Œuvre Notre-Dame Museum. Arts of the Middle Ages by Éditions des Musées de Strasbourg

Œuvre Notre-Dame Museum 9 7823 5 1 2517 51

Situated at the foot of the Cathedral, the Œuvre Notre-Dame Museum offers a journey of discovery through seven centuries of art from Strasbourg and the Upper Rhine region. The rich medieval and Renaissance collections bear witness to the prestigious past of the city, which, from the 13th to the 16th century, was one of the most important artistic centres of the Holy Roman Empire. Masterpieces of statuary from the Strasbourg Cathedral are displayed alongside the finest pieces of art of the Upper Rhine from the 15th and 16th centuries.

Œuvre Notre-Dame Museum Arts of the Middle Ages

HANDBOOK

9 €

Statue of Hercules and 16th-century gargoyle in the courtyard

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Seven centuries of art

The founding of the Œuvre Notre-Dame Museum between 1931 and 1955 was motivated by a desire to promote the prestigious artistic heritage of Strasbourg dating from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. It was the work of Hans Haug, curator and then director of the Strasbourg museums, who was persuaded of the need to promote “one of the most glorious periods of Alsatian art”, during which the Free city of the Holy Roman Empire, the artistic hotbed of the Upper Rhine region, attracted many artists, thereby fostering the transmission of innovative forms and ideas. Located at the foot of the cathedral, the Maison de l’Œuvre Notre-Dame seemed the perfect setting for such a museum. The headquarters of the institution of the same name (Unser Lieben Frauen Werk, in German), responsible for collecting and managing the funds necessary for the construction and maintenance of the cathedral since the 13th century, it offered various spaces, as well as two richly decorated historic rooms, in which to present the works in optimum conditions. The Gothic and Renaissance wings of the imposing edifice housed the fabric, or administration, of the cathedral, the collector’s and architect’s apartments, and the lodgings of the cathedral masons and stonecutters. Since the 19th century, the buildings have also housed sculptures from the cathedral, arranged as a small museum for occasional visitors and considerably enlarged between 1907 and 1914 with statuary taken down from the main portals. Several important historic collections were later added to the group. The private collection of the Société pour la Conservation des Monuments

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Renaissance facade, Œuvre Notre-Dame Museum

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An exceptional architectural backdrop

The museum is housed in a complex of buildings with at its heart the Maison de l’Œuvre Notre-Dame, the foundation responsible for the fabric of the cathedral since the 13th century. The ensemble testifies to the quality of civil architecture in the city of Strasbourg from the 14th to the 17th century. The Œuvre Notre-Dame has stood here since at least the 14th century. From the beginning, it housed all the activities related to the cathedral’s construction, as well as the stonemasons and other craftsmen. The Gothic wing to the left dates from 1347. The sober facade is enlivened by a stepped gable typical of medieval houses in Strasbourg. A Virgin and Child (modern) on the corner recalls the dedication of the cathedral and the foundation. Originally, the first floor was occupied by a large meeting room for stonecutters. The rear half of the building was completely rebuilt following bombing in 1944. The Renaissance wing on the right echoes the volumes of the Gothic wing, thereby forming a vast symmetrical ensemble organised around a courtyard. It is one of finest examples of 16th-century architecture in all Strasbourg. It was built from 1579 to 1582 by Hans Thoman Uhlberger, the cathedral’s master builder, who also made the case for the astronomical clock. It was the first example in Strasbourg of the type of scrolled gable topped with vases typical of the German mannerist Renaissance that here flirts with the baroque. It is particularly influenced by the Strasbourg painter and architectural theorist Wendel Dietterlin (c. 1550–1599).

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From Romanesque to Gothic

A cloister in the museum

A fascinating stained-glass window

The first room of the museum immerses visitors in the atmosphere of a Romanesque cloister. The series of arcades conjures up a gallery from the demolished cloister of the abbey of Sainte-Sophie in Eschau, a nunnery founded in the 8th century on an island 10 kilometres south of Strasbourg. The cloister was taken down in 1298, but the 11th-century church of Saint-Trophime still exists. The reconstruction shows elements unearthed during excavations undertaken in 1866 and 1917, such as eleven low-relief historiated column capitals (abacuses) that are among the most splendid examples of Romanesque sculpture from Alsace. Several are decorated with scenes from the life of Christ: the complete cycle undoubtedly ran from the Nativity to the Resurrection. Others are dedicated to scenes from the Old Testament: Samson and the lion, David playing the harp. Still others have symbolic representations of animals and plants. Each subject is identified by an inscription.

