Treasure of the Basel Minster

Last updated

The Treasure of the Basel Minster was the church treasure of the Basel Minster in Switzerland, gathered there over a period of more than 500 years. During the Middle Ages, Basel was the seat of the Diocese of Basel, and its Minster contained an extraordinarily rich treasure. During the Partition of the canton of Basel in 1833, the treasury was split between Basel-City and Basel-Country, and the part falling to Basel-Country was split up and sold.

Contents

History

The recorded history of the treasure begins with the consecration of the Minster in 1019. During five centuries, it contained a growing collection of reliquaries, monstrances and crosses. The treasure survived the iconoclasm of the reformation, during which many religious artworks in Switzerland were destroyed, relatively unscathed, but lost its non-metallic parts, such as books and paraments. [1] In 1590, a large part of the vasa sacra were molten for their material value. [2] After long conflicts between city and cathedral, the treasure was locked away in the sacristy of the Minster, where it remained for the next 240 years.

When the Canton of Basel was split during violent conflicts in the early 1830s, the Minster Treasure was split between the two resulting half-cantons of Basel-City and Basel-Country. The Federal Diet of Switzerland, which by its actions had allowed the partition to continue, decreed on November 25, 1833, that the treasure would be split, with 36% falling to Basel-City and 64% to Basel-Country. Because the Basel-Country was greatly in need of repairing its finances after the partition, it put its part of the treasure up for auction in 1836, which thereby became scattered all over the world.

Today, valuable reliquaries and liturgical from the treasure form part of the collections of various museums, such as the Bavarian National Museum, the Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin, the British Museum as well as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the Musée de Cluny in Paris. Those elements that remained in Basel or were subsequently reacquired are exhibited in the Historisches Museum Basel.

Pieces

Antependium of Basel

Antependium of Basel in the Musee de Cluny Antependium di basilea 00.JPG
Antependium of Basel in the Musée de Cluny

The Antependium of Basel is a golden altar frontal donated by emperor Henry II, possibly in the year 1019. It is considered to be one of the masterpieces of Ottonian art. The Antependium is a thin golden plate on an oak wood wood base, 120 cm high and 178 cm wide. It is decorated with repoussé images of five figures standing in arcades: Saint Benedict of Nursia, the archangel Michael, Christ the Salvator and the archangels Gabriel and Raphael. Small figures of Emperor Henry and his wife Cunigunde are crouching and praying at the feet of Christ. In the spandrels above, amongst dense foliage containing grapes, pomegranates, birds and mammals, the four cardinal virtues are represented.

During the Middle Ages, the tablet would be shown in front of the altar of the Basel Minster only a few times per year. After the French Revolution, it was first sold in 1827 for 8875 Swiss francs. In 1854, it was bought for 50.000 francs by the Musée de Cluny, where it is exhibited today. [3]

Cross of Henry

Cross of Henry II exhibited in the Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin Heinrichskreuz Vorderseite 01 KGM.jpg
Cross of Henry II exhibited in the Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin

The cross of Henry was also traditionally assumed to be bequeathed by Emperor Henry II in 1019. Undoubtedly it is a main work of Ottonian goldsmithing. Made of golden sheet metal covering a core of oak wood, it is 51 cm high and 46 cm wide. The cross bears five large gems. The central one is an ancient Roman "phalera", while the gems on the arms of the cross are rock crystals covering reqliquaries. The back side displays a golden crucifix which probably dates from the year 1437/38. Today it is held by the Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin. [4]

Exhibitions

In 2001/2002, all extant and transportable objects of the treasury were reunited as part of international exhibition. The exhibition was presented in New York, Basel and Munich.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Basel</span> City in Switzerland

Basel, also known as Basle, is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine. Basel is Switzerland's third-most-populous city, with 177,595 inhabitants within the city municipality limits. The official language of Basel is German, and the main spoken language is the local Basel German dialect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Basel-Stadt</span> Canton of Switzerland

Basel-Stadt or Basel-City is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of three municipalities with Basel as the capital. It is traditionally considered a "half-canton", the other half being Basel-Landschaft, its rural counterpart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ottonian art</span> Style in pre-Romanesque German art

Ottonian art is a style in pre-romanesque German art, covering also some works from the Low Countries, northern Italy and eastern France. It was named by the art historian Hubert Janitschek after the Ottonian dynasty which ruled Germany and Northern Italy between 919 and 1024 under the kings Henry I, Otto I, Otto II, Otto III and Henry II. With Ottonian architecture, it is a key component of the Ottonian Renaissance. However, the style neither began nor ended to neatly coincide with the rule of the dynasty. It emerged some decades into their rule and persisted past the Ottonian emperors into the reigns of the early Salian dynasty, which lacks an artistic "style label" of its own. In the traditional scheme of art history, Ottonian art follows Carolingian art and precedes Romanesque art, though the transitions at both ends of the period are gradual rather than sudden. Like the former and unlike the latter, it was very largely a style restricted to a few of the small cities of the period, and important monasteries, as well as the court circles of the emperor and his leading vassals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burckhardt</span> Family from Basel, Switzerland

The Burckhardt family alternatively also (de) Bourcard is a family of the Basel patriciate, descended from Christoph (Stoffel) Burckhardt (1490–1578), a merchant in cloth and silk originally from Münstertal, Black Forest, who received Basel citizenship in 1523, and became a member of the Grand Council of Basel-Stadt in 1553.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canton of Basel</span> Historical canton of Switzerland

Basel was a canton of Switzerland that was in existence between 1501 and 1833, when it was split into the two half-cantons of Basel-City and Basel-Country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Basel Minster</span> Church

Basel Minster is a religious building in the Swiss city of Basel, originally a Catholic cathedral and today a Reformed Protestant church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johann Rudolf Wettstein</span> Swiss diplomat and mayor of Basel

Johann Rudolf Wettstein was a Swiss diplomat and mayor of Basel, who achieved fame through his diplomatic skills, culminating in Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire in 1648.

