Enthroned Madonna
The middle vault
After the decline of the Carolingian Empire, the Holy Roman Empire was restored under the Saxon dynasty of the Ottonians. This led to a renewed belief in the idea of empire and a reformed church. In an atmosphere of cultural and artistic zeal, masterpieces were created in which late antique, Carolingian and Byzantine models merged: the frescoes of Lambach can be attributed to late Ottonian art, definitely intended for a wider audience, especially pilgrims.
Around the year 1000, a striking intensity and expressiveness emerges in many works. A solemn monumentality with a lively inwardness, a visionary quality with keen attention to reality. The works combine surface patterns of flowing lines and rich, luminous colours with passionate feelings.
Will and action, soulful intensity and deep radiance seem to define these figures. They are vessels of religious power. This painting shows itself to be an ancient art, an end rather than a beginning. In fact, this art had no future; it could only age, but not develop- no matter how many great artworks it brought forth up until the middle of the 12th century.
The painted decoration of the vaults and walls of the west choir probably represented only part of an overall decoration of the collegiate church. The painted area of the west choir covers about 200 square metres. The depictions of Christ's childhood and youth that have been preserved in the west choir probably continued in the nave and the east choir, which is to be placed in front, with a further Christological cycle. The west choir frescoes - they are frescoes with a secco overlay - are also not completely preserved.
Several scenes are depicted in the central vault. The centre, at least in the religious sense, is the depiction of the Madonna enthroned with the Child Jesus. Behind Mary's throne are two women without nimbus, probably the two midwives of a Latin magician's play (the three holy kings), whose manuscript, dating from the early 11th century, has been in Lambach since the foundation of the monastery and seems to have played an essential role in the design of the magician's cycle. The interpretation of a third figure standing on the left side of Mary is uncertain.
To the left of the throne is the procession of magicians, whose models can be found in early Christian works. Their round-backed figures with their strangely creeping step still appear quite Ottonian. To the right, an angel awakens the magi and urges them to set out. Ottonian painting always oscillates between the two poles to which the destiny of the time was also bound: the life on this side and the life on the other side. In Lambach we find depictions that rarely appear in the iconology - it interprets the symbolic forms of a work of art - of the medieval Occident.
In the four corner spandrels, a burning thorn bush can be seen as a sign for Christ, Mary and the two churches.
