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Description: The Trees of the Cross: Wood as Subject and Medium in the Art of Late Medieval...
BOOKThe Trees of the Cross: Wood as Subject and Medium in the Art of Late Medieval Germany
Gregory C. Bryda
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-31673
In late medieval Germany, wood was a material laden with significance. It was an important part of the local environment and economy, as well as an object of religious devotion in and of itself.  Gregory C. Bryda examines the multiple meanings of wood and greenery within religious art—as a material, as a feature of agrarian life, and as a symbol of the cross, whose wood has resonances with other iconographies in the liturgy. Bryda discusses how influential artists such as Matthias Grünewald, known for the Isenheim Altarpiece, and the renowned sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider exploited wood’s multivalent nature to connect spiritual themes to the lived environment outside church walls. Exploring the complex visual and material culture of the period, this lavishly illustrated volume features works ranging from monumental altarpieces to portable pictures and offers a fresh understanding of how wood in art functioned to unlock the mysteries of faith and the natural world in both liturgy and everyday life.

*The eBook is available exclusively on the A&AePortal.*
Author
Gregory C. Bryda
PublisherYale University Press
Print publication date June 2023 (in print)
Print ISBN 9780300267655
EISBN 9780300278170
Copyright© 2023 by Gregory C. Bryda
Illustrations 161
Print Status in print
Publisher (in print)
WorldCat
Google Books

