Andachtsbilder

{{Short description|Religious image}} {{Italic title}} [[File:Veronicas Svetteduk av Domenico Fetti.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|''Veil of Veronica'' by the Italian Baroque painter Domenico Fetti]]

'''''Andachtsbilder''''' (singular '''''Andachtsbild''''', German for '''devotional image''') is a German term often used in English in art history for Christian devotional images designed as aids for prayer or contemplation. The images "generally show holy figures extracted from a narrative context to form a highly focused, and often very emotionally powerful, vignette".{{sfnp|Ross|1996|p=12}}

The term is especially used of Northern Gothic art around the 14th and 15th centuries, when new subjects such as the ''Pietà'', ''Pensive Christ'', ''Man of Sorrows'', ''Arma Christi'', ''Veil of Veronica'', the severed head of John the Baptist, and the ''Virgin of Sorrows'' became extremely popular.{{efn|{{harvp|Snyder|1985}} and, much more fully, {{harvp|Schiller|1972}} cover these ''passim'', see their indexes. Schiller's translator always translates the German term to "devotional images" etc.}}

== Subjects and genres == [[File:Geertgen Man van smarten.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.9|''Man of Sorrows'', Geertgen tot Sint Jans, Dutch, 1486, 25 x 24 cm, Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht.<ref>Discussed by {{harvp|Snyder|1985|pp=176-78}}</ref>]]

Traditional subjects from the narrative of the Passion of Christ such as the ''Ecce Homo'' and the ''Crucifixion of Jesus'' were also treated in the same way. Though the ''Crucifix'' had been treated as an intense, isolated image for centuries, at least as far back as the 10th century ''Gero Cross'' in Cologne, many images showed a new emphasis on graphically depicted streaming blood, wounds and contorted poses. This process started around 1300, so the influence appears to be from the ''Crucifixion'' to other subjects.{{sfnp|Schiller|1972|pp=146–148}}

The traditional ''Ecce Homo'' is a very crowded scene, in which the figure of Christ is often less prominent than those of his captors, but in the ''andachtsbilder'' versions the other figures and complex architectural background have vanished, leaving only Christ, with a plain background in most painted versions (see the example by Antonello da Messina in the gallery below).{{sfnp|Schiller|1972|pp=75–76}}{{efn|There are other small types with just two or three figures—see the Mantegna in the gallery.}}

''Andachtsbilder'' have a strong emphasis on the grief and suffering of Christ and the figures close to him. Their use was encouraged by movements such as the Franciscans, the Devotio Moderna and German mysticism in late medieval Europe, which promoted affective meditation on the sufferings of Christ by intense mental visualization ("imitation") of them and their physical effects.{{sfnp|Schiller|1972|pp=179–180, 190–191, 197–198}} The most extreme, even gruesome, examples often came from the eastern edge of the Holy Roman Empire and beyond in Poland, Lithuania and the Baltic states, where large carved gobbets of congealed blood can cover the body.{{efn|[http://www.mnw.art.pl/index.php/en/collections/pemanent_galleries/the_gallery_of_medieval_art/ Examples] ({{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727210620/http://www.mnw.art.pl/index.php/en/collections/pemanent_galleries/the_gallery_of_medieval_art/ |date=July 27, 2011 }}) from the National Museum, Warsaw}} But the style spread all over Europe, including Italy, although the extremes of emotionalism were avoided there until the Baroque.

== Scope == [[File:PietaKrivakova.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Early Bohemian Pietà of 1390–1400]]

=== Sculptures === The term was first devised for a group of mainly sculptural subjects, including the ''Pietà'' and ''Pensive Christ'', that were thought to have emerged in convents in south-western Germany in the 14th century, although their history is now believed to be more complicated.{{sfnp|Hamburger|1997|p=3}}

In churches such images were often given a side-chapel, and sometimes are given special places in the rituals of Holy Week. For example, consecrated hosts might be stored in the cavity of the spear wound in a sculpted ''Pietà'' between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.{{sfnp|Schiller|1972|p=180–181}}

=== Paintings, carvings, and prints === The term is often used specifically for small works intended for personal contemplation in the home. By the 15th century the emerging urban middle classes of Northern Europe were increasingly able to afford small paintings or carvings. The depiction was often very "close-up", with a half-length figure occupying nearly the whole picture space.{{sfnp|Elkins|2001|pp=154–161}} ''Andachtsbilder'' subjects were also very common in prints. However larger works for churches or outdoor display are also covered by the term.

