Christ in the Winepress, a rare example with green grapes for white wine, c. 1490
Christ in the winepress or the mystical winepress[1] is a motif in Christianiconography showing Christ standing in a winepress, where Christ himself becomes the grapes in the press.[2] It derives from the interpretation by Augustine and other early theologians of a group of passages in the Bible and is found as a visual image in Christian art between about 1100 and the 18th century, as well as in religious literature of many kinds. The image in art underwent a number of changes of emphasis, while remaining fairly consistent in its basic visual content, and was one of the relatively few medieval metaphorical or allegorical devotional images to maintain a foothold in Protestant iconography after the Reformation.
The image was first used c. 1108 as a typological prefiguration of the crucifixion of Jesus and appears as a paired subordinate image for a Crucifixion, in a painted ceiling in the "small monastery" ("Klein-Comburg", as opposed to the main one) at Comburg. Here Isaiah stands just outside the winepress with a banderole; Christ stands erect, in front of the press's heavy beam, which is level with his waist. In another example, a miniature from Hildesheim c. 1160-80, there is no mechanical press and Christ just treads in a small vat which is, for once, circular. He is flanked by figures with banderoles, perhaps Isaiah and John the Evangelist. Christ's banderole has part of Isaiah63:3, and those of the flanking figures Genesis49:11 and Numbers13:18.[3] The monastic context of the Comburg example is typical of these early examples, and at this period only monasteries and wealthy lords were likely to have such expensive equipment as a large screw press;[4] often they were made available to smaller growers for a share of the juice. The Comburg area in Baden-Württemberg continues to have vineyards as a major element of its agriculture.
From around 1400 the conception of the figure changed, and the Christ figure became a Man of Sorrows, with the weight of the press bearing down on him, often shown as a bent figure as in a depiction of Christ Carrying the Cross. He usually wears only a cloth round his waist, and blood from his wounds may be shown falling to join the grape juice in the treading-floor. In many examples the beam has a cross-member, spelling out the identification of beam and cross, or Christ carries a cross on his back under the beam. The image has become focused on the Eucharist and also part of the suite of late-medieval andachtsbilder imagery emphasizing the sufferings of Christ.[5]
The "mystic winepress" was common in hymns and sermons of the late medieval period but rarer in the visual arts. Most examples are from north of the Alps, and representations in stained glass seem to have been popular. In England, where little wine was made, they were probably very rare.[6] Examples include several French and Flemish tapestries,[7] and stained glass windows including the "Vitrail du pressoir mystique" at the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont in Paris. This has Christ lying down beneath a cross with three screws fixed through its extremities; as in other examples he brings an arm up to pull the shaft down upon him. To the left of the main press Saint Peter treads in his own circular tub.[8]Troyes Cathedral has a somewhat similar window from about 1625.[9]
As a eucharistic image, it had a counterpart in the much rarer image, essentially restricted to German-speaking lands, of the Hostienmühle or "host-mill", where a grain mill turns out hosts for the Eucharist. In winepress images the juice now often flows into a chalice, though it may also flow into a bucket. Angels, farm-workers or sometimes a Lamb of God (apparently drinking it) may attend to its collection.[12] A third "mechanized allegory" completes the group of "these strange pictorial inventions in which theology and technology celebrate their unlikely marriage" and depict Eucharistic themes. This is the fountain, which may be shown running with the blood of Christ; a metaphor more in line with the daily life of urban people.[13]
Preparatory drawing for a print, by the Dutch CalvinistKarel van Mander, 1596. The cross is nearly erect, in the "triumphal" position typical of Protestant versions
The image survived the Protestant Reformation and, despite some Catholic disapproval in the Counter-Reformation, "persisted into the eighteenth century in the art of both confessions. Whereas the Catholic image gave greater prominence to the doctrine of the sacrament, the Protestant stressed Christ's obedient sacrifice".[14] For example, the Dutch Protestant artist Karel van Mander, in his drawn design of 1596 for a print, shows Christ under a large rectangular winepress plate in the usual fashion, but with a cross carried nearly upright on his shoulder "in triumph". Van Mander incorporated three short Biblical quotations in the decorative framework; as well as Isaiah 63:3 above, there are below "For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame" (Hebrews 12:2) opposite "Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering" (Isaiah 53:4).[15]
A 17th-century German development expanded the image into a wider allegory of "God's work of Redemption in his church",[16] placing Christ in the winepress on a hill at the top of an image in vertical format, with his juice-blood running down or sprinkling groups of the redeemed standing to each side, which may include donor portraits, Adam and Eve, saints, prophets, kings and prelates. This is seen in the frontispiece to a Protestant Bible of 1641, printed in Nuremberg, which has room for a multitude of the ordinary faithful above the major figures in the foreground. As in many images from the 16th-century onwards, Christ carries the "pennon of the Resurrection" (red cross on white) and here uses the end of the shaft to stab a dragon representing Satan, showing the increasing Protestant emphasis on the Winetreader as conqueror of his enemies, from Isaiah 63.[17] Similar images decorate some German funerary monuments.[18]
Scriptural and patristic background
A depiction by Cosmas Damian Asam (1718-1720) omits the figure of Christ
Numerous texts were used in support and elucidation of the motif. The key scriptural passage was Isaiah 63:3, taken as spoken by Christ, says "I have trodden the winepress alone", and wine-stained clothes are mentioned. This passage was closely echoed in Revelation 19:15: "He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty", and the clothes are also soaked, this time with blood.[19] Revelation 14:19–20 says:
And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs."
