Schnütgen Museum

The choir of St Cecilia's

The museum's previous quarters in 1910

The Schnütgen Museum (Museum Schnütgen in German) in Cologne (Köln), Germany is devoted to Christian religious art, mainly medieval, but some parts of the collection, such as its textiles and prints, extend from antiquity to the modern period. In 1906, the collection of Alexander Schnütgen was donated to the city, and the collection has continued to expand, so that until the opening of a new building, scheduled for 2009, only about 10% of its 13,000 items could be displayed. Schnütgen (1843–1918) was a Catholic priest and theologian;^[1] according to the museum website "Up to now people tell stories about his zealous and sometimes crafty collection tactics".^[2]

Since 1956, the museum has occupied the large Romanesque church of St. Cäcilien, founded in 881 for noble canonesses, with the present building dating from 1130–60, with murals from about 1300. This will remain part of the museum after completion of the new buildings. Highlights of the collection include a Romanesque tympanum from St Cecilia's itself, several large wooden crucifixes, including the 11th century Cross of St George's, as well as a large collection of early bronze ones, including the only other work generally attributed to Rainer of Huy apart from his Liège baptismal font.^[3] The museum has a late Carolingian evangeliary of 860–880, and a single leaf from the English St Albans Psalter.^[4] The "Comb of St Heribert" is a 9th century ivory liturgical comb, and the "Harrach Diptych" a Carolingian ivory of about 810 (on loan from the Lugwig collection).^[5] Ivories, stained glass, textiles including vestments, metalwork and paintings are all well represented.^[6]

Alexander Schnütgen had organised influential exhibitions of his collection while it was still private, and from the 1970s the museum (using extra exhibition spaces) organized a series of landmark exhibitions of medieval art:

• Rhein und Maas (1972, Mosan art)
• Monumenta Annonis – Köln und Siegburg. Weltbild und Kunst im hohen Mittelalter (1975)
• Die Parler und der schöne Stil 1350–1400, Europäische Kunst unter den Luxemburgern (1978)
• Ornamenta Ecclesia – Kunst und Künstler der Romanik (1985, Romanesque metalwork and other church art)
• Himmelslicht. Europäische Glasmalerei im Jahrhundert des Kölner Dombaus (1248–1349) (1998, stained glass).

The enormous catalogues for these exhibitions, some running to three volumes, remain important works of reference. Catalogues of the permanent collection of the museum are being published in several volumes.^[7] A touring exhibition in America of objects from the museum in 2000 also produced a catalogue in English.

Notes

1. ^ Biography on German Wikipedia
2. ^ Museums of Cologne Art of the Middle Ages Museum Schnütgen. Museums of Cologne. Accessed January 17 , 2010.
3. ^ Lasko, 181
4. ^ Museum highlights 2nd and 4th items - Handschriften und Einzelblätter. Museums of Cologne. Accessed January 17, 2010.
5. ^ Museum highlights 2nd and 4th items - Elfenbeinarbeiten Museums of Cologne. Accessed January 17, 2010.
6. ^ Museum website, pages indexed at top right
7. ^ Museum website Bestandskatalog. Accessed January 11, 2010

References

• Museums of Cologne; official website accessed January 11, 2010
• Lasko, Peter, Ars Sacra, Penguin History of Art (now Yale), Penguin, 1972
• Legner, Anton (ed). Ornamenta Ecclesiae, Kunst und Künstler der Romanik. Catalogue of an exhibition in the Schnütgen Museum, Köln, 1985. 3 vols.
• Sacred Destinations accessed January 11, 2010
• Boston College, Feature on exhibition that toured North America in 2000 accessed January 11, 2010

Further reading

• Netzer, Nancy; Reinburg, Virginia, Fragmented devotion: medieval objects from the Schnütgen Museum, Cologne (catalogue of exhibition), McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, 2000, ISBN 1-892850-01-X, 9781892850010,

Coordinates: 50°56′06″N 6°57′05″E / 50.935°N 6.95139°E / 50.935; 6.95139