Synagoga-Ecclesia motif

[PILGRIMSPLAZA]

Has anyone recognized the Synagoga-Ecclesia motif in Santiago Cathedral?
See http://www.artbooks.com/titles/113/Item113303.htm
and http://www.cambridge.org/aus/catalogue/ ... 441&ss=fro
"In the thirteenth century, sculptures of Synagoga and Ecclesia – paired female personifications [...] became a favored motif on cathedral façades in France and Germany."
http://www.jhom.com/topics/crowns/fallen.html -
http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/stra ... bourg.html -
http://www.cambridge.org/aus/catalogue/ ... 441&ss=fro -
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Categ ... _Cathedral -
http://ocw.nd.edu/theology/jews-and-chr ... lesia/view -

 

[Priscillian]

Hi Geert,
This looks very interesting but I doubt if many people will have the time to go through the links to find out what a "synagogue/Eccesia motif" is, including myself. Do you think you might put together a paragraph or two explaining it a bit?

 

[Nandy61]

its quite simple really. "Church and Synagogue were common allegorical figures in the Middle Ages. Draped females, they are ways of representing the transition from the Old Law to the New. Church (Ecclesia) typically wears a crown, carries a cross, and holds a chalice, representing the Redeemer's blood. While Synagogue (Synagoga) is always a blindfolded figure, the blindfold representing moral or spiritual blindness or darkness, sin, and ignorance. Often a crown falls from the inclined head of Synagogue and the Tables of the Law fall from her hands."

My question is: where are they in/on the cathedral in Santiago?

 

[PILGRIMSPLAZA]

a paragraph or two explaining it a bit?

Your wish is my command, Matron, so I’ll gladly cite some more. For the true amateur I’ve got a 9 pages document with more extracts. Mind due: this is not my knowledge; I’m only the messenger! In fact I’m very surprised to stumble on this matter after 35 odd years of reading about Santiago cum annexis. I’ve never even heard of the Paris Netherlandish Apocalypse or a tetramorph before.

The subject fascinates me because I’ve seen Strasbourg and some others of the below mentioned cathedrals and churches. So it wouldn’t surprise me at all if some of our more learned readers could explain what we are looking at. I have a hunch that it basicly is an easy question with a simple answer just like The Santiago Enigma. To me Santiago cathedral breathes these notions.

My initial question follows my quest on the iconographic program for Santiago cathedral in 5 earlier posts on this Forum; I still haven’t found it, although it must be there somewhere… Anyone?
Enjoy!

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jso ... 05530.html - ECCLESIA ET SYNAGOGA, the name given to the symbolic representations in Christian art of the Middle Ages of the victorious Church and defeated Synagogue, symbolizing the triumph of Christianity. The representation is often found in medieval Christian manuscript art. It also became a conventional decoration in many medieval churches, especially in France, England, and Germany, and took the form of two graceful female figures, usually on the outside of the building. The Church is shown erect and triumphant, bearing a cross; the Synagogue is usually blindfolded and dejected, bearing a broken staff and sometimes decorated with the Tables of the Ten Commandments symbolizing the Old Testament.

The best known statues of this type are on the exterior of the cathedrals of Strasbourg and Bamberg. They are also found in Rheims, Paris, and Bordeaux. In England, they figure, generally in a mutilated condition, in Rochester, Lincoln, Salisbury, and Winchester. The representation of the blindfolded synagogue was paradoxically reflected even in Jewish manuscript art: as for example in the miniature of the blindfolded Torah with her spouse, the People of Israel, in a 14th-century manuscript prayer book (Hamburg, Cod. Lev. 37; possibly having a symbolic meaning, representing the Torah and the People of Israel).

http://www.grinnell.edu/offices/communi ... s/ecclesia - Mary C. Boys, author of Has God Only One Blessing? Judaism as a Source of Christian Self-Understanding (Paulist Press/Stimulus Books, 2000), found this representation troubling. She commissioned a new artwork to accompany her book. The new Ecclesia and Synagoga also appears on the cover of Friends on the Way: Jesuits Encounter Contemporary Judiaism, edited by Thomas Michel, S.J. (Fordham University Press, 2007). This interpretation by sculptor Paula Mary Turnbull, S.N.J.M., offers "a new depiction of Ecclesia and Synagoga, where both stand tall as representations of their faith communities."