The sceptre will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his.
He will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch; he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes.[20]
The idea of Christ as both the treader and the trodden wine is found in Saint Gregory the Great: "He has trodden the winepress alone in which he was himself pressed, for with his own strength he patiently overcame suffering".[21] It is also found in typology: in Numbers 13:23, the "spies" who came back from the Promised Land with a bunch of grapes carried on a pole resting on their shoulders were also used as a type prefiguring the antitype of the Crucifixion; following Justin Martyr and Augustine the pole was understood as the cross, the grapes as Christ,[22] and the two bearers as Ecclesia and Synagoga. The Klosterneuburg Altar, made in 1181 by Nicholas of Verdun, includes the scene with this meaning.[23]
Another biblical theme linked to the winepress referenced by commentators was the allegory of the "Vineyard of God" or "True Vine", found in Isaiah27:2–5, John15:1 and Matthew21:33–45, understood as a metaphor for the church.[24] All these elements came together in the image of Christ in the winepress.
Relation to actual technology
German memorial of 1649, with the allegory of Christ redeeming his Church. The press is relatively realistic, with a central screw, but the cross replaces a plate pressing on Christ.German winepress set up to press, though screw is out of picture. Note how shallow the rectangular collecting-floor is.Italian beam-type press. Note the small turning-handles near the base of the screw.Renaissance stained-glass window at Saint-Étienne-du-Mont in Paris, with an unusual form of press, and St Peter treading a circular tub to the left.
The typical image from the late-medieval period onwards sacrifices a realistic treatment of winepress technology for the needs of an immediately recognisable visual metaphor, and one including a human figure in an unnatural place in the centre of the composition. The place where Christ stands in most compositions would in reality be occupied by various pieces of the mechanism, in particular a plate or disk to press on the grapes, which would be in a smaller circular wooden "basket" like a straight-sided barrel, but with gaps between the staves to allow the juice to escape, and various bulky weights and spacing blocks of wood to transmit the pressure from the beam down to the plate. Christ is nearly always shown standing in a shallow rectangular framework, which is realistic, but this is for collecting the juice flowing out of the barrel-like basket containing the grapes and is not in reality where grapes are placed, as the images always show. A vat or floor designed for real treading by foot would be much deeper and more typically circular.
Although several of the biblical passages the image draws upon emphasize juice-stained clothing and "treading" by foot, by using a mechanical winepress the need for workers to tread the grapes with their feet in an open vat was removed. It seems unlikely that a mechanical winepress was actually meant by any of the various biblical texts, although mechanisms are described by Roman authors, the detailed operation of which remains unclear. The image in art emphasizes Christ's role as what is trodden rather than as a treader but also retains his role as treader, though such red staining as is shown is usually from blood rather than juice. In the early typological image at Comburg there is already conflation between the method of pressing just using the feet of farm-workers in an open vat, and the mechanical basket press, which uses a heavy beam controlled by a large wooden screw, bearing down on a plate pressing the grapes. The other end of the beam from the screw is held in a wooden framework, which is often shown, but the essential handles for turning the screw are less often seen. Sometimes they are shown with a small hovering half-length God the Father doing the turning. However, in reality the bottom of the screw would either press on the centre of a plate in a relatively small frame, "basket" or barrel containing the grapes (as illustrated at right), or in the more common type with the screw at the end of the beam, the bottom of the screw would sit in a fixed socket on the ground.[25] In the images, the bottom of the screw often goes uselessly into the side of the open pressing floor.[26]
With a large rectangular pressing-floor, the screw might be located centrally with framework on both sides. Either a large plate underneath the screw would press down on grapes placed in the rectangular floor, or a smaller one on grapes in a circular barrel-like basket sitting on the floor, the juice usually flowing out onto the floor and being collected from a discharge point in that. Both the real presses shown below are of this latter type. As the general standard of artistic depictions of complicated mechanisms improved in the Renaissance, with a fuller understanding of graphical perspective, some images after about 1500 show more realistic large plates pressing down on Christ, still a difficult depiction for the artist to represent.[27]
In English poetry
Christ in the winepress appears in the 14th century poetry of English BenedictineJohn Lydgate,[28] and the metaphor is used by two important English 17th-century poets. One of the best known poems of the Anglican Vicar George Herbert is The Agonie, included in The Temple (1633), where the second stanza (of three) is an extended conceit on the metaphor in its Man of Sorrows form, followed by the third on the Eucharist:
[which,] Beat off, returns as oft with humming sound.
