Mystery of the Cross, Nicodemus

Mystery of the Cross

The beams of the cross are shaped like a palm tree trunk, taking the form of the so-called Crux Florida, symbolically presenting the Cross as the Tree of Life. The allegorical understanding of the Cross expresses four ideas, symbolically marked by plaques at the ends of its arms:

1. Death on the Cross is the end of the Old Testament,
2. It is the beginning of the Church,
3. Through the Cross, the Savior opened heaven for us,
4. He conquered death.

Above Christ’s head, a distorted titulus is inscribed – RNE, which can be read as: REX NAZARENORUM or REX NAZARENUS. The figure of the Crucified Christ does not bear the marks of suffering. There are no nails or crown of thorns, and the right side does not show the wound from the spear. The right hand is detached from the cross and held by Mary. The living Christ on the cross is shown as the Victor – Christus Victor, as he ensured his followers’ passage to eternal life. Thus, the Crucifixion was another way to express theophany in art.

Mary embraces the right hand of the crucified Son for a kiss. The scene can be commented on with a quote from the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus: “The Blessed Mother stood and cried out with a loud voice: ‘My Son, my Son!’ And Jesus, seeing her near, weeping with the women, said: ‘Behold your son.’ Then he said to John: ‘Behold your mother.’ And she wept loudly and said: ‘I weep for you, my son, because you suffer unjustly, for the perverse Jews have delivered you to bitter death. What shall I do without you, my son? How shall I live without you? […] Where are your disciples who boasted that they would die with you? Where are those you healed? Why was there no one to help you?’ Then, turning to the cross, she said: ‘Bend, cross, so that I may embrace and kiss my son, whom I fed with my breasts in an extraordinary way, for I knew no man. Bend, cross, for I want to hug my son. Bend, cross, so that I may, as a mother, be united with my son.'” (Gospel of Nicodemus X, 4 Gr. B).

In the composition of the Crucifixion, the bodies of the sun and the moon were often depicted above the cross. They refer to the cosmic phenomena that accompanied the death of Jesus. In medieval art, astral signs were sometimes replaced by angels. Their presence is explained by the apocryphal text from the Gospel of Bartholomew: “Lord, when you went to be crucified, I followed you from afar and saw you hanging on the cross and angels descending from heaven and worshipping you. And when darkness fell, I saw that you disappeared from the cross; I only heard a voice in the underworld and great wailing and gnashing of teeth. Reveal to me, Lord, where you went from the cross?” (Gospel of Bartholomew I, 6-7).

Nicodemus

He was a Pharisee and belonged to the Sanhedrin. Being a rabbi, he once asked Jesus for a moment of conversation. Fearing harassment from the Pharisees, he met Him under the cover of night. Then he learned that the messianic kingdom has a spiritual nature and is entered not through circumcision but through Baptism. Christ called it being born again. Nicodemus defended Jesus from early arrest by the Sanhedrin, pointing to the need to follow legal procedures: “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?” (John 7:51). For this, he risked being accused of sympathizing with the gullible and uneducated Galileans. He also, like Joseph of Arimathea, clearly sided with Jesus after His death. Together with Joseph, he took care of Jesus’ burial, bringing about a hundred pounds (32.754 kg) of myrrh and aloes for embalming the body.

Płock Doors

The Płock Doors, also known as the Magdeburg, Korsun, or Sigtuna Doors (Russian: Магдебургские врата), are bronze doors once located in the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Płock. A monument of Romanesque art, the original doors are currently in the western portal of St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod the Great, Russia, while a bronze cast (replica) has been in the Płock Cathedral since 1982.

Research indicates that the doors were likely in Płock for about 250 years before adorning St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod the Great in Rus. It is unknown how the doors ended up in Novgorod. According to a 15th-century legend, they were brought from Byzantium by Prince Vladimir the Great through Korsun in Crimea (hence the name Korsun doors), which is not possible.

Some historical hypotheses suggest they were plundered in the 13th century by the Lithuanians during their raid on Mazovia. Other historians believe they were a gift from the Polish clergy or Płock princes to Prince of Novgorod, Lingwen Olgierdowicz, brother of Władysław II Jagiełło. According to some sources, they arrived in Novgorod as early as 1170, soon after their creation, while others suggest before the mid-15th century. According to a version announced in 1823 by Friedrich von Adelung, the doors are a military trophy of the Novgorodians (specifically Karelians, Estonians, Izhorians, and northern Russians), who captured them in 1187 during an expedition to the then capital of Sweden, Sigtuna (hence the 19th-century name Sigtuna doors).

The doors for the Płock Cathedral were commissioned by Bishop Alexander of Malonne (d. 1156). Master Riquin, with assistant Waismut, cast them in bronze using the lost-wax technique between 1152-1154 in one of the Magdeburg foundries. It is uncertain if it belonged to the local fabrica ecclesiae, operating at the cathedral, managed by Bishop Wichmann von Seeburg (c. 1110-1192).

Figures of bishops and craftsmen are among the reliefs, to which a depiction of the Russian foundry master Abraham was added in the first quarter of the 15th century. He adapted the doors for the western portal of St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod the Great, adding Russian inscriptions translated from Latin in Cyrillic. It is hypothesized that the doors were plundered from Płock at the end of the 13th century and, after various fortunes, were hung as a “copper icon” in an Orthodox church in the early 15th century.