Details
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Details of object number: KG23
Title:Straw antependium
Object name:liturgical/clerical equipment (christian)
Created by:Unknown
Production date:(about) 1700
Description:This wooden panel, decorated with straw appliqués. is an antependium (“pulpit fall”) that was once attached on special occasions to the front of an altar table (probably from the high altar of the Neustift/Novacella collegiate church). At the centre of the decoration, created with differently coloured straw appliqués, is a radiant sun with HIS, the monogram of Christ crowned with a cross, with running around it the inscription “NOMEN IESV VERE NOS DELECTAT” (“The name of Jesus truly delights us”). Below the monogram is also depicted the heart of Jesus pierced by the three nails of the cross. In the inscription framing the heart (“LVX LVCIS FLOS FLORIS COR FLORIS COR AMORI”), Christ and his heart are addressed as the “Light of the Light”, “Flower of the Flower”, “Heart of the Flower” and “Heart of the Love”. In keeping with this, around the radiant sun unfurls a garden with a rich assortment of flowers, framed on all four sides by a narrow border strip with a flower tendril. The panel’s blue-painted background particularly highlights the straw appliqués, some of which are gold-coloured.
Hist. crit. notes:This antependium, and another one preserved in Neustift Abbey (inv. no. KG22), are two especially valuable examples of craftsmanship as well as rare cases of the use of straw in Tyrolean Baroque art. Straw used to be known as the “gold of the poor”, because it is a cheap material that nevertheless appears precious as its colour is reminiscent of gold. The use of straw in church artworks is therefore primarily documented for the order of Capuchin mendicant friars, in particular in central Italy and Genoa between the second half of the 17th century and the end of the 19th century.
The other Neustift straw antependium features two oil paintings that, by comparing styles, can be attributed to the painter Stephan Kessler of Brixen/Bressanone or to his studio. It is therefore likely that the straw appliqués on the antependium with the oil paintings – and probably also those on this antependium – were themselves created in Bressanone. In both cases, a lay brother from the local Capuchin monastery might have been the artist responsible for the work.
The other Neustift straw antependium features two oil paintings that, by comparing styles, can be attributed to the painter Stephan Kessler of Brixen/Bressanone or to his studio. It is therefore likely that the straw appliqués on the antependium with the oil paintings – and probably also those on this antependium – were themselves created in Bressanone. In both cases, a lay brother from the local Capuchin monastery might have been the artist responsible for the work.
Technique:inlaid
Dimensions:
- height: 100 cm
width: 297 cm
Institution:Augustinian Abbey of Neustift
Keyword:Liturgie