In German Baroque music
The motif of Christ coming in judgement as treader of the winepress is found in the lyrics of German Protestant baroquecantatas in the 18th century. The apocalyptic biblical motif of Christ treading the grapes in the winepress (e.g. Revelation 19:15, where Christ returns as the victor treading his enemies) is traditionally connected in Protestant exposition with a Messianic interpretation of Old Testament passages such as "Who is this that comes from Edom, in crimsoned garments from Bozrah" (Isaiah 63:1-3).[31]Johann Sebastian Bach sets in his cantata Gott fähret auf mit Jauchzen, BWV 43, the text by an anonymous author that reflects in movements 6 and 7 this theme combined with the traditional one of Christ as the grapes, with his music reflecting the text:[32]
Other examples are Der Blutrünstige Kelter-Treter und von der Erden erhöhete Menschen-Sohn (The Bloodthirsty Treader of the Winepress and the Son of Man exalted by the Earth, 1721) of Johann Mattheson and the "Keltertreter" St Luke Passion of Homilius.[34]
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.
The passage reflects Isaiah 63, Revelation 19, and other passages feeding the "winepress" tradition and was reflected in the title of John Steinbeck's 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath.[35]
↑ In German "Kelter-Treter" Press-Treader, Mystiche Kelter, Christus in der Kelter, Kelterchristus, see Timmermann, 384; French pressoir mystique and Italian: torchio mistico "mystical winepress"
↑ John F. A. Sawyer The Fifth Gospel: Isaiah in the History of Christianity 1996 Page 96 "According to this, Christ, the True Vine, is imagined as 'the first cluster pressed in the winepress' (primus botrus in torculari pressus). In art Christ is then depicted as being crushed in the winepress, his blood flowing out into a ..."
↑ Schiller, 128-129, 228 and figs. 432 (Comburg) and 433 (Hildesheim).
↑ Schiller, 228; Timmermann, 384-386, with slightly different dating.
↑ Shannon Gayk, Shannon Noelle Gayk Image, Text, and Religious Reform in Fifteenth-Century England 2010 - Page 107 "Although the figure of the “mystic wine press” was common in hymns and sermons, it was much rarer in the visual arts of the period. It is possible that Lydgate might have encountered a visual depiction of the mystic wine press in his years in France..."
↑ The bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art Volume 62 - Page 21 Cleveland Museum of Art - 1975 "The Museum's tapestry is one of three tapestries of the Mystical Grapes, all of which were woven in the same style. One in ... The first of these, the Mystical Wine Press, was an allegory of Christ's blood shed on the cross as wine is pressed from ..."
↑ S. W. Sykes Sacrifice and Redemption: Durham Essays in Theology 2007- Page 145 "chalice from the crucified Christ, and late-medieval art-forms like 'the mystic wine-press' (there is a famous example at Paris, in the ambulatory of the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont), where Christ's blood is being tapped into barrels; Schiller, 229, image
↑ Yvonne Bleyerveld, Albert J. Elen, Judith Niessen, with contributions by Peter van der Coelen and Ariane van Suchtelen, Netherlandish Drawings of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Artists born before 1581, Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, 2012. Published December 1, 2012. Visited December 25, 2013. online entry with image (also on Commons
↑ There are two further types here: one with a screw that rotated and was turned by handles through it, and another where the screw was static and the beam moved through it by means of a collar with handles.