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List of illustrations

  • The Load Bearers' Altarpiece, Christ in the Winepress, detail
  • Tree press (Baumkelter)
  • Whipping post
  • Crucifixus dolorosus
  • High altar of the former Cistercian abbey church in Bad Doberan
  • Blaubeuren Altarpiece
  • Triumphal Cross and Cross Altar
  • Triumphal Cross and Cross Altar, reverse, depicting The Tree of the Virgin (Arbor virginis)
  • Blaubeuren vault, detail
  • Stone vaultings in the Wine Traders' and Brewers' Chapels (Weinschenkenkapelle and Brauerkapelle), detail
  • Stone vaultings in the Wine Traders' and Brewers' Chapels (Weinschenkenkapelle and Brauerkapelle), detail
  • Saint Urban's Day procession
  • Saint Urban
  • Christ Child at Sister Eufrosina's Convent Door
  • Crucifixus dolorosus
  • Crucifixus dolorosus, detail
  • Lage Cross
  • Bernward's Doors, Original Sin and the Crucifixion, detail
  • Bonaventure's Lignum vitae
  • Legend of the Holy Cross
  • Legend of the Cross in the Choir of the Holy Cross Church
  • Seth Receives the Twig from the Archangel Michael
  • Legend of the Holy Cross, Seth Receives the Twig and the Twig Grows from Adam's Tomb, detail
  • Legend of the Holy Cross, The Tree is Felled and Solomon's Laborer, detail
  • Legend of the Cross in the Choir of the Holy Cross Church, Solomon Orders Temple Construction, detail
  • Legend of the Holy Cross, The Queen of Sheba at the Bridge, detail
  • Legend of the Cross in the Choir of the Holy Cross Church, The Queen of Sheba at the Bridge, detail
  • Legend of the Holy Cross, Adoration of the Cross, detail
  • Legend of the Cross in the Choir of the Holy Cross Church, Adoration of the Cross, detail
  • Three Virgins Retable
  • Three Virgins Retable, detail from its founding
  • Kranenburg Crucifix
  • Pilgrim's Drawing of the Kranenburg Crucifix
  • Site of the Miraculous Kranenburg Oak (Heiligkreuzstock)
  • Procession of the Kranenburg Crucifix, Feast of the Cross
  • Christ Carrying the Cross
  • Rogation processions of the Large Cross
  • Arbor virginis
  • Heggbach Altarpiece, Arbor virginis, detail
  • Arbor virginis
  • The Aschaffenburg Madonna
  • Legend of the Cross in the Choir of the Holy Cross Church, The Sick and the Infirm Healed in the Piscina Probotica, detail
  • Schöllenbach Altarpiece
  • High altar of Amorsbrunn Chapel
  • Hatch to the healing spring beneath Amorsbrunn Chapel
  • Pietà (Mariengnadenbild)
  • Mother of God on the Mulberry
  • Timbered house with maypole
  • The Lime Tree Dance
  • The Maypole Dance
  • Village Dance
  • The Maypole Celebration
  • Dance Around the Golden Calf
  • The Village Fair
  • The Village Fair, the maypole as a mockery of the Crucifixion, detail
  • The Nose Dance at Fools' Town
  • The Rose Tree Vision and Man of Sorrows / Melancholic Christ Before the Whipping Post
  • Forest Stroll
  • Court Linden Tree by Saint Michael's Chapel
  • Court Linden Tree
  • The Maypole Celebration, Villager climbing to the crest of a maypole, detail
  • Heinrich von Breslau Receives a Wreath
  • Christ Child Proffering a Wreath of Forget-Me-Nots
  • The Spiritual Maypole, frontispiece
  • Maypoles in Ellbach bei Tölz and Kochel
  • New Year's Greeting
  • Melancholic Christ in a Tree
  • The Gray Passion Altarpiece, Melancholic Christ, detail
  • Melancholic Christ with Whipping Post
  • Whipping post
  • Whipping post, back
  • Heggbach Altarpiece, closed
  • Heggbach Altarpiece, open
  • Heggbach Altarpiece (closed), Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, detail
  • Saint Henry Suso
  • Infant Christ with Basket of Roses
  • Crucifixion, Tauberbischofsheim Retable, obverse
  • Christ Carrying the Cross, Tauberbischofsheim Retable, reverse
  • The Lamentation of the Magdalene
  • Bed of Flowers
  • Isenheim Altarpiece, closed
  • Isenheim Altarpiece, first opening, reconstructed
  • Isenheim Altarpiece, final opening, reconstructed
  • Christ on the Tau Cross
  • Christ on the Cross
  • Isenheim Altarpiece, Crucifixion, Christ's face, detail
  • Man of Sorrows, Epitaph for Paul Strauß
  • Tapping Turpentine
  • Ishenheim Altarpiece, Crucifixion, Christ's feet, detail
  • On the Manufacturing of Plasters, title page to chapter 3
  • Isenheim Altarpiece, Lamentation, detail
  • Isenheim Altarpiece, Resurrection of Christ, detail
  • Isenheim Altarpiece, Madonna and Child and Angels' Concert, detail
  • Christ Playing the Cross-Harp
  • The Infant Christ Bathing
  • May Bath and Dance, May Calendar Page, detail
  • The May Bath
  • Wall paintings of the forest hunt
