Diocesan Museum Research Articles

Dávid és Jónátán

The friendship of David and Jonathan is known from the Books of Samuel in the Old Testament. The presentation of the robe, the sword, the bow and the belt is the token of covenant. David’s death lament, an elegy over Jonathan’s bow given to him was called the bow song. Gottfried Bernhard Göz, a painter and graphic artist of Moravian origin working in Augsburg captured the story in an engraving with dotting. His rococo compositions were models for several painters. The oil painting in the diocesan museum of Székesfehérvár was probably made in Göz’s workshop. The same theme features on the obverse of a 17th century silver coin recently included in the author’s collection. (The German legend reads ICH WILL DIR THUN WAS DEIN HERZ BEGEHRT – SAM. 20. V. 4) The reverse of the medal also expresses fraternity through the figures of Abraham and Lot (inscribed: WIR SIND GEBRUDER – Gen. 13. v. 8.) with well-to-do shepherds and their livestock in the background. The art of Göz, his excellent knowledge of the Holy Writ and its use in allegories of vitues help us better interpret the baroque iconography.

Muros consagrados. El entorno litúrgico medieval de la lipsanoteca de Bagüés

Resumen: La iglesia de los Santos Julián y Basilisa de Bagüés, en la provincia de Zaragoza, es conocida por el gran conjunto de pintura mural que albergaron sus muros, hoy conservado en el Museo Diocesano de Jaca. Bajo las pinturas, también se halló una lipsanoteca en una oquedad abierta en el muro de su ábside principal. En su interior sólo estaba el pergamino escrito con una lista de nombres de Santos que se repetían escritos sobre la propia caja. Este artículo trata sobre la costumbre de consagrar iglesias mediante la colocación reliquias en sus muros, una costumbre litúrgica extendida y que permite situar en contexto el hallazgo realizado en Bagüés.Palabras clave: Bagüés. Zaragoza. Museo Diocesano de Jaca. Lipsanoteca. Reliquias. Relicario. Liturgia. Arquitectura románicaAbstract: In the Aragonese province of Zaragoza, although it belongs to the Diocese of Jaca, the church of Saints Julian and Basilissa of Bagüés is known for the large Romanesque wall paintings cycle that was depicted on its walls and now It is preserved in the Diocesan Museum at Jaca. Its interest lies in the stylistic dependence on the French Poitou painting through the direct influence the monastery of San Juan de la Peña (Huesca). During the restoration of the Bagüés paintings before they were taken to Jaca, it was discovered an interesting question. A liturgical hole containing a casket was found in the middle of the apse. The cavity is 13 inches wide and 12.5 tall and 8 deep, coinciding exactly with the head of the crucified Christ that was painted in that area. Also, the remains of preliminary drawing appeared in the area, under the original Romanesque wall paintings. In fact, the hole was sealed by the paintings themselves, small casket (3.2 x 6.2 x 5.1 cm) wrapped in a long strip of cloth was found inside this cavity and it is now also kept in the Diocesan Museum of Jaca. What reasons led to put this empty little box, only with the names of six saints, on the surface of the wall of the church, with an obvious symbolism as it was located at the same place where the head of the crucified Christ would be painted? This Christ painted in the apse of Bagüés was not conceived only as a blessed image, but it was consecrated, too, as happened with the altars or with some images that constituted the sacred treasure of a church. Thus, we should think of it as a large apsidal shrine that gives the wall area of this church a special liturgical significance. In this paper, I analyze how the deposition of relics in the walls or other areas of the architecture of a building was a usual custom and a common paraliturgical rite throughout medieval Europe. This paralitugical usage even grew to monumental expressions which are review here to put in context the casket of Bagüés.Keywords: Bagüés. Zaragoza. Museo Diocesano de Jaca. Liturgy. Relics. Casket. Lipsanotheca. Romanesque Architecture.

