The Treasury of Basel Cathedral

Husband, Timothy, with contributions by Julien Chapuis (2001)

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Description

In contrast to the spare and monochromatic ambiance of many medieval churches today, religious experience in the Middle Ages often was shaped by glittering objects made gold and silver and adorned with precious stones that provided a focus to the liturgy and to the veneration of the saints. Treasuries were integral to the identity of medieval cities. Over time, however, because of their material value, most of these treasuries were pillaged and their contents often melted down into bullion. An exception was the Treasury of Basel Cathedral, which miraculously withstood wars, an earthquake, and iconoclastic uprisings, only to be dispersed in the early nineteenth century as a result of political division.

Reliquary crosses of gold, enameled and bejeweled; censers, chalices, and altar furnishings of engraved silver; reliquaries in the shape of caskets, figures, and in imitation of human form; exquisite textiles; and Eucharistic vessels, some towering over three feet in height—these are merely a sampling of the sumptuous works collected in this lavishly illustrated volume and in the exhibition that it accompanies. Spanning the Ottonian period up to the Reformation, these dazzling objects served the cult on the high altar of Basel Cathedral from the eleventh to the sixteenth century. Tangible evidence of episcopal power, they unified the clergy and the population of Basel, as they were prominently featured in the many processions dictated by the Church calendar.

Over half of the works in the catalogue now reside in the Historisches Museum Basel (the co-organizer of this exhibition) and the others were borrowed from European public collections and churches; most of them have never been shown before in the United States. Each of the more than seventy-five examples is fully discussed and illustrated in color, in entries augmented by relevant bibliographic references and provenance histories. The four introductory essays examine the history of Basel in this period; the construction of the cathedral and its consecration by Emperor Heinrich II in 1019; the formation of the Treasury, through commissions and gifts; and the vicissitudes of the Treasury's existence, its eventual dissolution, and the remarkable story of its reconstitution. They were written by Timothy Husband, curator in the Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, who is responsible for the concept of the exhibition in New York and is the author of the catalogue entries, and Julien Chapuis, assistant curator in the Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters. A selected bibliography and an index complete this visually splendid and scholarly presentation.

Table of contents

Director's Foreword
Acknowledgments
Lenders to the Exhibition
Notes to the Reader

A Brief History of Basel up to the Reformation
Julien Chapuis

The Construction of Basel Cathedral: An Overview
Timothy Husband

A Treasury in Basel
Julien Chapuis

Dormant then Divided, Dispersed and Reunited
Timothy Husband

Catalogue
Timothy Husband

Introduction

Ottonian and Romanesque Treasury

Liturgical Objects

Procession and Ceremony

Reliquaries: Caskets and Crosses

Figural Reliquaries

Reliquaries in Imitation of the Human Form

Relics Sacred and Profane

Gifts to the Saints

Gifts to the Treasury

Treasures Lost and Found, Reproduced and Reinvented

Monstrances

Private Reliquaries

Tower Monstrances

Selected Bibliography
Index

About the authors

Timothy Husband is Curator, Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Julien Chapuis is Assistant Curator, Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Press reviews

Choice Reviews Online

"... beautifully illustrated entries ... The objects are imaginatively arranged."

Press release

Press Release: The Treasury of Basel Cathedral

Posted on December 12, 2000

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Exhibition

The Treasury of Basel Cathedral

The medieval treasury of Basel Cathedral miraculously survived an earthquake, wars, iconoclasm, and the Protestant Reformation, only to be dispersed as a result of political division in the early nineteenth century. Based on inventories and other documents, nearly all the objects belonging to the treasury have been identified and, today, over half are in the Historisches Museum Basel while the remaining are in museum collections in Amsterdam, Berlin, London, New York, Paris, Saint Petersburg, Vienna, and Zurich. This exhibition unites more than seventy-five of these splendid ecclesiastical and secular objects, the vast majority of which have never before traveled to the United States. The works date from the early eleventh through the early sixteenth century, spanning the Ottonian, Romanesque, and Gothic periods up to the Reformation. Most are of gold and silver—many encrusted with precious stones, rock crystal, antique gems, or translucent enamels—but there are also actual relics, as well as textiles and objects of rock crystal, bronze, and wood on display, including the original storage cupboard.

The practice of endowing churches with precious objects was widespread in western Europe by the time of Charlemagne (the late eighthearly ninth century), arising from the conviction that only the finest materials were suitable in service to God, the Virgin, or the saints. Liturgical vessels, book covers, and reliquaries were most likely to be made of gold or silver and to be decorated with gemstones, because they were believed to be in contact with the body and blood of Christ, contain the word of God, or hold the remains of saints.

The treasury of the Basel minster was assembled over a period of five centuries—beginning in 1019, with the consecration of the restored cathedral (rebuilt after the destruction of the first Cathedral when the city was sacked by Hungarians in 917) and ending in 1529, when the city adopted the Protestant Reformation. The defining figure in the formation of the Basel Cathedral treasury was Holy Roman Emperor Heinrich II, who, as its earliest and principal benefactor, donated several relics and other precious gifts. Members of Basel's Cathedral Chapter, bishops, noblemen, and burghers, as well as dignitaries from outside the diocese, commissioned additional works, thereby further enriching the treasury. Carried in processions and displayed on the Cathedral's high altar, such objects were a tangible embodiment of the power of the church and the status of the donors.

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