  • Isenheim Altarpiece, carved shrine, detail
  • Isenheim Altarpiece, wellspring in Saint Anthony's Meeting with Saint Paul, detail
  • Heller Altarpiece, Saint Lawrence, detail
  • Saint Anthony
  • Heller Altarpiece (closed, with obverse and reverse of stationary wings), reconstruction
  • Heller Altarpiece, open
  • Frankfurt's Dominican Church, floorplan
  • Heller Altarpiece, reconstruction
  • Rosary Retable, detail
  • The Payment of Dues
  • Assumption Day Herb Consecration (Kräuterweihe)
  • Assumption Day Herb Consecration (Kräuterweihe)
  • Heller Altarpiece, galium plant growing beneath Saint Elizabeth, detail
  • Consecration of Water
  • Retable of Saint Anne for the Saint Anne's Altar of Frankfurt's Dominican Church, detail
  • Heller Altarpiece, ocher ground on the panel margin, detail
  • Annunciation Diptych
  • Saint Lawrence
  • Annunciation Diptych, detail
  • Landauer Altarpiece, frame
  • Heller Altarpiece, horizontal aboreal divider motif, detail
  • Holy Blood Altarpiece
  • Holy Blood Altarpiece, tamed and pruned vines in the predella, detail
  • Holy Blood Altarpiece, reliquary of the Holy Blood, detail
  • Vine tracery on the high altar
  • Vine tracery on the high altar
  • Infant Christ as the True Vine
  • Homunculus on the Cross and Man Fishing
  • Melancholic Christ with the Cross and Christ in the Winepress
  • Binding and Elevating the Vine
  • Urban's Day Procession in Nuremberg
  • Winged Altarpiece (with Pope Urban)
  • Virgin and Child with Vine Crucifix
  • Vine Crucifix
  • Holy Blood Altarpiece, bird, detail
  • Altarpiece of Mary's Assumption
  • Altarpiece of Mary's Assumption, vine tracery, detail
  • Pruning the vine
  • February Calendar Page
  • Holy Blood Altarpiece, profile
  • Espaliered pear tree
  • The Winemaking Profession
  • Virgin of the Grapes
  • Our Lady Altarpiece, Annunciation
  • Altarpiece for Rothenburg's Third Order of Saint Francis, Bridget of Sweden, detail
  • Vine tears or vine water
  • The Mystical Winepress
  • Christ in the Winepress
  • The Load Bearers' Altarpiece
  • Mystical Vintage, Stör Family Votive Panel
  • The Mystical Barrel
  • The Village Fair, vine trellis and festival drunkenness, detail
  • Four Properties of Wine
  • De sacrae waltdurensis, frontispiece
  • Monstrance
  • Holy Blood Altarpiece, the pointing apostle, detail
  • Holy Blood Altarpiece, the false communion of Judas, detail
  • Holy Blood Altarpiece, the drinking apostle complementing Judas, detail
  • Eyn Sermon von dem newen Testament, das ist von der heyligen Messe Doct. Mar. L., Aug, frontispiece
  • Elector Luthera Bible, title page
  • Luther and the Vineyard of the Lord (Epitaph for Paul Eber)
  • God's Lament for the Fate of His Vineyard
  • Daniel's Vision of the Tree Crucifix, frontispiece to the Merits of the Tree Crucifix
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Acknowledgments
Gregory C. Bryda
Description: The Trees of the Cross: Wood as Subject and Medium in the Art of Late Medieval...
The Trees of the Cross: Wood as Subject and Medium in the Art of Late Medieval Germany
I embarked on this journey in college. The three-hour studio art classes I wished to take conflicted with other mandatory coursework my freshman year at Penn. So I abandoned the making of art—drawing, a lifelong hobby— for the study of historical art. I must first thank Susan Sidlauskas, a master of ekphrasis, for persuading me to take on a...
Author
Gregory C. Bryda
PublisherYale University Press
Copyright© 2023 by Gregory C. Bryda
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-31675
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Introduction
Gregory C. Bryda
Description: The Trees of the Cross: Wood as Subject and Medium in the Art of Late Medieval...
The Trees of the Cross: Wood as Subject and Medium in the Art of Late Medieval Germany
At the center of a Bavarian altarpiece from around 1500, a crouching Christ strains under the weight of his cross (fig. 0.1).Alois Thomas, Die Darstellung Christi in der Kelter: Eine theologische und kulturhistorische...
Author
Gregory C. Bryda
PublisherYale University Press
Copyright© 2023 by Gregory C. Bryda
Related print edition pages: pp.1-19
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-31676
Chapter subject tags:Wood-carving, Medieval--GermanyLiturgical objects--Medieval--GermanyJesus Christ--Crucifixion--Art--MedievalPlants--Symbolic aspects--MedievalTrees--Religious aspects--Christianity--MedievalSculpture, Medieval--GermanyAltarpieces, Medieval--GermanyGermany--Religious life and customs--Medieval