Pigment characterization of important golden age panel paintings of the 17th century

Samples were obtained from two world-famous 17th century panel paintings of the Gdańsk school of panting: ‘Seven Acts of Charity’ (1607, in St. Mary’s Church in Gdańsk, Poland) by Anton Möller and ‘Angelic Concert’ (1611, in Diocesan Museum in Pelplin, Poland) by Hermann Han. Micro-Raman spectroscopy (MRS), optical microscopy (OM), and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy studies of the samples were performed to characterize the pigments present in the individual painting layers (a rich palette of white, black, blue, red, and yellow pigments) and the pictorial techniques used by the artists.

Blaski i cienie historii Muzeum Sztuki Kościelnej na Zamku Poznańskim

The paper focuses on the history of the Museum of Ecclesiastical Art at the Imperial Castle in Poznan. It functioned between 1923 and 1929, being a short episode but an important one in the history of the Archdiocesan Museum in Poznań. Formerly a Diocesan Museum, it was established in 1898 with an exquisite collection of sacred art assembled over the years. However, due to the lack of exhibition space the collection was only stored and not many people knew about it.Shortly after Poland regained its independence, Poznan's elite wanted to partially convert the imperial castle (built by the Prussians for William II, German Emperor) into a museum of Polish art. The Government asked the Church to deposit their art collection and granted the city permission to open the Museum of Ecclesiastical Art at the Imperial Castle in Poznan. The proposition was accepted. The two people nominated to carry out this enterprise were: Rev. Edmund Majkowski, the museum's director, and Mr. Nikodem Pajzderski, art conservation official. With great effort they created a very interesting exhibition. Unfortunately, the Government did not show much interest in the newly opened museum and did not fulfill its promises. Investments were close to nothing and with time the whole project was abandoned and the collection removed from the castle.

Epigrafía medieval del museo diocesano Regina Coeli (Santillana del Mar, Cantabria)

Between the funds that integrate the different collections of the Diocesan Museum “Regina Coeli”, they find several medieval inscriptions on stony supports, principally estelas and fragments of funeral tablets proceeding from necropolis or reforms effected in some temples, close to an epigraphic lattice , and metal-workers as some objects liturgical that proceeding from parishes of the Diocese have been moved to the museum to avoid his deterioration or spoliation. In the latter case, it is a question of chalices, custodies, pixides and crossings proccesionals principally, worked in silver or copper. Fifteen inscriptions that are gathered in this article do not form a part of a collection independent from the museum, but they are included in two of his principal collections, archaeology and Spanish silverwork. There is claimed the reading and critical edition of his texts, attending to the recent trends of the epigraphic investigation that conceive the inscription as a way of communication of advertising character in which they control three elements - author, rogatario and addressee - organized in two phases, actio and conscriptio epigraficas. As for the typology of epigraphs established by some authors in analogy with the documentary science and, in relation to the most frequent groups in the epigraphics collections, we will differ between epitaphia , suscriptiones , invocationes and donationes .

Malarstwo na szkle – badania budowy technicznej i stanu zachowania na przykładzie wybranych obrazów

There are research on technique and preservation state presented in the article. The reasons of damages were defined on the example of six reverse painting on glass from The Museum in Kartuzy, The Ethnographic Museum in Toruń, The Regional Museum in Toruń, The Diocesan Museum in Włocławek and from the private collection.The reverse painting on glass represent different techniques: english painting behind glass (franc. fixe sous verre, niem. Die Englische Malerei hinter Glass, pol. pseudowitrochromia), mirror painting on glass, reverse painting on glass (franc. peinture sous verre, niem. Hinterglasmalerei, pol. witrochromia), reverse foil engraving (franc. verre eglomise, niem. Eglomisieren) and crystoleum.Preservation state of majority of the paintings is bad. The research gave the answer what is the main reason of the damages. Broken and loosen glass is caused mainly by the mechanical treatment.There is failure of adhesion between the paint and the glass and loss of the paint layer, of the gold and of the amalgam.The technical mistakes during the process of the production of paintings and the bad storage condition is the main reason of failure of adhesion between the paint and the glass.

