Mathilda: Duae Vitae

Frans van Kuyck - Trudging Through the Snow

pastel (50 x 70 cm)

private collection

Frans Pieter Lodewijk van Kuyck (9 June 1852, Antwerp - 31 May 1915, Antwerp) was a Belgian painter and graphic artist. He is also known for helping to establish Mother’s Day in Belgium.

Henry the Fowler (876-936)

Matilda of Ringelheim (894/897-968)

The Cumberland Medallion is a colorful circular brooch with a depiction of Christ haloed and in between the Greek letters Alpha and Omega.

Crafted out of gilt copper and glass enamel.

Made in the late 8th century for a Saxon nobleman in Braunschweig, perhaps proto-Ottonian.

Found in the ecclesiastical treasure horde at the Brunswick Cathedral in Germany.

Inherited by the Duke of Brunswick in the 17th century, and then sold to the Cleveland Art Museum in 1930.

St. Michaels, Hildesheim, 1000 CE

Becoming a great center of learning under Bishop Bernward, the abbey church of St. Michael’s reflects this learning through its harmonious modulation and the adaptation of the Carolingian Basilica to to a new Ottonian style.  The church features a double transept plan, two choirs, perhaps due to the liturgy becoming increasingly complex.  This dividing focus breaks from the Carolingian preference for an eastern center of gravity.  Each transept contains a crossing square, the rest of the church modulated accordingly.  This early example of modulation would be seen in later Romanesque and Gothic examples.  Decorated with clear cubic forms, this would set a precedent for the clarity of the Romanesque.  The contrasting horizontal and vertical forms of St. Michael’s created a new aesthetic departing from early Christian precedents.  A remarkable original feature of the church was the set of great bronze doors likely designed by Bishop Bernward himself.  Prefiguring Ghiberti’s doors by centuries, this was the greatest bronze casting project since antiquity.  Seen daily by monks as they entered the cloister, the doors are a great example of typology, exhibited through old testament scenes illuminating the new, such as Cain and Able positioned next to the Crucifixion, Christ redeeming man for their sins.