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1. The Vegetable Saint
Gregory C. Bryda
Description: The Trees of the Cross: Wood as Subject and Medium in the Art of Late Medieval...
The Trees of the Cross: Wood as Subject and Medium in the Art of Late Medieval Germany
Since its appearance by 1304, the Crucifixus dolorosus in Cologne’s Santa Maria im Kapitol has arrested...
Author
Gregory C. Bryda
PublisherYale University Press
Copyright© 2023 by Gregory C. Bryda
Related print edition pages: pp.21-51
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-31677
Chapter subject tags:Jesus Christ--Crucifixion--Art--MedievalMural painting and decoration, MedievalWood-carving, Medieval--GermanyMary, Blessed Virgin, Saint--Art--MedievalTrees--Religious aspects--Christianity--MedievalSculpture, Medieval--GermanyGermany--Religious life and customs--MedievalHoly Cross--Legends--Art--MedievalIllumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval

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2. The Spiritual Maypole
Gregory C. Bryda
Description: The Trees of the Cross: Wood as Subject and Medium in the Art of Late Medieval...
The Trees of the Cross: Wood as Subject and Medium in the Art of Late Medieval Germany
The recursion of the True Cross between church and landscape that we encountered in the previous chapter might suggest an easy, even reciprocal, relationship between symbolic wood and the local environment...
Author
Gregory C. Bryda
PublisherYale University Press
Copyright© 2023 by Gregory C. Bryda
Related print edition pages: pp.53-87
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-31678
Chapter subject tags:Maypoles--Medieval--GermanyPaganism--Relations--Christianity--MedievalJesus Christ--Crucifixion--Art--MedievalTrees--Religious aspects--Christianity--MedievalSculpture, Medieval--GermanyPrints, German--16th century

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3. Grünewald’s Greenery in Spring and Summer
Gregory C. Bryda
Description: The Trees of the Cross: Wood as Subject and Medium in the Art of Late Medieval...
The Trees of the Cross: Wood as Subject and Medium in the Art of Late Medieval Germany
In the preceding chapters we have seen the layered ritual associations between the wood of the German landscape, the Wood of the Cross, and the liturgical use of objects that depict and/or are made from wood within the devotional practices of the church as they intersected with folk belief. Next, we will explore how artworks, in their...
Author
Gregory C. Bryda
PublisherYale University Press
Copyright© 2023 by Gregory C. Bryda
Related print edition pages: pp.89-129
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-31679
Chapter subject tags:Jesus Christ--Crucifixion--Art--MedievalMedicinal plants--Religious aspects--Christianity--MedievalHeller Altarpiece (Panel painting)Germany--Religious life and customsGrisaille painting--MedievalGermany--Religious life and customs--MedievalPainting, Renaissance--GermanyPainting, German--16th centuryFolklore in art--Germany--MedievalGrünewald, Matthias, active 16th century

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4. The Spiritual Vintage
Gregory C. Bryda
Description: The Trees of the Cross: Wood as Subject and Medium in the Art of Late Medieval...
The Trees of the Cross: Wood as Subject and Medium in the Art of Late Medieval Germany
Around the year 1500, woodcarvers in Rothenburg ob der Tauber employed their medium to reanimate the vegetation, and restage the...
Author
Gregory C. Bryda
PublisherYale University Press
Copyright© 2023 by Gregory C. Bryda
Related print edition pages: pp.131-161
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-31680
Chapter subject tags:Altarpieces, Medieval--GermanyWood-carving, Medieval--GermanySculpture, Medieval--GermanyPainting, German--15th centuryWine and wine making--History--MedievalPrints, German--16th centuryLiturgical objects--Medieval--GermanyRiemenschneider, Tilman, approximately 1460-1531

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Epilogue: The Protestant Reflection of Spiritual Greenery
Gregory C. Bryda
Description: The Trees of the Cross: Wood as Subject and Medium in the Art of Late Medieval...
The Trees of the Cross: Wood as Subject and Medium in the Art of Late Medieval Germany
It is partly because of the people who objected to them that we have records of the plant-centered liturgical and popular rituals that were carried out across late medieval Germany. The Middle Low German verse referenced...
Author
Gregory C. Bryda
PublisherYale University Press
Copyright© 2023 by Gregory C. Bryda
Related print edition pages: pp.163-171
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-31681
Chapter subject tags:Nature--Religious aspects--Protestant churches--MedievalAgriculture--Religious aspects--Christianity--MedievalTrees--Religious aspects--Christianity--MedievalGermany--Religious life and customs--Medieval

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Illustration Credits
Gregory C. Bryda
Description: The Trees of the Cross: Wood as Subject and Medium in the Art of Late Medieval...
The Trees of the Cross: Wood as Subject and Medium in the Art of Late Medieval Germany
Illustration Credits
Author
Gregory C. Bryda
PublisherYale University Press
Copyright© 2023 by Gregory C. Bryda
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-31683
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The Trees of the Cross: Wood as Subject and Medium in the Art of Late Medieval Germany
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