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Medientyp:
E-Artikel
Titel:
Reliques des Saint Innocents et châsse limousine au trésor de Saint-Denis
Beteiligte:
Gauthier, Marie-Madeleine
Erschienen:
International Center of Medieval Art, 1976
Erschienen in:Gesta
Sprache:
Französisch
ISSN:
0016-920X
Entstehung:
Anmerkungen:
Beschreibung:
<p> The invaluable Inventory of the Treasure compiled in 1634 for Saint-Denis describes the medieval riches that had been in the royal abbey's possession for several centuries or more. Not all of the items listed were destroyed during the French Revolution. A limoges chasse, dated to 1210-1215 on the basis of stylistic comparisons and now preserved at the Musée du Louvre, can be traced back at least as far as 1711 when it enclosed the pallium of Pope Stephen II. On the long side of the chasse, enamelled half-figures of young saints are applied to a gilt ground. The areas between the figures are studded with glass cabochons; on the ends, angels, and on the other long side engraved figures of saints are reserved in gilt against a blue and turquoise ground. The characteristic construction of the chasse--enamelled plaques fastened to each other without any wooden core--underwent significant early repairs: the rivets linking the roof to the gables were cut, and three sets of hinges were afixed in order to activate the roof of the reliquary and allow the wider top of the chest to open, instead of the narrow door in the gable. Moreover, as a means of placing the relics on permanent display, a rectangular opening was cut in the roof. Probably the window thus created was then set with a rock crystal, later replaced by a flat piece of glass. We assume that his reliquary may be identified with a copper and enamelled chasse mentioned as early as 1504 at Saint-Denis and located at that time on the altar of the chapel numbered 14 by Félibien. In 1245, when Abbot Eudes's gothic choir was built, the altar of this chapel was dedicated to the Murdered Children--the Holy Innocents--and to St. Maurice. As early as 1262 there is mention of stained glass, now destroyed, which included inscriptions naming those same patron saints. On the other hand, according to an even earlier tradition for which we can find documentation by 1270, the corpse of one of the Innocents, supposed to have been a gift of Charlemagne, had been preserved at Saint-Denis within a remarkable reliquary, "in the shape of a cradle made of palms." In 1504, the mention of a chasse "made of copper with applied enamels" occurs, but without precise identification of its contents. Valued at "40 escuz," it was located in the above-mentioned chapel of St. Maurice and the Holy Innocents. Although thirty years later in 1534, the identity of its relics was also unknown, its contents were to be identified in 1634 as the "corpse of the Innocent," brought back by Charlemagne. For this hagiological perception, we are indebted to Dom Doublet who recognized the link between the historical tradition and the reputed relic and reliquary kept for so long in the appropriate location. In a kind of hagiographical and liturgical conflation, the numerous anonymous figures representing a series of nimbed youths in the company of angels may have been considered at once the fellow soldiers of St. Maurice and the murdered children--all equally "innocent." </p>