Christ on the Mount of Olives and Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalene (Noli me tangere) From the pilgrimage church Maria Straßengel in Styria Austria, 1350–1355 Stained glass 109.2 x 39.9 cm; 108.9 x 40.8 cm Kyiv, Khanenko Museum, inv. 138 БР МХ, 137 БP МХ 4 Two richly coloured, artistically composed panes depict events from the life of Christ: his prayer on the Mount of Olives, surrounded by sleeping apostles, and his appearance to Mary Magdalene in the guise of a gardener. Both panes come from the chancel of the pilgrimage church Maria Straßengel in Styria, built between 1345 and 1355. Its windows are among the most important medieval stainedglass cycles in Austria. The central chancel window of Maria Straßengel originally contained twenty-one scenes from the Passion, from the entry into Jerusalem to the Ascension, including the miracles of Christ. These included two panes depicting Christ’s last prayer before his arrest: ‘Let this cup pass from me’ (Matthew 26:39) and the appearance of the resurrected Christ to Mary Magdalene, also known as Noli me tangere, from Christ‘s words: ‘Do not cling to me’ (John 20:17). All the surviving panes of the Passion window, with their elegant lines, unusual colour effects and meticulous decoration of all surfaces, are attributed to the so-called Master of Straßengel. He must have come from a high-ranking Viennese workshop and was associated with the largest stainedglass commissions of the time, including those for St. Stephen’s Cathedral and in St. Maria am Gestade in Vienna. During the extensive restoration of the pilgrimage church in 1884–85, several valuable originals were removed and replaced with new panes by the Tyrolean Glass Painting Institute in Innsbruck under the direction of Albert Jele, with the intention of selling them later. The different states of preservation of the two panes exhibited here can be seen as a prime example of the cost-saving ‘restoration practice’ of that time. While the composition with Christ on the Mount of Olives still retained the main core of its elaborate, complex and detailed lead cames, the scene depicting Christ’s Appearance to Mary Magdalene, which contains much larger pieces of glass, was completely despoiled of its lead cames, extensively renewed and provided with new cames. Most of the panes removed from Maria Straßengel were purchased by the Landesmuseum Joanneum in Graz, but some of the stained-glass paintings found their way via the art trade to collections far and wide, including the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Khanenko Museum in Kyiv. Bacher 1979, 117–141, 196. Elena Kosina 46
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTI5NTQ=