http://www.jcrelations.net/Anti-Judaism ... 0.html?L=3 – Church window of St. John"s Church in Werben/Elbe River, Germany (around 1414-1467) - In the left section of the window the Church is riding a tetramorph (a creature with the heads of eagle, human, lion and bull, symbolizing the four Gospels). She holds the flag of the cross and the chalice in her hands. The divine hand from heaven places a crown on her head. In the right section the Synagogue is depicted as riding a donkey which is about to break down. In her right hand she holds the head of a he-goat. Her crown is falling. She is blindfolded. The staff of her flag is broken. But worst of all, the divine hand from heaven pierces her head and body with the sword of judgment. http://www.iccj.org/redaktion/upload/JC ... ch-win.gif

Ecclesia and Synagoga at the double-portal of the south entrance to the Strasbourg cathedral (around 1230) - Here both, the Church and the Synagogue, are symbolized as related to each other in the sense of the concordia veteris et novi testamenti, the unity of the Old and New Testaments. Both figures are of noble character. However, the Church is depicted as triumphant with crown and imperial robe on her shoulders, with staff and chalice in her hands, symbolizing her divine authority. She looks ahead assured of her mission in the world. The Synagogue is symbolized as defeated, her staff broken more than once, the Torah is slipping from her hands, a veil is covering her eyes and her head is bowed.

http://www2.tau.ac.il/InternetFiles/Seg ... pinson.pdf - The Iconography of the Temple in Northern Renaissance Art - Yona Pinson - Panofsky,6 in his study of iconographical issues in early Netherlandish painting suggests, albeit briefly, that the Temple of Jerusalem may symbolise Synagoga and/or Ecclesia, and also Synagoga as opposed to Ecclesia, depending on the architectonic type. […Paris Netherlandish Apocalypse…] [Panofsky, 1971: E. Panofsky, Early Netherlandish Painting, New York.]

 

[PILGRIMSPLAZA]

more on iconography and iconographic programs and motifs

Santiago cathedral breathes these notions

Romanesque sculpture of the pilgrimage roads (1923) - Author: Porter, Arthur Kingsley, 1883-1933 - Volume: 1 - Subject: Sculpture, Romanesque; Christian pilgrims and pilgrimages; Christian art and symbolism -- Medieval, 500-1500 - http://www.archive.org/stream/romanesqu ... t_djvu.txt - [Full text free on-line]

