The Bernward Doors () are the two leaves of a pair of Ottonian or Romanesque bronze doors, made for Hildesheim Cathedral in Germany. They were commissioned by Bishop Bernward of Hildesheim (938–1022). The doors show relief images from the Bible, scenes from the Book of Genesis on the left door and from the life of Jesus on the right door. They are considered a masterpiece of Ottonian art, and feature the oldest known monumental image cycle in German sculpture, and also the oldest cycle of images cast in metal in Germany.
History Along with the Bernward Column, the doors are part of Bishop Bernward's efforts to create a cultural ascendancy for the seat of his diocese with artistic masterpieces in the context of the Renovatio imperii sought by the Ottonians. A Latin inscription on the middle crossbar produced after Bernward's deathDrescher 1993, pp. 339–342. gives the year 1015 as the terminus ante quem for the creation of the doors:
Creation and technical features
Each leaf of the doors was cast as a single piece. Given the size (left: 472.0 x 125.0 cm, right: 472.0 x 114.5 cm, maximum thickness c. 3.5-4.5 cm) and enormous weight (both c. 1.85 tonnes) of the doors, this is a great achievement for its time. The raw material for the casting was Gunmetal, which consisted predominantly of copper (above 80%) with roughly equal parts of lead, tin, and zinc.Drescher 1993, p. 339. To date material analysis has not been able to show which ore deposit the metal came from, though the ironworks at Rammelsberg near Goslar has been ruled out.Drescher 1993, p. 349.
Like their predecessors, the Wolfstür (Wolf's door) of the Aachen Cathedral and the Marktportal (Market Portal) of the Mainz Cathedral, the Bernward Doors were manufactured using the Lost-wax process, which puts exceptional demands on the workers of the casting workshop, since the mold can only be used once. The individual scenes of the doors were carved from massive wax or tallow tablets by modellers and then combined, supported by an iron frame, which is probably how the slight irregularities in the bands which divide the individual scenes came about. Even the doorknockers in the form of grotesque lion's heads with rings of grace in their mouths were included in the original mold rather than being soldered on later. Technical analysis has shown that the mold was stood on the long side and filled with bronze, so that the molten metal would spread evenly; investigation has found cooling cracks in the metal.Drescher 1993, pp. 340–342. The result of this process was probably still rather rough, covered in metal bumps from the pipes in the mold through which the metal was poured in and through which air escaped and it would have had to have been worked over and polished up in great detail.
Iconography
The Bernward Doors depict scenes from the Book of Genesis (left door) arranged in parallel to scenes from the Gospels (right door). The scenes are organized based on the principle that Adam and Christ mirror each other - with Christ's sacrificial death redeeming Adam's sin. The left door depicts the increasing estrangement of humanity from God from top to bottom: the Creation, the Fall, Cain's murder of Abel. The right door shows the redemptive work of Christ from bottom to top: the Annunciation and Nativity, the Passion, the Resurrection). The depictions of the right door, in which the birth and childhood of Jesus are followed immediately by his passion and resurrection, are complemented thematically by the depiction of his life and ministry on the Bernward Column, which was probably also donated by Bernward, and stood in the east choir of St. Michael's until the eighteenth century.
In some cases, several events which chronologically occur one after another are depicted in a single panel, leading to an odd sense of multiplicity. This was an artistic convention of the time, much used in illuminated manuscripts. So for example, Adam appears twice in the scene of his awakening by God the Father.
Left door Top panel: God creates Adam. Adam after the creation. Second panel: Adam and Eve are introduced Third panel: The fall Fourth panel: God interrogates Adam and Eve Fifth panel: Expulsion from paradise Sixth panel: Life on earth (door handle) Seventh panel: Cain and Abel make their offerings to God Eighth panel: Cain kills Abel
Right door Top panel: Noli me tangere; ascension of Christ into heaven Second panel: The women at the tomb Third panel: The crucifixion Fourth panel: Christ appears before Pilate and Herod Fifth panel: The child Jesus is brought to the Temple Sixth panel: The gifts of the Wise Men (door handle) Seventh panel: The birth of Christ Eighth panel: The annunciation to Mary
Typological correlation To understand the parallelism between the panels of the left and right doors, one must enter the medieval mindset, with its typological reading of the Old Testament according to the revelation of the New Testament (concordantia veteris et novi testamenti - harmony of the Old and New Testament). The typological concordances presented on the Bernward doors are based for the most part on the theological writings of the Church Fathers, especially St. Augustine:
Left door (Book of Genesis) Right door (Life of Jesus) Typological connectionAfter Gallistl 1990. Separate reference is made below to the original sources. God brings Adam to life, Adam pays homage (?) to God the Father Noli me tangere / The creation of Adam prefigures the resurrection of Christ. Meeting of Adam and Eve The Women at the tomb Adam and Eve correspond as a couple to Christ and the women at the tomb, who were interpreted in a figurative sense as the "Brides of Christ". Fall of man Crucifixion of Jesus The Fall is the origin of original sin, which was repaid by the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross (). Interrogation and condemnation of Adam and Eve Jesus interrogated by Herod and Pilate While the banishment of Adam and Eve marked the beginning of a sinful, godless, and painful world, the condemnation of Christ brought salvation through the sacrifice on the cross. Adam and Eve deny their own debt, while Christ takes on the debt of others. Expulsion from Paradise Presentation of Jesus at the Temple While Adam and Eve are driven from the "House of God" as a result of their sinfulness, Christ modelled the path to paradise for his followers in his presentation at the Temple. Life of Adam and Eve on Earth Adoration of the Magi Mary as the "New Eve", who outweighs Eve's disobedience by her own obedience to God. Sacrifices of Cain and Abel Nativity of Christ The lamb, which Abel sacrifices, refers to the incarnation of God as Christ and his divine purity. Cain murders Abel Annunciation The murder of the righteous Abel foreshadows in his blood the death of God in his incarnation as Christ.