↑ Hillier, s. III and generally, including quotation
↑ Robert H. Mounce The Book of Revelation 1998 - Page 280 "The treading of grapes was a familiar figure for the execution of divine wrath upon the enemies of God. In Isa 63:3 God the warrior returns from Edom with his garments stained as one who has been treading in the winevat."
↑ André Pirro - L'esthétique de Jean-Sébastien Bach 1984 Page 281 "Mais c'est presque un privilège du génie, et Mattheson n'a pas tort d'écrire, dans la préface de son oratorio Der blutrünstige Keltertreter (1721),"
The Eucharist, also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. Christians believe that the rite was instituted by Jesus at the Last Supper, the night before his crucifixion, giving his disciples bread and wine. Passages in the New Testament state that he commanded them to "do this in memory of me" while referring to the bread as "my body" and the cup of wine as "the blood of my covenant, which is poured out for many". According to the Synoptic Gospels this was at a Passover meal.
Transubstantiation is, according to the teaching of the Catholic Church, "the change of the whole substance of bread into the substance of the Body of Christ and of the whole substance of wine into the substance of the Blood of Christ". This change is brought about in the eucharistic prayer through the efficacy of the word of Christ and by the action of the Holy Spirit. However, "the outward characteristics of bread and wine, that is the 'eucharistic species', remain unaltered". In this teaching, the notions of "substance" and "transubstantiation" are not linked with any particular theory of metaphysics.
Man of Sorrows, a biblical term, is paramount among the prefigurations of the Messiah identified by the Bible in the passages of Isaiah 53 in the Hebrew Bible. It is also an iconic devotional image that shows Christ, usually naked above the waist, with the wounds of his Passion prominently displayed on his hands and side, often crowned with the Crown of Thorns and sometimes attended by angels. It developed in Europe from the 13th century and was especially popular in Northern Europe.
The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is the Christian doctrine that Jesus Christ is present in the Eucharist, not merely symbolically or metaphorically, but in a true, real and substantial way.
In Christian theology, the term Body of Christ has two main but separate meanings: it may refer to Jesus Christ's words over the bread at the celebration of the Jewish feast of Passover that "This is my body" in Luke 22:19–20, or it may refer to all individuals who are "in Christ" 1 Corinthians 12:12–14.
Memorialism is the belief held by some Christian denominations that the elements of bread and wine in the Eucharist are purely symbolic representations of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, the feast being established only or primarily as a commemorative ceremony. The term comes from the Gospel of Luke 22:19: "Do this in remembrance of me", and the attendant interpretation that the Lord's Supper's chief purpose is to help the participant remember Jesus and his sacrifice on the Cross.
Grape juice is obtained from crushing and blending grapes into a liquid. In the wine industry, grape juice that contains 7–23 percent of pulp, skins, stems and seeds is often referred to as must. The sugars in grape juice allow it to be used as a sweetener, and fermented and made into wine, brandy, or vinegar.
In Christianity, a Eucharistic miracle is any miracle involving the Eucharist. The Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Eastern Orthodox, Methodist, Anglican and Oriental Orthodox Churches believe that Christ is really made manifest in the Eucharist and deem this a Eucharistic miracle; however, this is to be distinguished from other manifestations of God. The Catholic Church distinguishes between divine revelation, such as the Eucharist, and private revelation, such as Eucharistic miracles. In general, reported Eucharistic miracles usually consist of unexplainable phenomena such as consecrated Hosts visibly transforming into myocardium tissue, being preserved for extremely long stretches of time, surviving being thrown into fire, bleeding, or even sustaining people for decades.
Eucharistic theology is a branch of Christian theology which treats doctrines concerning the Holy Eucharist, also commonly known as the Lord's Supper. It exists exclusively in Christianity and related religions, as others generally do not contain a Eucharistic ceremony.
Blood of Christ, also known as the Most Precious Blood, in Christian theology refers to the physical blood actually shed by Jesus Christ primarily on the Cross, and the salvation which Christianity teaches was accomplished thereby, or the sacramental blood (wine) present in the Eucharist or Lord's Supper, which some Christian denominations believe to be the same blood of Christ shed on the Cross.
Christian views on alcohol are varied. Throughout the first 1,800 years of Church history, Christians generally consumed alcoholic beverages as a common part of everyday life and used "the fruit of the vine" in their central rite—the Eucharist or Lord's Supper. They held that both the Bible and Christian tradition taught that alcohol is a gift from God that makes life more joyous, but that over-indulgence leading to drunkenness is sinful.
Sacramental wine, Communion wine, altar wine, or wine for consecration is wine obtained from grapes and intended for use in celebration of the Eucharist. It is usually consumed after sacramental bread.
