Project Details
Projekt
Subproject 9: Book External ars emblematica spiritualis. The Cycles of Emblems in the Churches at Horsens (Mitdjylland), Nørup, and Engum (Syddanmark) in their Art, Theology, and Ethics Historical Contexts
Subject Area
German Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern German Literature)
Protestant Theology
Art History
Protestant Theology
Art History
Term
since 2025
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 435118611
This subproject combines art historical, literary, and historio-theological expertise and aims to explore and analyze in detail the emblem cycles on the box pews of the Klosterkirke in Horsens (Denmark), which were completed in 1738. Donated by Gerhard Hansen de Lichtenberg and created by Mogens Christian Thrane, the 160 emblem paintings of the Klosterkirke form by far one of the most extensive programs of emblems in Northern Europe, a region that – despite its great importance for the cultural character of Central Europe – has traditionally received little attention, especially in German-speaking research. This subproject counteracts this imbalance by focusing on the Klosterkirke, whose interior decoration has been insufficiently studied to date but will now be recognized for the first time as a particularly outstanding example of emblematics beyond the book and of early modern spiritual intermediality. With the emblem programs in the churches of Nørup and Engum, completed in 1733 and 1760 respectively, two additional, smaller cycles of emblems situated in directly adjacent church interiors will be comparatively included in the analysis. Using an interdisciplinary approach, this subproject is dedicated to the in-depth interpretation of the emblem programs, taking into account their specific combination of media, i.e., the intermedial interplay of their textual and pictorial components as well as their embedding in the other furnishings of the church interiors in question. In order to examine the three emblem programs, the printed templates of which often originate from different confessional contexts, must first be identified and analyzed in detail with regard to their thematic orientation and their horizontal-intermedial character. The text-image relations of the emblem templates as well as the layers of meaning that result from this intermedial facture must be investigated in order to create the necessary basis for the comprehensive interpretation of the emblematic cycles in Horsens, Nørup, and Engum. Also planned are the comparative study of the emblem paintings, taking into account their art, theological and ethical historical contexts, the interrogation of the cycles for phenomena of mutual relationality of the emblems as well as the analysis of the highly multifaceted thematization of the relationship between man and God that can be observed in them (i.e., vertical intermediality). Furthermore it is necessary to discuss the interaction of the emblem paintings with other (architectural, pictorial, written) elements in the interiors of the churches as well as their relationship to the ephemeral forms of spiritual intermediality, especially with respect to the liturgical performances practiced in the church, but also taking into account extra-liturgical situations and forms of reception. The results of this subproject will be published in a comprehensive joint monograph.
DFG Programme
Research Units
