Strasbourg
Written in Stone
The portal of Strasbourg Cathedral served in the thirteenth century as the setting for courts of law by invoking upon the Last Judgement where bishops witness the power of medieval justice brought to the same purpose as the Kingdom of Christ. The church was built wholly by burghers, who resented the inputs of the clericals and bishop chapter and thus allowed them no share in the final product of the church. Following the French Rayonnant models, German masons devised a plan for Strasbourg. At Strasbourg, we can tell that Medieval artists were concerned with viewpoint as they worked with architects to balance the statues to their viewing height. The forms perched on niches and under enclosures were often sheltered under arches and canopies, a feature often seen with Gothic art, one that recalls the concept of shelter in the Church as often as the image of the Virgin Mary and the Saints are shown enclosed in an architectural concept.
Name: Notre Dame de Strasbourg
Artist: Erwin von Steinbach, Ulrich Ensingen, Johannes Hültz, Jakob von Landshut (1505 AD), Hans von Aachen (1505 AD) et al
Material: Sandstone, mortar, marble, wood, glass, iron
Date: 1439 AD
Culture: French Gothic
Scale: Length: 112m (367 ft); Height: 142m (466 ft); Width: 51.5m (169 ft)
Current Location: Strasbourg, Alsace, France
The spire of Strasbourg Cathedral, the tallest of all Gothic buildings still surviving, soars to 466 feet, equivalent to a 46 story skyscraper. (Ball 2009, pg. 196). In specific to the theological programs at the time, Strasbourg transforms the pre-Rayonnant Gothic into eschatological and mariological components. The statue of Solomon with the triumphant Ecclesia and the fallen Synagogia provided a backdrop for an era full of heresy. The French portal is transformed by the saga of French kings and the Holy Roman Empire. (Nicolai 2002, pg. 112). Understanding the iconographic program of Strasbourg is similar to the exegesis of the Song of Songs by Otto von Simson. At Strasbourg, the statues interact across time and space. Jews were not allowed in the cathedrals as it becomes a center of law and order, much to an iconographic appeal of Solomon, who is impartialed to the building (the Temple of Jerusalem) as part synagogue, part ecclesia. The rule of “regnum” vs. “sacerdotum” is encapsulated in this Temple, where bishops at a time when king and bishop inherit the same blood line and legacy, play out the order of an abbreviated Last Judgment. (Nicolai 2002, pg. 115)
Saint Hildegard explained the vision of Jerusalem as a real town with walls, towers, squares, and pillars. In it is found the good works and the path of saints. Strasbourg embodies this allegory which could be understood by the erudite through the “Liber Scivias” and “Hortus deliciarum”. What is made perceptible is the carnal nature of Synagogia and her beauty but sensual nature. On the other end, Ecclesia is represented as noble but spiritual. (Nicolai 2002, pg. 122). In the French text of the Bible, Solomon “knew that who is the true mother by the pity he saw in her when condemning her child to be cut in half.” This strange division made Strasbourg its very own realm of history.