Also known as:
German: Nikolaus von Verdun;
French: Nicolas de Verdun
NICHOLAS OF VERDUN - The Verdun altar. The 51 panels in gilded copper and enamels constituted an ambo, commissioned by Provost Wernher (1181). The present-day triptych dates to 1322-24. Depicted there is the life of Christ, with the types of the Old Testament. Klosterneuburg.
NICHOLAS OF VERDUN. - Goldsmith, active between the 12th and 13th centuries. Recent studies (Réau) consider his entire activity to fall within the sphere of the Mosan school, where he would have trained in the school of Godefroid de Claire.
Works signed by N. are the ambo of Klosterneuburg (Vienna 1181) and the shrine of Notre-Dame of Tournai (1205). The ambo of Klosterneuburg, in enameled copper, is a fundamental work in the history of goldsmithing. Aspiring to a renewed sense of monumentality, the artist simplifies the composition of the scenes so that the figures may have greater prominence and human characterization, and he also simplifies the color, reducing it to the predominance of two tones, blue for the backgrounds and gold for the figures; in the decorative parts, on the other hand, the colors are multiplied and the drawing remains meticulous and geometric. The ambo, later transformed into a retable, consists of 51 trefoil compartments in which episodes of the Old Testament and of the life of Christ are illustrated, commented upon by nielloed inscriptions. The shrine of Notre-Dame of Tournai has come down to us damaged; the enamel and gold of the compositions illustrating episodes of the life of Christ have been disfigured by poor 18th-century restorations, and the inscriptions have disappeared, of which the copy made in the 17th century by the canon of Tournai, Dechange, is preserved.
Among the works attributed to N. are the figures of apostles and prophets of the Shrine of the Magi of CologneCathedral and the bronze paschal candlestick of Milan Cathedral. To his school have been attributed the reliquaries of St. Matthew of Trier and of the church of Mettlach (Moselle), and the triptych of the abbey of Florennes, now in the Museum of Brussels.
Bibliography10 worksL. Cloquet, La chasse de Notre-Dame à Tournai, in Rev. de l'art chrétien, 35 (1892), pp. 308-25; K. Drexler, Der Verduner Altar, Vienna 1903
BIBL.: L. Cloquet, La chasse de Notre-Dame à Tournai, in Rev. de l'art chrétien, 35 (1892), pp. 308-25; K. Drexler, Der Verduner Altar, Vienna 1903; O. Falke, Der Dreihönigenschrein des N. von V. im Kölner Domschatz, Munich 1911; H. P. Mitchell, Two bronzes by N. of V., in Burlington magazine, 37 (1921), p. 17; 38 (1922), p. 157; O. Ludwig, Der Verduner Altar, Vienna 1929; O. Falke, Der Bronzeleuchter des mailänder Dom, in Pantheon, 7 (1931), pp. 127-33, 196-202; A. Weigerher, Studien en N. v. V. und der rheinischen Goldschmiedkunst des XII. Jahrh., Vienna 1940; L. Réau, N. de V., in Bull. de la Soc. de l'hist. de l'art français, 1941-44, pp. 56-58; id., L'ambon en émail de N. de V. à Klosterneuburg, in Monuments Piot, 39 (1943), pp. 103-45.
Gerlini, Elsa. “Nicola da Verdun.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VIII, col. 1857. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1952. https://azioneromana.com/article/nicola-da-verdun.
MLA
Gerlini, Elsa. “Nicola da Verdun.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VIII, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1952, col. 1857. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/nicola-da-verdun.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec8_nicola_da_verdun,
author = {Gerlini, Elsa},
title = {Nicola da Verdun},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {VIII},
pages = {1857},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1952},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/nicola-da-verdun}
}
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