crown on His head, and to the left Simon carrying the Cross (Boeckler, op. cit., fig. 177).
This must clearly be a contraction of the two scenes in the Bremensis. The scene in the Escorial codex is, however, quite different
(ibid., fig. 91) and has nothing to do with the representations of the Crowning with Thorns we have examined here. It follows a
Byzantine prototype with Christ placed symmetrically and frontally between two groups of kneeling and Standing soldiers and
Jews. This prototype, which is always followed in Byzantine art, was to become the basis for most Western representations of
the theme in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.