The Vyšší Brod (Hohenfurth) cycle, (also known as Hohenfurth altarpiece) ranks among the most important monuments of European Gothic painting.Pešina J, 1989, p. 80-81Panušková L, 2024, p. 105 It is made up of nine panel paintings depicting scenes from the Life of Christ, covering his childhood, Passion and resurrection. These paintings were made between 1345 and 1350 in the workshop of the Master of Vyšší Brod that was most probably based in Prague. The pictures were either meant for a square altar retableJosef Cibulka: České stejnodeskové polyptychy z let 1350–1450, Umění XI, 1963, p. 4–24 or else they decorated the choir partition of the church of the Cistercian Abbey in Vyšší Brod.
The work was evidently commissioned by Petr I of Rosenberg, Supreme Chamberlain of the Bohemian Kingdom, who financed the abbey.Panušková L, 2024, p. 113 This series of paintings is a rare example of a complete Gothic altar retable (although there is not complete agreement on the fact that it was a retable, in other words a structure standing on the altar – there have also been theories that it could have been hung on the choir pews or rood screen. Having been returned to its former owner, the Cistercian Abbey in Vyšší Brod, it is being exhibited as a long-term loan in the permanent exhibition of the Collection of Medieval Art of the National Gallery in Prague. According to Hana Hlaváčková, the entire cycle could have been made for the coronation of Charles IV (1347) in St. Vitus Cathedral, which was unfinished at the time and the paintings could have covered the ongoing construction work. The author believes that the paintings were hung in a row between the choir and the nave behind the altar of the Holy Cross. This is evidenced by the damage from the candle flame, which the restorers found only on the central triptych.Panušková L, 2024, p. 115 There is no mention of the paintings in the documents of the monastery in Vyšší Brod, and there is no suitable place for the entire cycle in the church there.Xaver M. Millauer, Fragmente aus dem Nekrolog des Zistercienser-Stiftes Hohenfurt, Prague, 1819Mathias Pangerl, Urkundenbuch des Cistercienserstiftes Beatae Mariae Virginis zu Hohenfurt in Böhmen, Fontes rerum Austriacarum II, vol. 23, Vienna 1865 Therefore, some researchers believe that the Hohenfurth cycle was moved there only secondarily.Hlaváčková H, 1998, p. 251
Description The panels’ dimensions are approximately 99 x 92 cm in size. Each of them is composed of three sycamore boards 2 cm thick that are joined with pegs and covered with linen canvas. The underdrawing on the chalk base was executed in charcoal and engraving. The painting was executed in tempera and pigments were bonded with gelatine. A dark purple poliment forms the base of the gilding; orange-yellow poliment underlies the silver foil. Especially in layering up the flesh tones, the Master of the Vyšší Brod Altarpiece used a complex system of layers and underpainting that was based in the Byzantine painting tradition and does not, therefore, have any parallels in Central European painting of that time. The identical painting technique on all the panels confirms that they were produced in a single workshop.Zbuzková K, 2009, p. 13-14 Although there could be a mutual exchange of motifs, materials and individual artists with manuscript illuminators, the workshop focused on panel paintings and murals operated independently.Hlaváčková H, 2019
The series features trios of connected scenes from the Christological cycle that are arranged so that the central one is that of the Crucifixion. They are designed for believers to meditate on and are related to the most important church festivals.Pešina J, 1989, s. 15 A series of motifs that the Master of the Vyšší Brod Altarpiece used for the first time in Bohemian painting conceals symbols relating to the Gospels, as well as to the Apocrypha and medieval theological texts (The Song of Songs and texts by St Bernard of Clairvaux).
The bottom row The bottom row of paintings represents scenes from the childhood of Christ and relates to Advent (specifically the Annunciation of the spring festival on 25 March) and Christmas festivals. It is characterised by a radiant palette and light colour tones combined with gold.
The Annunciation to the Virgin Mary
The Angel of the Annunciation comes to the Virgin Mary, who holds an open book in her hand. The band of the inscription reads Ave gracia plena d(omi)n(u)s tecu(m). The scene is accompanied by the customary symbols – a lily and Mary holding a veil (virginity), an open book (conception) and peacocks (immortality and eternity). A series of other symbols provides various interpretations (God sending dew from heaven or manna in the desert;Milena Bartlová, “Rorate celi desuper et nubes pluant iustum”: New Additions to the Iconography of the “Annunciation” from the Altarpiece of Vyšší Brod, Notes in the History of Art, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Winter 1994), pp. 9-14 a coffer of money). Mary on her throne thus represents the Virgin of the Temple of God protecting the Ark of the Covenant or else the Queen of Heaven,Jan Royt, Poznámky k rekonstrukci a k ikonografii Vyšebrodského oltáře. In: Opera Facultatis Theologiae catholicae Universitatis Carolinae Pragensis Historia et historia atrium vol. V. Ars videndi, Praha 2006, 175–194 the throne also being her bed chamber. Her crown’s garland of nine stars could be an astrologically-related depiction of the constellation of Virgo.Milena Bartlová, Rosu dejte nebesa. K ikonografii vyšebrodského cyklu, Umění XXXIX, 1991, s. 97–99 A less evident symbol is the motif of a tree with a small double trunk in the left-hand part which refers to the trees of life and knowledge in paradise as well as to the double incarnation of Christ as God and man.
