We spent a beautiful day in Munich on Easter Sunday. We spent much of it in the parks of Munich. We had lunch in the Englischer Garten and walked through the east side of the Isar river in the afternoon.We decided to do something new, and since we had never been in the Bavarian National Museum, we checked it out. You read that right. Bavaria was once an independent nation with its own royal family!
The museum is built around the collection of the Wittelsbacher family, the pre-eminent noble family in Bavaria. This family was given the kingship of Bavaria when Napoleon rearranged Germany. They were kings up until the last one abdicated during the First World War. One of them, loopy Louis (Ludwig II) built the famous Neuschwanstein castle.
Many of the beautiful things in the museum reflect how the nobles lived in the good old days, when decadence was good. We saw a room full of ivory carvings. It turns out that ivory turning was an acceptable past-time for the members of the Bavarian royal family.
Other exhibits covered the exquisite clothes, jewelry and tableware of the days when one dressed and dined to impress.
The fine embroidery on the white silk dress kept Kathy staring. The necklace consisted of garnets and silver, and the painted stones depicted characters from a masked ball. The silver structure below, a table centerpiece, featured small musician figures in the center surrounded by curtains made of silver lacework. The whole thing was a platform that held the salt and pepper shakers and other seasonings. Can't imagine polishing the thing!
This beautiful museum emphasizes the decorative arts. The museum has several rooms of sculptures by Tilman Riemenschneider, an artist whose work graces many churches in our region of Franconia. Some were very familiar, and some were bizarre. An example of the latter is the Ascension of Mary Magdalene showing Mary covered only by her own hair. (Click on the pictures to see a larger version)
The more familiar ones include the 12 Apostles. Most figures have an attribute for the method of martyrdom for each of the them. It seems to me that Judas Iscariot has been replaced by Paul the Apostle.
Matthew was originally holding a quill (not seen) used for writing the Gospel.
Four soldiers took Thomas to a nearby hill and speared him.
Andrew was crucified on an X, which is also where the design of the Scottish flag comes from.
This one is the easiest. Peter has the keys to heaven, of course.
This is the tricky one. Paul (not one of the 12 Apostles) is holding a scroll (symbolising the Scriptures).
Simon the Zealot was sawn in half.
Philip was crucified upside-down, in deference to Jesus.
Bartholomew is shown with the knife because he was skinned alive.
James, son of Zebedee, wears a pilgrim's hat, because he is thought to be buried at Santiago, the great pilgrimage site. He was the brother of John, the Beloved.
John, the Beloved, was challenged to drink a cup of poison to demonstrate the power of his faith.
Jude, or Judas Thaddaeus, should be holding a spear, but it looks more like a club to me, which is sometimes his attribute also.
James, the Younger and brother of Jesus according to one interpretation of the Gospel of Matthew, has a slim club with a wooden board attached at a right angle to one end used by fullers to clean wool.
There were also several green men and a couple of wild men.
These wild men and green men are commonly found in Romanesque churches, the first churches built in stone. The stone churches usually replaced wooden churches that were built by the early missionaries on the same site. The depiction of these pagan figures, which are unique to these early churches, is intriguing. We wonder what these figures imply about the way Christianity was practiced between 800 and 1000 C.E., shortly after Christianity was adopted or forced on the Germanic tribes. What remained of the early pagan beliefs? It seems that the pre-Christian belief systems persisted, because the representation of nature spirits is tacked on to the Christian imagery. The undercurrent of pagan respect for nature is something we notice repeatedly here in Germany, where trees are protected by requiring applications to be filed before they are felled in the season that makes the least impact on the birds that nest in them. Other evidence of this pre-Christian respect for nature is that the fountains in the rocky, water-poor regions to our northeast are cleaned and decorated each year around Easter time with evergreen boughs and painted eggshells.