By the mid-15th century ''andachtsbilder'' were influencing large monumental works, a process James Snyder discusses in relation to major works such as Rogier van der Weyden's ''Prado Deposition'',{{sfnp|Snyder|1985|pp=128}} the ''Isenheim Altarpiece'' of Matthias Grünewald,{{sfnp|Snyder|1985|pp=348-50}} and the carved ''Altarpiece of the Holy Blood'' by Tilman Riemenschneider at Rothenburg ob der Tauber.{{sfnp|Snyder|1985|pp=306}} The ''Mass of St Gregory'', which included a vision of the ''Man of Sorrows'', was a composition often used on altarpieces which took a common ''andachtsbilder'' subject and expanded it into a subject suitable for more monumental works.

The art historian Jeffrey F. Hamburger observed that the term has now "lost whatever precision it could ever lay claim to, having been applied to virtually any object that might have been used to stimulate devotional experience".{{sfnp|Hamburger|1997|p=3}} Although works in the ''andachtsbilder'' tradition remained very popular in Catholic art for centuries, for example in Baroque Spain and Italy, the term is less likely to be applied to much later images. The English term "devotional image" or "picture" etc. can apply to a wide range of images, in all media, included modern commercially printed reproductions or prayer cards, especially those featuring a portrait-like image rather than a narrative scene.

==Gallery== <gallery widths=200 heights=200> File:Man lorenzetti.jpg|An early ''Man of Sorrows'' by the Italian artist Pietro Lorenzetti, c. 1330 File:Simone Martini, circle of, Christ Bearing the Cross, with a Dominican Friar, tempera on panel, ca. 1350, Frick Collection.jpg|''Christ carrying the Cross'', with a donor portrait of a Dominican friar, Barna da Siena, 1330–1350 File:Meister Francke 003.jpg|''Man of Sorrows'' by the North German artist Meister Francke, c. 1435.<ref>Discussed by {{harvp|Snyder|1985|p=86}}</ref> File:Schmerzensmann.jpg|Pensive Christ with the Arma Christi, German, 1450–60 File:Christ as Man of Sorrows between Four Angels.jpg|Engraving of c. 1460 by Master E. S. of the Man of Sorrows with the Arma Christi File:Antonello da Messina 004.jpg|One of several versions of the ''Ecce Homo'' by Antonello da Messina, who was influenced by Early Netherlandish painting, c. 1473 File:Hans memling, uomo di dolori tra le braccia della vergine, 1475-79.jpg|Hans Memling, 1475–79. Sometimes the Instruments of the Passion are expanded, as here, to include heads and disembodied hands of the persecutors. File:Hans Memling 014.jpg|Memling, 1470, showing a typically gentler and less emotive Flemish style. File:Giovanni-Bellini-HalottKrisztus-négyAngyallal (1470).jpg|The Venetian Giovanni Bellini painted several ''andachtsbilder'' subjects, typically, as here, pulling back somewhat compared to Northern "close-up" treatments. File:Andrea Mantegna - Beweinung Christi.jpg|A highly original composition by Andrea Mantegna of the laying-out of the dead Christ, c. 1490. File:Ecce-homo Mantegna.jpg|''Ecce Homo'' by Andrea Mantegna, c. 1500, avoids Northern emotionalism, but retains the "close up" composition. File:Torun krucyfiks franciszkanski.jpg|Polish crucifix of c. 1500, showing the ''andachtsbilder'' style </gallery>

== Explanatory notes == {{Notelist}}

== References == === Citations === {{Reflist|20em}}

=== General and cited references === {{Refbegin}} * {{Cite book |last=Elkins |first=James |title=Pictures and Tears: A History of People Who Have Cried in Front of Paintings |date=2001 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=0-415-93713-2 |location=New York |oclc=48025999}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=1J9VnrvTlYEC&dq=Andachtsbilder&pg=PA155 google books] * {{Cite book |last=Hamburger |first=Jeffrey F. |title=Nuns as artists: the visual culture of a medieval convent |date=1997 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-91737-8 |location=Berkeley |oclc=44962917}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=B_qNtLc72fYC&dq=Andachtsbilder&pg=PA227 Google books] * {{Cite book |last=Ross |first=Leslie |title=Medieval Art: a topical dictionary |date=1996 |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=978-1-4294-7336-1 |location=Westport, Connecticut |oclc=70764987}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=b-5YPoia7qwC&dq=Bible+Historiale&pg=PA36 Google books] * {{Cite book |last=Schiller |first=Gertrud |author-link=Gertrud Schiller |title=Iconography of Christian Art |volume=2 |date=1972 |publisher=Lund Humphries |isbn=0-8212-0365-7 |edition=1st |location=London |oclc=237920 |language=en}} * {{Cite book |last=Snyder |first=James |author-link=James Snyder (art historian) |title=Northern Renaissance Art: Painting, Sculpture, the Graphic Arts from 1350 to 1575 |date=1985 |publisher=Harry N. Abrams |isbn=0-13-623596-4 |location=New York |oclc=10799841}} {{Refend}}

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Category:Christian iconography Category:German art Category:Gothic art Category:New Testament subjects in art