A notable secular feature of scene is that of the rich garment worn by the angel who comes across more like a courtier bringing the ruler’s insignia (an imperial orb). The motif of the lily on a blue background that appears on the angel’s cloak originate in France and refers to the heraldry of the French rulers of the House of Valois. Mary is portrayed not as a simple maiden but as a monarch on the throne with a crown on her head. The scene as a whole could be connected with the coronation of Charles IV and Blanche of Valois as King and Queen of Bohemia at Prague Castle on 2 September 1347.
The Nativity of Jesus
This picture connects three scenes. The central scene is that of Mary with the infant Christ in a simple, open shelter. She is accompanied in the background by the customary apocryphal animals. In the foreground, Joseph is preparing a bath with the midwife (called Salome in the Apocrypha) and in the background the archangel Gabriel is announcing the good tidings to the shepherds (the Annunciation to the Shepherds scene). The active involvement of Joseph as a foster father in the events of the scene, specifically in the active care for the new-born baby, is relatively unusual in the first half of the 14th century although it does appear as early as the 13th century. However it appears more often from the turn of the 14th century (for example with Joseph cooking porridge, preparing a bath, sewing and drying nappies, preparing food for Mary and feeding the donkey and ox). It is not based in any literary sources and, in all likelihood, originated in the secular context of burgher society; we can also trace how it was received and reflected on in period ‘carols’ that, however, represent the foster father of Our Lord as a rather grotesque figure. At the same time, from the 14th and 15th centuries onwards, official respect for St Joseph grew. In all the scenes there is a multitude of small motifs that have their origin in Byzantine art mediated, or rather interpreted, by Italian masters.
Mary is reclining on a bed and kisses the infant on his lips in a manner that is connected with her mystic role as Christ’s bride in the Song of Songs in which Mary is the personification of the Christian Church. The child’s nudity refers to his humanity and relates to efforts to humanise a religious theme that was propagated by the Franciscan Order.Pešina J, 1987, s. 22 The bed is spread with a finely decorated cover symbolising Mary as the Queen of Heaven.
In the bottom right-hand corner there kneels a donor whom the crest with its five-petalled rose identifies as member of the House of Rosenberg. In his hand he is holding the model of a church – in all likelihood it is the abbey church at Vyšší Brod. The band above the crest has never been inscribed.
The Adoration of the Magi
This scene repeats the analogous composition of the throne as it appears in the painting of the Annunciation and the customary model that was maintained during the 14th century, one in which kings or wise men represented three ages of man and the second king, of a virile age, sometimes takes the form of the ruling monarch. It was only from the 1360s (or, more likely, from the early 15th century, because the black king in the Emmaus monastery painting was evidently a piece of Baroque overpainting) that the kings were more frequently portrayed as representatives of the three continents known at that time. In this scene as well, Mary remains a queen seated on a throne. The motif of an old man kissing the hand of a small child, one that was rare outside France until then, is the expression of a spiritual bond with Christ and originates in the work Meditationes Vitae Christi that appeared in Bohemia during the reign of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor. The throne is depicted in an imperfect empirical perspective. The Virgin Mary, obscuring one of the supporting pillars of the canopy, is symbolically presented as a pillar of the Christian Church.
The centre The central paintings are related to the Christian holidays of Easter with the martyrdom and resurrection of Christ. This is reflected in the darker tones in larger areas and in the limiting of decoration.
Christ on the Mount of Olives The main element of the composition is formed by the diagonal of the mount’s slope with jagged rock faces and blossoming spring vegetation. The picture represents a traditional iconographic arrangement with the praying Christ and three sleeping apostles: St Peter, St John and St James. Three accurately portrayed birds (a goldfinch, bullfinch and crested lark or hoopoe) evidently originate in English or French book painting. The goldfinch is often associated with the martyrdom of Christ, because it feeds on the seeds of thistles and metaphorically represents Christ’s crown of thorns. In medieval legend, the bullfinch is associated with the Crucifixion and its red breast with drops of Christ’s blood refers to the moment the bullfinch pulled out a nail from the cross with its beak.Pešina J, 1987, p. 23 The crested lark could, in earlier literature, be associated with the martyrdom of Christ.Pavel Kalina, 1996, p. 151
The Crucifixion The type of Crucifixion with a single cross and a group of figures is customary for the 13th century. Several motifs, such as the fainting Mary, Mary Magdalene embracing the cross and flying angels with incense burners, originate in the Italian context.
The figures beneath the cross include St Longinus with a spear, Joseph of Arimathea, possibly also Nicodemus and the ‘good’ centurion leaning on his shield decorated with a human face (the ‘gorgoneion’). This figure appears in the Bohemian context between the mid-14th century and the mid-15th century. It originally had an apotropaic function and could symbolically represent the opposites of Christ and the devil, the sun and the moon; and Christianity and paganism.Pešina J, 1987, p. 24