Long dated to around 1060, the Head of Christ was once considered one of the oldest preserved figurative stained-glass windows in Europe. Recent analysis places it at a later date, the late 12th century, and has confirmed that it comes from the former abbey church of Wissembourg. It is most likely the remnant of a monumental figure of a standing or enthroned Christ. Strictly frontal and highly stylised in composition, its fame surely stems from its noteworthy remarkable power. Comprising a single plate of glass, the face of Christ is a fine example of the so-called “three tints” technique described by the monk Theophilus in the early 12th century in his treatise on artistic techniques. Three layers of grisaille of varying depths are applied with the brush: the first, very light in places; the second, less diluted, for the shadows; and the third, very dark, for the lines. Some of the pieces of coloured glass ringing the head were inserted during a restoration around 1950.

1 Remains from the cloister, abbey of Eschau c. 1130–40, sandstone Inv. MOND 367 (1 to 13)

2 Head of Christ Late 12th century, restored c. 1950, stained-glass window, diam. 25 cm, from the former abbey church of Wissembourg, Bas-Rhin Inv. MAD XXIII.21

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From Romanesque to Gothic

4 Church and Synagogue

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From Romanesque to Gothic

5 Head of an Apostle (Saint John)

6 Dog

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7 Apostle

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Late Middle Ages

Fostered by its location, Strasbourg experienced an extraordinary artistic flowering in the late Gothic era. From the centre of the Rhine axis, the city reinforced its position as the economic and intellectual hub of the Upper Rhine plain, attracting men with a range of skills and talents: painting, stained glass, sculpture, etc. The completion in 1439 of the cathedral spire – the highest in medieval Christendom – did nothing to slow the development of artistic activity, while the decoration of many churches gave rise to ambitious commissions until the early 16th century.

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Late Middle Ages

19 Engraved reliquary shrine

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Late Middle Ages

20 The Deceased Lovers

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Late Middle Ages

The medieval garden

As ever a metaphor for paradise, in the Middle Ages the garden became a favourite backdrop to courtly life. Every plant possessed its healing virtues and religious signification, and could act as a symbol in a relationship of love. In medieval Alsatian and Rhenish literature, plants play an important role. The museum garden keeps alive the Alsatian tradition as transmitted in paintings, engravings and printed books in the 15th century. It constitutes an ideal setting for stone monuments and tombstones alike.

Hans Weiditz Hellebore plate from Otto Brunfels’s Herbarius, Strasbourg, 1530

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Alsatian Master Virgin in a Garden first half of the 16th century, oil on panel, 45 × 36 cm

Funerary monument of Ludwig V, baron of Lichtenberg Strasbourg, c. 1470, church of Saint-Adelphe, Neuwiller-lès-Saverne

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Medieval garden

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From the Renaissance to the late 17th century

The counting room

Summer cool

On the first floor of the Renaissance wing is the council chamber and meeting room of the administrators of the Œuvre NotreDame, who collected and managed the funds required for the construction of Strasbourg Cathedral – thus explaining the presence of a 17th-century counting table. It was against this solemn backdrop that the collector had to report on his management annually to the Strasbourg city council. The room gives on to the strongroom, where the archives, including plans and drawings of the cathedral, were kept. The inlaid Renaissance-style woodwork and the coffered ceiling date from the late 16th or early 17th century. The walls, punctuated by grooved pilasters and niches, and the star pattern on the ceiling are enlivened by a wide variety of woods; everywhere, subtle gradations are created by the oak frame, ash in the panelling and maple on the undulating blind arcades. Around the windows the walls are painted in shades of green.

One monumental room occupies the entire ground floor of the Renaissance wing, now housing statuary from the cathedral dating from the 15th and 16th centuries. Like the rest of the edifice, it was constructed by the cathedral’s master builder, Hans Thoman Uhlberger. The date of 1582 is recorded on the woodwork. When the museum was created, the room was thought to be the meeting place for the stonecutters’ lodge. More precisely, it was a Sommerhaus – an unheated room in which people would congregate to keep cool in summer. From the door opening on to the courtyard, featuring a Gothic pointed arch but with Renaissance door panels, the room combines the two styles. The ceiling frame stands on two columns with Ionic capitals and mannerist consoles, but in one corner a surbased Gothic vault bears the strongroom on the first floor. Uhlberger left his mark and that of the Œuvre Notre-Dame on the two keystones. The decoration of the walls and vault with grotesques – patterns of scrolls and extravagant figures – is attributed to the painter Wendel Dietterlin; parts of it were modified in around 1900.

29 The meeting room for the administrators of the Œuvre Notre-Dame 1582–early 17th century

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Hans Thoman Uhlberger 30 Meeting room, known as the Salle de la Loge 1579–82

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From the Renaissance to the late 17th century

29 The meeting room for the administrators of the Œuvre Notre-Dame

30 Vault of the meeting room, known as the Salle de la Loge

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31 Spiral staircase

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From the Renaissance to the late 17th century

32 Virgin with Trellis

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From the Renaissance to the late 17th century

33 Portrait of Canon Ambrosius Volmar Keller

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Œuvre Notre-Dame Museum

Œuvre Notre-Dame Museum Arts of the Middle Ages

HANDBOOK

9 7823 5 1 2517 51

9 €

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