Featuring more than twenty illustrations, including several works of art that were rediscovered by the author and are published here for the first time, The Female Crucifix: Images of St. Wilgefortis Since the Middle Ages provides a new perspective on a very old phenomenon.
The legendary bearded female St. Wilgefortis, also known by a variety of other names including “Kummernis” and “Uncumber,” was the object of fervent veneration in areas of Western and Central Europe for almost half a millennium.
Beginning in the fifteenth century, the legend of her dramatic transformation from a beautiful, privileged princess into a bearded, Christlike martyr on the cross inspired scores of paintings, sculptures, poems, prayers and shrines in her honour all across Europe. In spite of frequent opposition by the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, her cult of veneration at one point nearly rivaled that of the Virgin Mary in some parts of Europe.
In this informative and groundbreaking new book, Professor Ilse E. Friesen examines the phenomenon of St. Wilgefortis from an art historical perspective, tracing the origins of depictions of the saint from an early medieval Italian statue known as Volto Santo, or “holy face,” through the emergence of increasingly feminized crucifixes over the course of the subsequent centuries. In particular, Professor Friesen focuses on an analysis of paintings, sculptures and frescoes originating in the German-speaking regions of Bavaria and Tyrol, where the veneration of the saint attained its peak.
With its emphasis on art as situated in the context of religion, spirituality, mythology, popular literature and gender relations, this book will have wide appeal.
Authors
- Bibliography, etc. Note
- Includes bibliographical references and index
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- 704.9/4863
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 21
- General Note
- Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- ISBN
- 9780889209398 0889203652
- LCCN
- N8080.W55
- LCCN Item number
- F75 2001eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaBNVSL
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (x, 173 p., [24] p. of plates)
- Published in
- Canada
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)gtp00521608 (OCoLC)65183838 (CaOOCEL)402675
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Transcribing agency
- CaBNVSL
Table of Contents
- Table of Contents 6
- List of Illustrations 8
- Acknowledgements 10
- Plates 73
- Introduction 12
- 1. The Crucifixion as the Resurrection: The Volto Santo and the Triumphal Crucifix 20
- 2. Becoming Like Christ: Gender Integration, Imitation and Identification 30
- 3. The Origin of the Fiddler and the Legend of Gmünd 46
- 4. St. Ontkommer and St. Uncumber: Images from Holland and England 58
- 5. “Wilgefortis Sive Liberata”: The Bavarian Cult of the Female Crucifix in Neufahrn 98
- 6. The Kümmernis Chapel of Burghausen in Bavaria 116
- 7. St. Kummernus or St. Kümmernis in Tyrol 126
- 8. The Bearded Woman and the Phenomenon of Hirsutism: Past and Present 146
- 9. “Christa” and the Blending of Gender in Contemporary Society 162
- Conclusion 172
- Notes 174
- Bibliography 190
- Index 198
- A 198
- B 198
- C 199
- D 201
- E 201
- F 201
- G 202
- H 202
- I 203
- J 203
- K 203
- L 203
- M 203
- N 204
- O 204
- P 204
- R 205
- S 205
- T 207
- U 207
- V 207
- W 208
- Z 208