Communion under both kinds in Christianity is the reception under both "species" of the Eucharist. Denominations of Christianity that hold to a doctrine of Communion under both kinds may believe that a Eucharist which does not include both bread and wine as elements of the religious ceremony is not valid, while others may consider the presence of both bread and wine as preferable, but not necessary, for the ceremony. In some traditions, grape juice may take the place of wine with alcohol content as the second element.
Alcoholic beverages appear in the Hebrew Bible, after Noah planted a vineyard and became inebriated. In the New Testament, Jesus miraculously made copious amounts of wine at the wedding at Cana. Wine is the most common alcoholic beverage mentioned in biblical literature, where it is a source of symbolism, and was an important part of daily life in biblical times. Additionally, the inhabitants of ancient Israel drank beer, and wines made from fruits other than grapes, and references to these appear in scripture.
In winemaking, pressing is the process where juice is extracted from the grapes with the aid of a wine-press, by hand, or even by the weight of the grape berries and clusters. Historically, intact grape clusters were trodden by feet but in most wineries today the grapes are sent through a crusher/destemmer, which removes the individual grape berries from the stems and breaks the skins, releasing some juice, prior to being pressed. There are exceptions, such as the case of sparkling wine production in regions such as Champagne where grapes are traditionally whole-cluster pressed with stems included to produce a lighter must that is low in phenolics.
The Eucharist in the Lutheran Church refers to the liturgical commemoration of the Last Supper. Lutherans believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, affirming the doctrine of sacramental union, "in which the body and blood of Christ are truly and substantially present, offered, and received with the bread and wine."
Christ treading on the beasts is a subject found in Late Antique and Early Medieval art, though it is never common. It is a variant of the "Christ in Triumph" subject of the resurrected Christ, and shows a standing Christ with his feet on animals, often holding a cross-staff which may have a spear-head at the bottom of its shaft, or a staff or spear with a cross-motif on a pennon. Some art historians argue that the subject exists in an even rarer pacific form as "Christ recognised by the beasts".
The history of the wine press and of pressing is nearly as old as the history of wine itself with the remains of wine presses providing some of the longest-serving evidence of organised viticulture and winemaking in the ancient world. The earliest wine press was probably the human foot or hand, crushing and squeezing grapes into a bag or container where the contents would ferment.
In Reformed theology, the Lord's Supper or Eucharist is a sacrament that spiritually nourishes Christians and strengthens their union with Christ. The outward or physical action of the sacrament is eating bread and drinking wine. Reformed confessions, which are official statements of the beliefs of Reformed churches, teach that Christ's body and blood are really present in the sacrament, and that believers receive, in the words of the Belgic Confession, "the proper and natural body and the proper blood of Christ." The primary difference between the Reformed doctrine and that of Catholic and Lutheran Christians is that for the Reformed, this presence is believed to be communicated in a spiritual manner rather than by his body being physically eaten. The Reformed doctrine of real presence is called "pneumatic presence".
The 1549 Book of Common Prayer (BCP) is the original version of the Book of Common Prayer, variations of which are still in use as the official liturgical book of the Church of England and other Anglican churches. Written during the English Reformation, the prayer book was largely the work of Thomas Cranmer, who borrowed from a large number of other sources. Evidence of Cranmer's Protestant theology can be seen throughout the book; however, the services maintain the traditional forms and sacramental language inherited from medieval Catholic liturgies. Criticised by Protestants for being too traditional, it was replaced by the significantly revised 1552 Book of Common Prayer.
Hillier, Russell M., "The Wreath, the Rock and the Winepress: Passion Iconography in Milton's Paradise Regained", 2008, Literature and Theology 22, no4, pp.387–405, online reprint
Plummer, John, The Hours of Catherine of Cleves, 1966, George Braziller
Schiller, Gertrud, Iconography of Christian Art, Vol. II, 1972 (English trans from German), Lund Humphries, London, ISBN0853313245
Timmerman, Achim, "The Eucharist on the Eve of the Reformation", in Wandel, Lee Palmer (ed), A Companion to the Eucharist in the Reformation, 2013, BRILL, ISBN900426017X, 9789004260177, google books
Further reading
Gertsman, E. (2013), "Multiple Impressions: Christ in the Winepress and the Semiotics of the Printed Image", Art History, 36: 310–337. doi 10.1111/1467-8365.12000
External links
Reprint of article from De Vita Complentiva, July 2013 (with extended quotation from Augustine)
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