Description
Romanesque engraved bronze bowl Copper alloy, with lustrous dark brown patina and a little verdigris. In the center a turned, chased and chiselled shallow bowl with a concave raised rim, folded and bent edge. The mirror completely filled with engravings. In the centre a half figure with a head turned to the right with the inscription "SVPERBIA", framed by four stylized cord wreaths. Radially grouped around it are three busts with engraved inscriptions: "IDOL(A)TRIA" (idolatry), "INVIDIA" (envy), "IRA" (anger) and "(L)UXURIA" (hedonism), many letters emphasized by double strokes. In the area of the flag three further large leaf ornaments with illegible inscriptions. Hanging loop soldered to the base. H 6, diameter 32.7 cm. German (Saxony?), 12th century. This bowl belongs to the group of early so-called Hansa bowls. These are bronze or copper vessels, generally from the 12th and 13th centuries, which, according to medieval manuscripts, are associated with the Hanseatic cities. They originate mainly from the region that stretched from the Baltic Sea across the Lower Rhine to England and was dominated by the trade of the free cities. The term "Hansa bowls" has been obsolete since the publication of the legendary art historian Weitzmann-Fiedler, who proved in 1981 that these objects have no verifiable connection with Hanseatic cities. However, this bowl clearly belongs to the group of vice bowls, even if the "idolatria" emphasized here cannot be classified in the canon of the seven main Christian vices. Ulrich Müller describes this type as "bowls with incorrect iconography or even faulty inscriptions". He assumes that the utensils, which were probably used for hand washing, not only demonstrated social prestige, but also conveyed basic religious knowledge. "The theme of good and evil was present in everyday preaching practice. Hand washing seems (...) to have offered the opportunity to introduce this content at meals, perhaps also at greetings or farewells, and to demonstrate it on the part of the users." (ibid. p. 42) Provenance Soil find from the area around Bautzen, Upper Lusatia, around 1947, in the possession of the family since then. Literature The type in Müller, Gravierte romanische Bronzeschalen und Schachfiguren des 11./12. Jahrhunderts, in: Archäologie des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit 9.1998, p. 39 ff., illustration of the type p. 41. S.a. Weitzmann-Fiedler, Romanische gravierte Bronzeschalen, Berlin 1981. S.a. Müller, Zwischen Gebrauch und Bedeutung: Studien zur Funktion von Sachkultur am Beispiel mittelalterlichen Handwaschgeschirrs, Bonn 2006. Two further, identically crafted, female vices in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, inv. no. 65.89. and in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nuremberg (in Mende, Die mittelalterlichen Bronzen, Nuremberg 2013, no. 100).
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Romanesque engraved bronze bowl Copper alloy, with lustrous dark brown patina and a little verdigris. In the center a turned, chased and chiselled shallow bowl with a concave raised rim, folded and bent edge. The mirror completely filled with engravings. In the centre a half figure with a head turned to the right with the inscription "SVPERBIA", framed by four stylized cord wreaths. Radially grouped around it are three busts with engraved inscriptions: "IDOL(A)TRIA" (idolatry), "INVIDIA" (envy), "IRA" (anger) and "(L)UXURIA" (hedonism), many letters emphasized by double strokes. In the area of the flag three further large leaf ornaments with illegible inscriptions. Hanging loop soldered to the base. H 6, diameter 32.7 cm. German (Saxony?), 12th century. This bowl belongs to the group of early so-called Hansa bowls. These are bronze or copper vessels, generally from the 12th and 13th centuries, which, according to medieval manuscripts, are associated with the Hanseatic cities. They originate mainly from the region that stretched from the Baltic Sea across the Lower Rhine to England and was dominated by the trade of the free cities. The term "Hansa bowls" has been obsolete since the publication of the legendary art historian Weitzmann-Fiedler, who proved in 1981 that these objects have no verifiable connection with Hanseatic cities. However, this bowl clearly belongs to the group of vice bowls, even if the "idolatria" emphasized here cannot be classified in the canon of the seven main Christian vices. Ulrich Müller describes this type as "bowls with incorrect iconography or even faulty inscriptions". He assumes that the utensils, which were probably used for hand washing, not only demonstrated social prestige, but also conveyed basic religious knowledge. "The theme of good and evil was present in everyday preaching practice. Hand washing seems (...) to have offered the opportunity to introduce this content at meals, perhaps also at greetings or farewells, and to demonstrate it on the part of the users." (ibid. p. 42) Provenance Soil find from the area around Bautzen, Upper Lusatia, around 1947, in the possession of the family since then. Literature The type in Müller, Gravierte romanische Bronzeschalen und Schachfiguren des 11./12. Jahrhunderts, in: Archäologie des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit 9.1998, p. 39 ff., illustration of the type p. 41. S.a. Weitzmann-Fiedler, Romanische gravierte Bronzeschalen, Berlin 1981. S.a. Müller, Zwischen Gebrauch und Bedeutung: Studien zur Funktion von Sachkultur am Beispiel mittelalterlichen Handwaschgeschirrs, Bonn 2006. Two further, identically crafted, female vices in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, inv. no. 65.89. and in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nuremberg (in Mende, Die mittelalterlichen Bronzen, Nuremberg 2013, no. 100).
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