The Talisman of Charlemagne is a 9th-century Carolingian reliquary encolpion that may once have belonged to Charlemagne and is purported to contain a fragment of the True Cross. It is the only surviving piece of goldwork which can be connected with Charlemagne himself with some degree of probability, but the connection has been seriously questioned. [1] The talisman is now kept in Rheims in the Palace of Tau (inv.no. G 7).
The 7.3 cm long medallion is one of the few surviving items of goldsmithery from the ninth century AD. It is not really a piece of religious artwork, but a reliquary for personal purposes, an encolpion. [2] Originally, it was set with two large sapphires in the centre, with the supposed hair of Mary between them, but in 1804 they were replaced with a piece of enamel glass. [2] The talisman is covered in sumptuous gemstones and filigree work, but it lacks the figural depictions, coloured enamels, animal designs and interlace patterns which are common in older works. [2] The work is thus dominated by the filigree work itself, along with pearls and jewels in box and palmette designs. Thus the arrow-shaped repoussé decorations between the filigree could recall motifs which were previously common. [2] The shape of the amulet combines three different forms with their own meanings. Firstly, it mimicked the shape of the Palestinian pilgrims' ampules which had been particularly common in the west in the fifth and sixth centuries, and thereby indicated the origins of hair which it originally contained. Secondly, it uses four emeralds and a central stone to create the a cross, just like St. Stephen's Purse. Finally, the magnificent front serves as a frame for the relic visible behind the translucent gemstone. [2] It is likely that it was used to heal or protect a high ranking individual. [3]
According to legend, the talisman was a gift from Caliph Harun al-Rashid to Charlemagne in 801. In fact, the reliquary appears to be a late work of Aachen in the time of Charlemagne, based on stylistic factors. [2] It originally held hair purported to belong to the Virgin Mary. [4]
Charlemagne's pre-eminent theologian, Alcuin (735-804) wrote in a letter to Archbishop Æthelhard of Canterbury, that he was trying to stop the emerging custom of wearing reliquaries around the neck, since it was "better to imitate the example of the saints with the heart than to carry their bones around in little sacks... this is a Pharisee superstition." [5]
The talisman is meant to have been found around Charlemagne's neck when his tomb in Aachen Cathedral was opened by Emperor Otto III in the year 1000 or when it was opened by Frederick Barbarossa on 8 January 1166. The truth of this story is not clear. [6] [7] It would then have formed part of the Aachen cathedral treasury, but again there are many doubts about this because a medallion containing the hair of the Virgin Mary is not mentioned in the records until the 12th century. [8] The connection to Charlemagne is mentioned for the first time in 1620. [9]
Until 1804, the Talisman was kept in the Aachen Cathedral Treasury, but then Marc-Antoine Berdolet the first Bishop of Aachen gave it to the Empress Josephine, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, along with a bone fragment from Charlemagne's right arm, on the occasion of her visit to Aachen, during the procession of Corpus Christi on 9 December 1804. The gift was offered in order to thank Napoleon for returning the relics of the cathedral which had been confiscated during the French Revolution. She gave it to her daughter Hortense, who passed it in turn to her son, Napoleon III. At the fall of the Second French Empire, Empress Eugenie entrusted it to Henri Conneau who hid it in a wall of his house and transmitted it to her in England. In 1919 it passed to the Archbishop of Rheims, Cardinal Louis Luçon, who placed it in the church treasury of the Abbey of Saint-Remi. The exchange of the hair of Mary for a piece of the True Cross may have taken place in this period. [10] [6] [11]
Aachen is the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 252,000 inhabitants.
Aachen Cathedral is a Catholic church in Aachen, Germany and the seat of the Diocese of Aachen.
Arthur Kampf was a German painter. He was associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting.
The Karolus magnus et Leo papa, sometimes called the Paderborn Epic or the Aachen Epic, is a Carolingian Latin epic poem of which only the third of four books is extant. It recounts the meeting of Charlemagne, king of the Franks, with Pope Leo III, in AD 799.
The Proserpina sarcophagus is a Roman marble sarcophagus from the first quarter of the third century AD, in which Charlemagne was probably interred on 28 January 814 in Aachen cathedral. It is displayed today in the Aachen Cathedral Treasury.
