On Wed, 7 Apr 1999 23:19:30 +0000,
[log in to unmask] wrote...
>Dear Pat,
>Certainly a related image occurs in the stained glass window usually
>referred to as the Anagogical Window, or the Allegories of St Paul,
>in the Abbey Church of Saint-Denis, dating from Suger's abbacy in the
>1140s. One of the roundels depicts a chariot labelled as the
>Quadriga of Amminadab, with the four beasts of the Evangelists around
>it, and with, in the chariot, God the Father supporting the Crucified
>Christ in front of the veil of the temple. This typologically
>relates the Ark of the Covenant with the Altar of Christ.
>I'd be interested to know if this fits into the tradition you are
>interested in.
>Cheers,
>Jim Bugslag
>
>
Dear Jim,
Thank you for the rich example of the Quadriga of Amminadab (had to
look that up, I must admit). Do you know of the source off-hand, where I
could look up the picture and some more background on it?
I'll try to give you a short version of my research topic. I'm
examining Gottfried von Strasburg's Tristan and Isolde through the lens of
the Cathar-Gnostic heresy. I'm treating them as Gnostics, though I know it
is a controversial move. If you know the Tristan story, you know that
Tristan kills the dragon, cuts out its tongue and then is able to prove
that he is the true slayer and not the false steward. I'm interpreting the
episode as a parody of the Apocalypse. Tristan sees four horsemen
approaching the valley of the dragon (Satan). The only horseman to be
identified is the false steward. Medieval exegetes in the legacy of Beatus
correlated the first horseman with Christ. The false steward (Christ?)
pulls the tongueless dragon's head in a cart back to court, followed by
four men on horseback, In the Munich illustrations (CGM 51), there is a
panel illustrating this scene. You have to see the picture--but I suspect
that it is meant as a deconstruction of Christ pulling the chariot of the
church followed by the four Fathers of the Church.
I fear that some people may be offended by these findings, but that is
not my intention. It merely appears to me to be what is really going on.
Thanks again,
Pat McGurk
Patricia McGurk Tel. (Home) 1-612-784-8710
Dept. of German, Scandinavian and Dutch
University of Minnesota
205 Folwell Hall
9 Pleasant St. S.E.
Minneapollis, MN 55455
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