Off-Line Methods for Determining Air Quality in Museums

This paper will examine three methodologies deployed in off-line research relating to air quality in museums. These methodologies made use of sensors based on the different chemical-physical properties of various materials (corrosiveness, hardness and absorption). Various field applications were applied to case studies, which were performed in two museums in Palermo, Italy: the Regional Gallery of Palazzo Abatellis and the Diocesan Museum. This review of methodologies and sensors examines which protocol should be put into practice in museums in monitoring the air quality of display spaces and the conservation of cultural artefacts.

The Crown of Christ in the Context of Medieval Art

In the Diocesan museum situated in the Romanesque church of St Quirinus in the town of Krk a medieval crucifix is displayed to the public. It has been believed to be a work of an anonymous author from the second half of the 14th century. In order to date the sculpture more precisely this paper aims to give a brief review of the development of the theme of crucifixion in art as well as the development of the crucifix during the Middle Ages. The emphasis will be placed on the royal crown on Christ’s head as an iconographic symbol.

Micellar electrokinetic chromatography method for the determination of several natural red dyestuff and lake pigments used in art work

The identification of organic colorants used in artistic paintings is an important information source for reconstructing the working techniques found in a particular work and for defining a programme for the restoration and conservation of the painting. In this work, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) was used as a surfactant in micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) for separating a broad range of red organic pigments, based on their colouring matters: madder (colouring matters: alizarin, quinizarin and purpurin), cochineal (colouring matter: carminic acid), red sandalwood (colouring matter: santalin), brazilwood (colouring matter: brazilin), lac dye (colouring matter: laccaic acid) and dragon's blood (colouring matter: dracorhodin). The running electrolyte used was 20 mM borax (pH 9), containing 20 mM SDS and 10% acetonitrile as organic modifier. Separation was carried out by applying a +20 kV voltage at the injection end, 25 °C and 214 nm/254 nm as detection wavelengths. All colorants were separated within less than 13 min with a good baseline resolution. The method was applied to the analysis of paint samples obtained from the Diocesan Museum of Holy Art of Bilbao.

Gemstone of paradise: the Holy Grail in Wolfram's Parzival

The phenomenal success of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code has given new life to the perennial debate about the nature and meaning of the mysterious Holy Grail. The story of the Grail, usually identified as some kind of mystical vessel, has gripped the imaginations of millions since it first appeared in several medieval romances. Of these, Wolfram von Eschenbach's Middle High German Parzival (c. 1200) is generally recognized as the most complex and beautiful. Strangely, in Parzival, the Grail is identified as a rather than a cup or dish. This oddity is usually seen as just another mystery, further evidence of the difficulty of discerning the true sources of the Grail legend. In this groundbreaking study, Ronald Murphy seeks to dispel this mystery and to enable a far better appreciation of Wolfram's purposes. Wolfram, Murphy argues, wanted to chastise his contemporaries who looked for the Grail in the possession of Muslims in the Holy Land. The Grail (salvation, blessedness, the presence of God), Wolfram was saying, was where God said He would be: on the altar at the consecration of the Mass. Wolfram's sacred stone was none other than a consecrated altar, precious by virtue of the sacrament but also, Murphy argues, by virtue of the material from which it was made: green serpentine, one of the precious stones associated with the rivers of Paradise. Wolfram's may also have been a symbolic reference to the the Crusaders fought to obtain - the Holy Sepulchre. The entire story of Parzival, Murphy believes, was intended as an argument against continued efforts by Latin Christians to regain the Holy Land by force. Remarkably, Murphy believes he has discovered the very altar that inspired Wolfram's work, preserved to the present day in the Paradise Altar in the diocesan museum of the German city of Bamberg. Offering an entirely original reading of Wolfram's famous text, this engrossing and readable book will appeal not only to scholars and students of medieval literature but to many of the readers who are drawn to the lasting mystery of the Holy Grail.

