First Love and Mysteries
Medieval Treasures from Münster Cathedral
By Viktoria Weinebeck, Curator at the Domkammer in Münster
One of CMA’s current exhibitions, “Medieval Treasures from Münster Cathedral” features a collection of relics and reliquaries kept in the Cathedral of Saint Paul in Münster, in northwestern Germany. For the medieval Christian, collections of relics and reliquaries held spiritual power and political clout. To deepen our understanding of these treasures we asked the expert: Viktoria Weinebeck, curator at the Domkammer in Münster.
They say you’ll never forget your first love— and they are right. I still remember the moment I saw the head reliquary of Saint Paul for the first time — it was love at first sight. Fifteen years later it is still this little reliquary that I would choose among hundreds of artworks in the collection if asked which was the most significant of the Cathedral of Saint Paul in Münster, Germany, now on view at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
It is one of the oldest and most important reliquaries of the treasury. It sheds light on the beginning and long history of the cathedral, the diocese and city of Münster. It speaks from darker and brighter times. It is representative for the adoration of saints in general and particularly Saint Paul at the cathedral.
More than 1200 years ago, the Christian emperor Charlemagne wanted to convert the pagan Saxons into Christian residents of his empire. For the evangelization in north-western Saxony he chose Ludger, a Frisian missionary. Through his studies and famous teachers Ludger had become acquainted with the teachings of Saint Paul and his concept of peaceful evangelization. He brought his veneration of Saint Paul to Münster where he founded a monastery and in 805 became the first bishop. Possibly it was Ludger himself (or one of his early successors) who chose Saint Paul as patron saint of the first church. His monastery turned out to be the starting point for the later city. The Latin word for cloister, monasterium, turned over the years into Münster.
The bust itself dates to the 11th century — which makes it the oldest surviving head reliquary of its kind. It contains several parts of the skull and originally a tooth of the saint, too.
The reliquary has witnessed almost every important event of the history of Münster: multiple fires in the cathedral and the city of Münster, the black death from 1350 onward, the short reign of the Anabaptists and their iconoclasm in1534-35, the Thirty Years’ War and the peace negotiations that took place in Münster in 1648, World War I and World War II, and the rebuilding of the cathedral church from 1946 to 1956.
More than 900 years have passed since the reliquary’s wooden core was carved. Due to the natural shrinking of the wood core, the gold foil has dents and wrinkles. His face is no longer perfectly even, but to me this imperfection makes him only more approachable.
A historical contemporary of Saint Paul was the prophet Philo. Representative of a group of 14 prophet busts in the cathedral’s collection, he and the prophet Hosea are now on view at the CMA as well.
One aspect that is really fascinating when working with (especially) medieval artworks is the fact that they succeed in keeping their “mysteries.” This also applies to the prophet busts. The mystery of their arrangement has not yet been unraveled.
Hosea and Philo II (and the other prophets of this group except for David and Daniel) can only be identified by the inscription scrolls they hold. However, some scrolls have been rearranged from one prophet to another in the past decades and centuries. For example, Hosea once was called Joel due to the inscription on the scroll he held until 1979. Two differences are evident when comparing both exhibited prophets: Hosea is a classical bust whereas Philo II functions as a reliquary. On the other hand, the name Philo II signifies that there is another Philo in the group.
In fact, Philo as well as the prophet Jeremiah are represented twice within the group of prophets. Each of them has a doppelgangers with whom they share identical scroll inscriptions. Apart from that the doppelganger have their own physiognomy. In each case one of the doubled prophets is designed as a reliquary and one as a classical bust.
The group corresponds to an older group of 12 apostles and a figure of Saint Paul, Saint John Baptist and Saint Mary. The decision for 14 prophets therefore seems to be well thought out. As the cathedral archive was destroyed in the Middle Ages, there are no written records that could help to solve the mystery of the doubled prophets.
This leaves us only with assumptions. Maybe the initial idea had indeed been to represent 14 different prophets. For reasons yet unknown the sponsor or goldsmith had to repeat the inscriptions of two prophets instead of having 14 different texts and prophets. But whatever might be the mystery behind the prophets, their charisma and beauty are not affected at all. They are highly fascinating examples of the art of the time around 1400.
Gold and silver reliquaries, jeweled crosses, liturgical garments, and illuminated manuscripts are among the rare treasures on view in this show. Because the cathedral was the heart of both the diocese and the secular territory of the bishop, many art objects were commissioned for, or gifted to, the cathedral.
Come see eight of these reliquaries in Medieval Treasures from Münster Cathedral on view in gallery 115 and in Collection Online. This exhibition is included in FREE general admission.