Style and composition The doors are made up of a number of framed panels; unlike the Roman originals, however, the design at Hildesheim is not their design, but probably an imitation of the ancient Roman examples.Dibelius 1907, pp. 128–129. Moreover, the impact of the frames is significantly reduced in favour of the figural scenes by their narrowness and the flat relief, so that they appear like the images of a contemporary illustrated manuscript, like the Codex Aureus of Echternach.
Composition of the scenes The composition of the individual scenes is simple and effective. In contrast to the dramatic depictions of Carolingian art, the artists avoided richly decorated backgrounds. The scenery, consisting of plants (especially on the left leaf) and architectural elements (mostly on the right leaf) are depicted in low relief and kept to a minimum. They are only there at all where they are necessary for comprehension of the scene or for compositional reasons. Instead, vast empty spaces provide negative space around the figures in the panels, to great effect. identified the empty space as an "effective space of corresponding gestures." With their movement and individual gestures, each figure interacts with others – none of the figures can be understood on their own, independent of their counterparts, without losing their meaning.
Figures
As usual in medieval art, the figures are not individualized, but repeat a few stylised types. They have the disproportionately large, oval faces which are characteristic of Pre-Romanesque sculpture. Their very large, almond-shaped eyes sit in flat sockets with sharply delineated eyebrows. The hair is composed of parallel strands from a central parting. Nevertheless, the facial expressions of some figures are very individuated and match the figures' gestures. Especially relevant in this respect is the figure of Cain who looks up to the Hand of God in heaven with fearful, terror-stricken eyes and pulls his cloak tight around his body.
A progressive feature of the figures on the Bernward Doors is their style of relief: the figures do not extend a uniform distance from the background, but 'lean' out from it, so that when seen side on they almost give the impression of "roses on a trellis, with nodding heads." A particular apt example of this is the figure of Mary with the baby Jesus in the depiction of the Adoration of the Magi: while her lower body is still in low relief, her upper body and Christ project out further, and finally Mary's shoulders and head are cast in the round. This unusual style was used for artistic reasons, not because of technical limitations.Drescher 1993, p. 340.
Identity of the artist Unlike, for example, the Market Portal of the Mainz Cathedral, the identity of the artist responsible for the Bernward Doors is not preserved. As a result, older research attempted to identify a varying number of different artists on the basis of stylistic analysis of the individual panels.See, among others ; Wesenberg 1955. Rainer Kahsnitz has since put these attributions in doubt, since the differences in execution between the reliefs is so marginal that they might as easily be the result of technical requirements as different artistic styles.Kahsnitz 1993, p. 512. Probably a single artist was responsible for the creation of the Bernward Doors, with a small group of apprentices and assistants.Drescher 1993, p. 342.
Predecessors and later works
There are various possibilities for the model of the Hildesheim doors as panelled doors (on the Roman model) and for the material used. Outstanding examples of monumental bronzeworking of the period include the doors of the Palatine chapel (c.800) and the doors of the Marktportal of Mainz Cathedral, which Archbishop Willigis had the founder Berenger cast in 1009.Dibelius 1907, pp. 122–132. However, these doors have no figural decoration, except for door handles in the shape of lion's heads on the Aachen Wolfstür.The lion-headed door handles of the Marktportal in Mainz are thirteenth century additions. As his biographer Thangmar reported in the Vita Bernwardi, Bishop Bernward lived first in the Hostel of the Schola Francorum at the Vatican and then in the Imperial Palace on the Palatine during his stay at Rome in 1001/2. He would have had the opportunity to view the monumental bronze door at the entrance to Old St. Peter's.Bernhard Gallistl. "Die Hildesheimer Bronzetür und die sakrale Vorbildlichkeit in der bernwardinischen Kunst." Hildesheimer Jahrbuch 64. 1993 pp. 69–86 He probably also saw the Late Antique wooden doors of Santa Sabina with their relief cycle in which Old and New Testament scenes are arranged opposite each other in a typology. The Late Antique doors of Sant'Ambrogio in Milan are also a possible model.Dibelius 1907, p. 152.