[...] p192 - "At a later period St. James in Spain often appears in the form of a victorious horseman, 1 and the conquered province at his feet becomes a Moor. The researches of Miss King have proved that the conception of St. James as a horseman is indeed at least as old as the end of the XI century ; it is he who appears in the psychostasy at Pontida. 2
What part, if any, the pilgrimages played in diffusing the motive of the rider through western Europe remains then problematical.
In other features of iconography, however, the influence of the pilgrimages is unmistakable. It is evident that the popularity of St. James reflected glory on his colleagues. Through the pilgrimage of Santiago, the entire group of the apostles came to the foreground with a conspicuousness that they had never before enjoyed. Their images commenced first to be represented in the pilgrimage churches.
An early sculptured cycle of the apostles is found in the cloister of Moissac (III. 262-273). Soon after, the subject was taken up at Santiago, and many times repeated ; then it occurs in the cloister of St.-Etienne of Toulouse, which adjoined the pilgrims' hospital; then at Oviedo, then in the Cluniac Daurade of Toulouse, then in Mateo's Portico de la Gloria. From the pilgrimage churches it spread to northern France, to Chartres, to Amiens and to Reims. Even as late as 1324 the cycle of the apostles was repeated in the pilgrimage chapel at Paris. Five of these statues, the work of Robert de Launoy, have been excavated and are in the Museum of Cluny. Germany
also brought back from Spain the cycle of the apostles, and adopted it with enthusiasm. Certain of the apostles of the Liebfrauenkirche of Halberstadt have their legs crossed, probably an indication that
1 He is already so represented at Betanzos (111. 895). The female figure here is, I suppose, a donor.
2 I illustrated this relief, of which I missed the iconographic significance, in my Lombard Architecture^ IV, Plate 189, Fig. 1. Santiago is conceived of as a cavalier in the XIX miracle of the Callistine codex, ed. Lopez-Aydillo, 45. He also appears as such in the codex known as Tumbo A of the cathedral archives at Santiago, Mas phot., C 29435. [THE PILGRIMAGE TO COMPOSTELA 193]
they are derived from the South-west. The apostles of Bamberg evidently owe much to Toulouse and Santiago.
The basilica at Compostela was begun in 1078 ; the choir was consecrated in 1102 ; and in 1124 the building was finished. This edifice marks a notable advance in architectural art. It has been much discussed whether the church should be classed as French or Spanish.
In point of fact, at Santiago, as in other important mediaeval buildings, the best workmen were summoned from wherever they could be found, and artistic ideas were collected wherever suitable ones could be met with. From these mixed elements was formed an indigenous atelier. Precisely the same process took place when the basilica of St.-Denis and the cathedral of Canterbury were constructed, and was the natural proceeding when there must be built a church so great as to be beyond the ordinary resources of the country.
It may well be that the master-builders of Santiago, Bernard and Robert, were Frenchmen. It is certain that closer precedents for the style of the building are to be found in France than in Spain. The ambulatory, the most conspicuous feature of the plan, is surely not of Spanish origin. The motive appeared in Lombardy toward the end of the X century — at S. Stefano of Verona, c. 990 and in the cathedral of Ivrea c. 1000 — and also, it seems, about the same time in France." [...]

A splendid book; enjoy!

 

[PILGRIMSPLAZA]

more on iconography of psychostasy at Burgos, Conques & Autu

psychostasy

More on psychostasy or soul weighing at the Last Judgement on the youngest day:
http://www.aug.edu/augusta/iconography/ ... urgos.html -
http://www.aug.edu/augusta/iconography/ ... mpanum.htm -
http://www.aug.edu/augusta/iconography/ ... stasy.html -

 

[Priscillian]

Interesting stuff and all new to me. Thanks Nandy and PP.
("Matron"! At least I can break out my dominatrix outfit for Halloween in all good conscience...)

 

[PILGRIMSPLAZA]

I have a hunch that it basicly is an easy question with a simple answer...

Just retrieved an old clue via miscellaneous-about-santiago/topic3794.html#p21296 on http://www.rinconesdesantiago.com/Pagin ... gloria.htm :
En el arco del centro, que está sostenido por un parteluz, se representa la Iglesia Católica; en el de la izquierda la Iglesia de los Judíos; y en el de la derecha la Iglesia de los Infieles.

 

[Priscillian]

It's the same around the Holy Door on the Platerias side: Old T on one side (with scrolls), New T on the other (with books).

 

[PILGRIMSPLAZA]

Synagoga-Ecclesia motif - a few more clues

clue

A few more clues (also to The Santiago Enigma) to facial similarities
of our main protagonists (why do they look alike so much?):
- miscellaneous-about-santiago/topic3794.html#p21128 –
- miscellaneous-about-santiago/topic6481.html -
- miscellaneous-about-santiago/topic6491.html -
- http://www.csj.org.uk/icon.htm -
Anyone?

The main question on the Synagoga-Ecclesia motif and an iconographic program stays.
The bishop must have approved of it before Mateo could begin such a major project.

 

[PILGRIMSPLAZA]

more on iconography

The main question on the Synagoga-Ecclesia motif and an iconographic program stays. The bishop must have approved of it before Mateo could begin such a major project.

