Medieval Miraculous Images in the Baroque period in the Archdiocese of Cologne (in its late 18th century boundaries)

• Applicant: Dr. Tobias Kunz
• Subject Area: Art History
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 490617940

This project examines medieval sculptures and paintings that were venerated in the early modern period in the archdiocese of Cologne as miraculous images or conferred a special role within the sacral landscape of that age. The reframing, the context and the various actors supporting the veneration of these images will be analysed, as well as their role in the construction of a regional identity during a period of economic and political stagnation. Until now, the Baroque mise-en-scène of medieval statues in the Rhine region has not been studied. It’s significance, however, extends far beyond the boundaries of the archdiocese for understanding how older objects were engaged with, as the visual presence of the Middle Ages was stronger in the archdiocese of Cologne in the early modern period than in almost any other Western European region. Medieval statues were presented in the key churches of the metropolis (Cathedral, Jesuit Church, Saint Ursula) in combination with relics, often with a comparable status. The reframing of statues, moreover, had been a well-known phenomenon in the Rhine region since as early as the late medieval era. Around 1500, moreover, Cologne established itself as the hub of a network of local pilgrimages to images – something hardly noticed in the research up to now. Linked to this are the numerous smaller pilgrimages to medieval statues during the Catholic Reformation. This was promoted by the Wittelsbach electors of Cologne as well as by their relatives, the Dukes of Palatinate-Neuburg, resulting in the royal residence cities of Bonn, Brühl and Düsseldorf being refurbished into model sacral landscapes. Monasteries and collegiate churches, older as well as newer ones, participated intensively in the staging of older statues. Lay persons gathered together in brotherhoods, particularly in Cologne, took charge of the organisation of the pilgrimages to such images. The collaboration of these agents, their motivation and perspectives on the older objects will be examined, just like the question of what dynamics could evolve out of a personal connection with the miraculous images. Better than the major pilgrimages to the holy tombs controlled by ecclesiastical institutions, these smaller pilgrimages to venerated images – studied for the first time in regards to Cologne – were ideal for establishing an identity for a complex society. These miraculous images have often received scant attention, as they have long been considered “disfigured” by later applications of polychromy, and thus stand all the more at the centre of this project. For this reason, the technological examination of these works and their early modern modifications will receive particular attention. Above all, the sacral landscape of the early modern archdiocese of Cologne will be reconstructed, a landscape disformed by massive changes during the 19th and 20th centuries, yet marked by the material presence of a great past.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants