Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index
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Title:
The Crowning of Heinrich II and Kunigunde, from the Pericopes of Henry II
Creator:
Description:
In this illumination Christ sits in majesty and crowns Heinrich II, Holy Roman Emperor (973-1024) and his wife, Kunigunde of Luxembourg (975-1040) while saints Peter, at left, and Paul, at right, look on. Beneath the coronation scene, a female personification of Rome dominates the center of the lower register as she offers up a globe to Henry, who in turn offers a globe to Christ. Rome wears a long white tunic with red and gold trim and a red stole, along with a crown shaped like city walls, an iconographic device with its origins in representations of classical city goddesses, or Tyches. She holds a foliated staff in her left hand and gestures toward the emperor. To either side of Rome stand personifications of Gallia and Germania, Heinrich and Kunigunde’s principal territories. Gallia and Germania each wear tall spiked crowns and hold a wreath and a globe respectively. Figures holding plates of fruit and cornucopias behind or beneath the cities suggest the bounty and fertility of the ruling couple’s empire. This coronation scene is the second folio of an elaborate pericopes, or gospel book, that Heinrich II dedicated to Bamberg Cathedral on the occasion of the church’s dedication in May of 1012. The presence of three classicizing female allegories in the illumination, especially Roma-Tyche, draws a direct visual connection between Heinrich and Kunigunde and Roman rulers from classical antiquity, thus situating the couple within an unbroken lineage of imperial authority.
Source:
Wikimedia Commons
Rights:
Public Domain
Subject
(See Also)
:
Allegory
Coronations
Donor Portraits
Gallia (Personification)
Germania (Personification)
Kunigunde, Wife of Heinrich II, Holy Roman Emperor
Peter, Saint
Paul, Saint
Rome (Personification)
Geographic Area:
Germany
Century:
11
Date:
1007-1012
Related Work:
Angel at the Tomb, f117r: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PericopesHenryIIFol117rAngelOnTomb.jpg; Reichenau Gospels: http://www.thedigitalwalters.org/Data/WaltersManuscripts/html/W7/
Current Location:
Munich, Bayerisches Staatsbibliothek, Clm 4452 f2r
Original Location:
Germany, S. Likely produced at the Abbey of Reichenau; Dedicated to Bamberg Cathedral on May 6, 1012
Artistic Type (Category):
Digital Images; Manuscript Illuminations
Artistic Type (Material/Technique):
Vellum (Parchment); Paint
Donor:
Layman; Heinrich II, Holy Roman Emperor (973-1024)
Height/Width/Length(cm):
42.5 cm/32 cm/
Inscription:
Top:
TRACTANDO· IVSTVM· DISCERNITE· SEMPER· HONESTU· VTILE· CONVENIAT· CONSVLTVM· LEGIS· VT· OPTAT
/ Bottom:
SOLVIMUS· ECCE· TIBI· REX· CENSUM· IURE· PERENNI· CLEMENS· ESTO· TUIS· NOS· REDDIMUS· ISTA· QUOT· ANNIS
/ (Translation: By practicing justice, distinguish always what is honest from what is useful. May the law’s decree be decided upon as he wishes./Behold, we release to you, O King, what was owed with perennial right. Be merciful upon your own. We [shall] repay these in as many years.)
Related Resources:
Garrison, Eliza. Ottonian Imperial Art and Portraiture: The Artistic Patronage of Otto III and Henry III. Ashgate, 2012. pp. 127-31.