LA JUSTICIA DEL MÁS ALLÁ: SU PROYECCIÓN VISUAL EN EL RETABLO DE LOS PUIXMARÍN DE LA CATEDRAL DE MURCIA

The Diocesan Museum of Murcia has an altarpiece devoted to Saint Michael which was part of the furnishings of the chapel of dean Pedro Puixmarin in the cloister of the catedral. Its program, by introducing the Purgatory, connects to the new multifunctional image of the otherworld formulated in the second half of the Twelfth Century. This representation will be used progressively in the iconography. The function of the altarpiece should be linked to the soteriologic project of the dean, where the chapel, also devoted to the archangel, operates both as a motif of social prestige and as an ideal setting of his utopia of salvation

CHRISTIAN SACRED ART: A CONSERVATION CHALLENGE

Christian sacred art is not only an artistic and aesthetic phenomenon, but can also be seen as a manifestation of the divine, the objects becoming a presence of what they represent. A substantial proportion of this kind of art remains dispersed in churches and ecclesiastic treasuries without any special provision for its care and much is still in ceremonial use, continuing to be handled and moved. Recording by inventory and transfer to museums are only recent developments. Portugal has developed various strategies for the preservation of these collections, including the creation of Diocesan Sacred Art Commissions, diocesan museum networks where small museums and museological treasuries are maintained separately but have a common technical staff, a Secure Church Programme and temporary exhibitions, which play a role in conservation, promotion and public awareness. Although not conventional conservation, these actions have helped us to keep the memory of the past alive and let us carry it into the future.

Ein unbekannter Heiliger Franziskus in Ekstase des El Greco in Polen

In 1964 our work on an inventory of monuments of the Podlasie region (Eastern Poland) led to the discovery - in the church of the village Kosow Lacki - of a painting by El Greco showing St. Francis in Ecstasy. The much dirtied and partly overpainted canvas has been subjected in 1974 to an extensive restoration which uncovered the original signature of the artist (Domenikos Theotocop...) and some pentimenti. The results of the technological investigations confirmed the attribution of the painting to El Greco formulated by the authors in 1964. Owing to problems of Church and State relations, the painting remained in virtual seclusion until October 2004, when it was put on view in the newly opened Diocesan Museum in Siedlce (Masovia). The nearest analogy to the painting from Kosow Lacki is provided by El Greco's Stigmatisation of St. Francis in the Madrid Abello collection (formerly Pidal collection) painted around 1580. In our analysis we have shown that in the Kosow Lacki painting the painter did initiate - though in a hesitant way - an iconographic formula of the Stigmatisation of St. Francis that was later developed fully in his depiction of the theme in the Abello collection. Thus the painting from Kosow Lacki provided also a model for most paintings in El Greco's St. Francis series, which is now dispersed all over the world. Both the Abello and the Kosow Lacki versions are undoubtedly autograph works; they were repeated in numerous variants or copies (a dozen or so) produced by his workshop or by his copyists. We also would like to put forward the hypothesis that El Greco had been the first artist to introduce - probably under the influence of the writings of St. Peter of Alcantara - into the scene of St. Francis's ecstasy and stigmatisation the motif of the skull. As a date for the Polish painting from Kosow Lacki we propose the end of the 1570s. It is not known how and when El Greco's St. Francis in Ecstasy reached Poland. It seems that before its apparition in Kosow Lacki (around 1927) it did pass through the art trade.

Recuperación de los restos de la sillería de la Catedral de Huesca

The choir stalls of Huesca Cathedral were situated in the center of the nave until December, 1969, when they were removed. Of the 85 seats, 28 were placed in the chancel and the remainder mounted and exhibited in the Diocesan Museum. This study deals mainly with this process, and includes information concerning the restoration, cleaning and mounting of these pieces, as well as the inevitable changes in their order. Future studies of this outstanding work will have to take into account all of these alterations.