The Karlsschrein is located in Aachen Cathedral and contains the remains of Charlemagne. It was completed in 1215 in Aachen at the command of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor. Charlemagne's remains had been in the Palatine Chapel of the cathedral until 1165, when Frederick Barbarossa placed the remains in a sarcophagus beneath the floor of the cathedral.
The Barbarossa Chandelier was made on the order of Emperor Frederick I, nicknamed Barbarossa, and his wife Beatrice sometime between 1165 and 1170 and was installed under the cupola of the Palatine Chapel in Aachen Cathedral. The chandelier was a donation in honour of Mary, Mother of God, the patroness of Aachen Cathedral and simultaneously represented a tribute to the builder of the cathedral, Charlemagne.
The Marienschrein in Aachen Cathedral is a reliquary, donated on the order of the chapter of Mary around 1220 and consecrated in 1239. Along with the Karlsschrein, the artwork, which is from the transitional period between romanesque and gothic, is among the most important goldsmith works of the thirteenth century.
The Noli me tangere casket was a small silver-gilt casket made in 1356 for the Aachen Cathedral Treasury. It measured 15.2 cm in length, 3.7 cm in height and 4.8 cm in width. The casket was kept in the Marienschrein together with the key relics of the cathedral until the nineteenth century and the casket remained in the possession of the cathedral treasury until its destruction during the Second World War.
The Throne of Charlemagne is a throne erected in the 790s by Charlemagne, as one of the fittings of his palatine chapel in Aachen and placed in the Octagon of the church. Until 1531, it served as the coronation throne of the King of the Romans, being used at a total of thirty-one coronations. As a result, especially in the eleventh century, it was referred to as the totius regni archisolium. Charlemagne himself was not crowned on this throne, but instead in the Old St. Peter's Basilica in Rome by Pope Leo III in 800 AD.
The Aachen penny of Charlemagne, a Carolingian silver coin, was found on 22 February 2008 in the foundations of the Palatine Chapel in Aachen, during archaeological work in the northeastern bay of the hexadecagon. This is the first discovery of coinage from the time of Charlemagne at Aachen.
The Bust of Charlemagne is a reliquary from around 1350 which contains the top part of Charlemagne's skull. The reliquary is part of the treasure kept in the Aachen Cathedral Treasury. Made in the Mosan region, long a centre of high-quality metalwork, the bust is a masterpiece both of late Gothic metalwork and of figural sculpture.
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.
The Aachen Gospels are a Carolingian illuminated manuscript which was created at the beginning of the ninth century by a member of the Ada School. The Evangeliary belongs to a manuscript group which is referred to as the Ada Group or Group of the Vienna Coronation Gospels. It is part of the church treasury of Charlemagne's Palatine Chapel, now Aachen Cathedral, and is today kept in the Aachen Cathedral Treasury. The Treasury Gospels and the more recent Ottonian Liuthar Gospels are the two most significant medieval manuscripts on display there.
The Cross with large enamels, or Senkschmelz Cross, known in German as the Senkschmelzen-Kreuz or the Kreuz mit den großen Senkschmelzen, is a processional cross in the Essen Cathedral Treasury which was created under Mathilde, Abbess of Essen. The name refers to its principal decorations, five unusually large enamel plaques made using the senkschmelz technique, a form of cloisonné which looks forward to champlevé enamel, with a recessed area in enamel surrounded by a plain gold background, and distinguishes it from three other crosses of the crux gemmata type at Essen. The cross is considered one of the masterpieces of Ottonian goldsmithing.
The Ambon of Henry II, commonly known as Henry's Ambon (Heinrichsambo) or Henry's Pulpit (Heinrichskanzel) is an ambon in the shape of a pulpit built by Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor in the Palatine chapel in Aachen between 1002 and 1014. It is among the most significant artworks of the Ottonian period.
Aachener Domchor is the oldest boys' choir in Germany and one of the oldest in the world. It is based at the Aachen Cathedral in Aachen, a former capital of the Carolingian Empire. The year 782 is given for its founding by Charlemagne and Alcuin of York. Under a succession of directors, the choir gained an international reputation, benefiting from an associated school. Since 2000, the Domchor has been directed by Berthold Botzet.
A Carolingian-era equestrian statuette in bronze depicting either Charlemagne or his grandson Charles the Bald, a rare example of surviving Carolingian sculpture in metal, is exhibited in the Louvre Museum. In the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries it was kept in Metz Cathedral.
Eugen Kampf was a German painter; associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting. He specialized in rural and village scenes.
