Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 5744
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Caviness , Madeline.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Artist: "To See, Hear, and Know All at Once" [Hildegard of Bingen as a creative artist].
  • Source: Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World.  Edited by Barbara Newman.  University of California Press, 1998.  Pages 110 - 124.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Essay
  • Subject (See Also): Art History- Painting Artists Hildegard of Bingen, Abbess of Rupertsberg Illumination of Manuscripts
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: Germany
  • Century: 12
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations:
  • Table: Eighteen Figures. Figure One "The Fall," "Scivias," Book I, Vision 2. A black pit opens and casts them out of paradise. Figure Two "Defeated Enemy," "Scrivias," Book 2, Vision 7. A monstrous devil lies in defeat and spews flames. Figure Three "Son of Humanity," "Scivias," Book 3, Vision 10. A youthful Christ sits and below him stands Constancy, Celestial Desire, Compunction of Heart, Contempt of the World, and Concord. Figure Four Male and female saints, sacramentary from Maria Laach, circa 1160. Figure Five "Virtues in the Tower of the Will of God," "Scivias, " Book 3, Vision 3. Heavenly Love, Discipline, Modesty, Mercy, and Victory are clad in silk garments and look out from the tower. Longing and Patience appear in the lower right corner. Figure Six "Soul and Body, Walk of the Soul," "Scivias," Book 1, Vision 4. The creator ensouls an infant in its mother's womb. On the right the soul's trials are shown. Figure Seven "The Lamb opens the seals and the beasts take John's hand" (Saint-Sever Apocalypse), circa 1075. Figure Eight, "Giving of Life: Communion," "Scivias," Book 2, Vision 6. A priest celebrates Mass with a group of angels coming down at the transubstantiation. Figure Nine "Abbess Aldegonde's Vision of the Apotheosis of St. Amand," circa 1125-1145. Figure Ten "The Day of the Great Revelation," "Scivias," Book 3, Vision II. The page includes five beasts in the north, a youthful Christ in the west, and below a crowned woman. Figure Eleven "Tower of Church," "Scivias," Book 3, Vision 9. The tower of the church is filled with people. Outside stand the female virtues, Knowledge of God, Wisdom, Justice, and Sanctity. Figure Twelve "Column of the Trinity," "Scivias," Book 3, Vision 7. Image of the Trinity as a compound pier making the corner of a building. Figure Thirteen Richard of Saint Victor, "Temple Gatehouse," illustration for Ezekiel's vision, probably before 1173. Figure Fourteen "Rupertsberg Abbey," engraved after a drawing by Daniel Meissner, before 1625. Figure Fifteen "Heavenly Jerusalem with Saints," "Book of Divine Works," Part 3, Vision 2. People, young and old, stand together in a group. Above them the saved play music. In the lower lefthand corner Hildegard is depicted with pen in hand. Figure Sixteen "The Trinity," "Book of Divine Works," Part l, Vision l. The Trinity in human form tramples the satanic serpent. Below Hildegard receives the vision. Figure Seventeen "The Heavenly Jerusalem with Wisdom and God," "Book of Divine Works," Part 3, Vision 4. Wisdom is a richly dressed woman wearing white and green. Figure Eighteen "Tree of Jesse, "Speculum virginum," mid-twelfth century.
  • Abstract:
  • Related Resources: In approaching the question of Hildegard as an artist, Madeline Caviness explores two major problems. Scholarship on the development of western art centers on France, marginalizing the German tradition. Caviness places HIldegard's paintings among others o
  • Author's Affiliation: Tufts University
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 1998.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 0520208269