An Incomplete History of Medieval Art LVIII

The Magdeburg Antependium 

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After the dissolution of the Carolingian empire, the primary institution linking the fragmented Germanic lands was the church. Patronage of the church in the kingdom of the Germans therefore an essential Ottonian strategy for reimposing political hegemony. Providing the papacy with military protection in exchange for the imperial crown in 962 was another strategy.

The abbeys and bishoprics providing a relatively uniform administrative cohesion was theoretically governed by the Roman pontiff. In reality, the 10th-century papacy had little real power. In exchange for the security against the enemies of the church offered by the Ottonians, the popes conceded the right to appoint and invest abbots, bishops and archbishops throughout the empire to the emperor and allowed for his intervention in ecclesiastical affairs.

Thus, the expansion of the boundaries of the Germanic empire and the evangelization of newly-conquered pagan territories were but two sides of a single Ottonian imperial policy. To strengthen his presence in the east, Otto I had founded the mission abbey of Saint Moritz in the frontier city of Magdeburg in 937. This Reichskloster was upgraded to a metropolitan see in 968. Otto commemorated the.conversion of the abbey church into the cathedral of Magdeburg with a lavish gift. This donation is recorded in an ivory plaque carved in the 960s. Here, we see Otto, wearing the imperial crown, offering the church at Magdeburg to Christ. Although Otto’s patron saint Moritz acts as his intercessor, Otto hands his gift directly to Christ, who signifies his acceptance by placing his hand on the model church. This simple pictorial device stresses the emperor’s role as Christ’s primary earthly agent, a relationship this is not reliant on the ecclesiastical hierarchy.

This ivory is one of a set of an estimated 50 plaques of the same dimensions, depicting scenes from the life of Christ, that decorated some form of liturgical furnishing, the form of which is unknown, as it was destroyed in a fire in 1049. The sixteen plaques that survived the fire were reused in reliquaries and book bindings, such as the Codex Wittekindeus, seen below.

The ivories may have been part of an antependium, or altar frontal. The antependium was the early medieval forerunner of the altarpiece. A spectacular Carolingian example survives in the basilica of Sant’ Ambrogio in Milan. Otto I surely saw this work when visited Milan to procure building materials for Magdeburg Cathedral. The antependium, produced by a goldsmith called Wolvinius around 830, comprises three tiers of high-relief, repoussé panels of gilded silver, depicting the Life of Christ and St Ambrose,that wrapped around the four sides of the altar.

The Magdeburg ivories were probably arranged in a similar tiered structure, with perhaps 4 rows, given the size of the plaques. The reticulated backgrounds of the ivories suggest that they were originally backed with gold leaf or gilded silver, creating a glimmering visual effect that may have been inspired by the metalwork altar frontal as well.

Otto’s antependium differed from the Carolingian model in key ways. The choice of ivory as the material is ideological as well as aesthetic. Elephant ivory was a much more expensive luxury commodity than silver, and therefore available to only the wealthiest of patrons. Ostentation, however, was not the only motivation for choosing ivory. In the 10th century, the finest carved ivories known to the Ottonian world were produced for the Byzantine emperor, by workshops located in the imperial palace at Constantinople. Through the commission of luxurious ivory works of art, Otto i imitated imperial Byzantine patronage in an effort to legitimate his claim to the imperial dignity.

Scholars have determined that two different artists carved the Magdeburg ivories. Based on the decidedly northern (i.e. flat, linear, summary, abstract) carving style, the artists are presumed to have been German (not Italian, as is often stated). Their stylistic sources would have been Carolingian, rather than Italian. The uniformity of style across all the plaques suggests that both artists copied the style of a single model and worked together in the same space where the model was located. In fact, there is good reason to assume that Otto installed them in the imperial residence at Magdeburg. With the establishment of an in-house ivory workshop, Otto again modeled his patronage of the sumptuous arts on that of the Byzantine emperor.

This all changed in the 980s, when Otto’s son married a Byzantine princess, which opened up a direct channel from Magdeburg to Constantinople through which ivories could be imported.