The Neue Welt is a sub-district of Münchenstein, in the canton of Basel-Country in Switzerland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museums in Basel</span> Series of museums in Basel, Switzerland

The Basel museums encompass a series of museums in the city of Basel, Switzerland, and the neighboring region. They represent a broad spectrum of collections with a marked concentration in the fine arts and house numerous holdings of international significance. With at least three dozen institutions, not including the local history collections in the surrounding communities, the region offers an extraordinarily high density of museums compared to other metropolitan areas of similar size. They draw some one and a half million visitors annually.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trams in Basel</span>

The Basel tramway network is a network of tramways forming part of the public transport system in Basel, Switzerland, and its agglomeration - it also reaches into adjacent suburbs in Germany and France. The only two other tramway networks to cross an international border are Geneva's and Strasbourg's tramways. The Basel tram system consists of 12 lines. Due to its longevity, it is part of Basel's heritage and, alongside the Basel Minster, is one of the symbols of the city.

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Basel.

The Amerbach Cabinet was a collection of artifacts, paintings, libraries, assembled by members of the Amerbach family, most notably by the two law professors of the University of Basel, Bonifacius Amerbach and his son Basilius Amerbach the Younger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aachen Cathedral Treasury</span> Museum in Germany

The Aachen Cathedral Treasury is a museum of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Aachen under the control of the cathedral chapter, which houses one of the most important collections of medieval church artworks in Europe. In 1978, the Aachen Cathedral Treasury, along with Aachen Cathedral, was the first monument on German soil to be entered in the List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The treasury contains works from Late Antique, Carolingian, Ottonian, Staufen, and Gothic times. The exhibits are displayed in premises connected to the cathedral cloisters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Essen Cathedral Treasury</span> Church treasury

The Essen Cathedral Treasury is one of the most significant collections of religious artworks in Germany. A great number of items of treasure are accessible to the public in the treasury chamber of Essen Minster. The cathedral chapter manages the treasury chamber, not as a museum as in some places, but as the place in which liturgical implements and objects are kept, which continued to be used to this day in the service of God, so far as their conservation requirements allow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Markus Raetz</span> Swiss artist (1941–2020)

Markus Raetz was a Swiss painter, sculptor, and illustrator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reliquary of Saint Eustace</span>

The Reliquary of Saint Eustace is a medieval silver and wooden holy container in the shape of Saint Eustace's head that once formed part of Basel Minster's treasury. The treasury was acquired by the Canton of Basel in 1836 and shortly afterwards sold at auction to collectors and museums across Europe. The reliquary was later bought by the British Museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church treasury</span>

A church treasury or church treasure is the collection of historical art treasures belonging to a church, usually a cathedral or monastery. Such "treasure" is usually held and displayed in the church's treasury or in a diocesan museum. Historically the highlight of church treasures was often a collection of reliquaries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magdeburg Ivories</span> Set of 17 ivory panels illustrating episodes of Christs life

The Magdeburg Ivories are a set of 16 surviving ivory panels illustrating episodes of Christ's life. They were commissioned by Emperor Otto I, probably to mark the dedication of Magdeburg Cathedral, and the raising of the Magdeburg see to an archbishopric in 968. The panels were initially part of an unknown object in the cathedral that has been variously conjectured to be an antependium or altar front, a throne, door, pulpit, or an ambon; traditionally this conjectural object, and therefore the ivories as a group, has been called the Magdeburg Antependium. This object is believed to have been dismantled or destroyed in the 1000s, perhaps after a fire in 1049.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oswald Inglin</span> Swiss politician

Oswald "Osi" Inglin is a Swiss politician and historian.

Georg Schmidt was a Swiss art historian. He was director of the Kunstmuseum Basel from 1939 to 1961.

References

  1. Lucas Burkart: Politische Investitionen. Die Geschichte des Basler Münsterschatzes vom 11. Jh bis zur Reformation In: Historisches Museum Basel (Hrsg.): Der Basler Münsterschatz. Anlässlich der Ausstellung «Der Basler Münsterschatz». Christoph-Merian-Verlag, Basel 2001, p. 231–241, p. 241
  2. Johann Michael Fritz: Schatz unter Schätzen In: Historisches Museum Basel (Hrsg.): Der Basler Münsterschatz. Anlässlich der Ausstellung «Der Basler Münsterschatz». Christoph-Merian-Verlag, Basel 2001, p. 259–267, p. 262
  3. Gude Suckale-Redlefsen. Das "Basler Antependium": ein ottonischer Goldaltar aus dem Münster zu Basel. Kunst + Architektur in der Schweiz51 (2000), p. 60–63
  4. Staatlich Museen zu Berlin: "Heinrichskreuz aus dem Basler Münsterschatz". . Accessed February 11, 2023.