Georgiana King writes in only a dozen places in The Way of Saint James on iconography:

- "1. Iconography - 2 . Chronology - 3. The Cult of Santiago - It has taken seven years of my life. The writer's contribution, in particular, is first, a record and interpretation of iconographic detail all along the way, e. g., at Leyre from observation, at Santiago from Aymery Picaud's account; second, an attempt to date, by comparison with such dated examples as exist, without any à priori; third and last, an occasional small hypothesis and the ground for it, e. g., about the original west front at Compostella, and the cult of Santiago.

- Of the portal I am entitled to speak in some detail, as to iconography and style both, for I spent the best part of a day in watching it.

- Into the remaining space on this side the Annunciation and Visitation have been tucked away. In the former the angel, in accordance with Byzantine iconographic use, has one wing folded back over his shoulder like a cloak, and the other stretched out behind his outstretched hand which holds a cross a beautiful bit of symbolism that I do not recall elsewhere. Over the Visitation broods the Holy Ghost.

- The iconography of the capitals is French is French of France but the symbolism is original and exquisite in its arrangement of correspondences, bringing the Epiphany, the Manifestation of God's Humanity, into relation with the Resurrection, the Manifestation of His Divinity; and, in the same way, the Annunciation to Mary that the close of Eve's long expectation was at hand, into relation with the Apparition of the King of Glory in Limbo, to take up with Him the spirits in prison. The main figures of the tympanum are of the later cathedral tradition. The little figures stuck against the mouldings, with the structural irrelevance that nobody could break a Spaniard of, are Spanish motives, perhaps: they left their mark on churches in Navarre and Navarrese painters as well.

- It looks almost as if copied from embroidery, rather than developed in a strong iconographic tradition.

- None of this work recalls in the least that of Toulouse. The iconography of the scene last mentioned is that of Provence.

- Sr. Lopez Ferreiro's identification of them does not correspond with the figures at Orense, where, in all other respects, the imitation was close, nor yet does it agree with what is known of the iconography of the Apostles in Eastern and Spanish art.

- They introduced new conceptions into the west and under their influence religious architecture, the decorative arts, religious iconography, and also religious ideas penetrated from the east into Gaul and Italy

- The cult-image of Jupiter Heliopolitanus, swathed in a long strange strait-waist-coat, and flanked by a pair of bulls, 34 might well give occasion to the effigy as iconography misunderstood brings forth hagiography of the mummy of S. James in the ox-cart.

Furthermore, it corresponds exactly, of course, to the statue of S. Isidore the Ploughman with his insignificant oxen by his side, as we saw that at Cacabelos. I hope I have proved satisfactorily that S. Isidore the Ploughman is only one aspect of Doctor Egregius, cut off like a gardener's slip and set to grow alone; and that the greater Isidore is still only a surrogate of S. James.

- At this point the Byzantine tetramorph, there inside, should be recalled. The mixture is just what we should expect of an old place, once important, seated on a Roman and a pilgrim road : traditions of Aragon, of Constantinople, are grafted on that of Languedoc, in the iconography and thefacture; and the scheme of the whole, while in the main determined by that of Angoumois, was altered by the current we have encountered at Estella and at Carrion. Though the little tympanum in the eighteenth century was over the door, probably that, in the beginning, had none, like Saintes and Bordeaux and Aulnay and the original Civray. The tympanum should belong to a side door, as at Leyre and Huesca.

- DIDRON, A. N. and DURAND, PAUL. Christian Iconography. Translated by Margaret Stokes. London, 1886.

- STUART, DONALD CLIVE. The Stage Setting of Hell and the Iconography of the Middle Ages. Romanic Review, IV, 1913. "

At least now we see how iconography worked in professor King’s days. Apparently there was no written prescription for the Gloria? I’m going on holiday now. I’ll fill in the location of the quotes later. May it in the meantime encourage you to read Mrs. King’s inspiring masterpiece…
- http://www.archive.org/details/wayofsai ... 01kinguoft - Volume I
- http://www.archive.org/details/wayofsai ... 02kinguoft - Volume II
- http://www.archive.org/details/wayofsai ... 03kinguoft - Volume III
Enjoy!