Dossier | Historie

Giovanni Pisano

The Böhler-Madonna is a masterpiece by the Italian artist Giovanni Pisano that has held a prominent place in the family collection for 120 years.

Extensive research carried out by Professor Max Seidels, the internationally recognised expert on the artist’s work, has confirmed that the figure, which dates from c. 1313, is a key work executed in Pisano’s ‘imperial style’. Professor Seidel also provides evidence, for the first time, for the restoration of the Gothic sculpture by the Italian Renaissance artist Benedetto da Maiano – a unique case in the history of art.

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Dossier | Historie

The House of Limburg-Luxembourg

A powerful ruler

Henry VII (1278/79 in Valenciennes–1313 in Buonconvento near Siena) was a member of the House of Limburg-Luxembourg. After becoming Roman-German King in 1308 Henry crossed the Alps two years later with a large army. Despite persistent opposition from his political opponents in Italy and France he nevertheless managed to be elected Holy Roman Emperor in Rome in 1312. Henry’s plan to gain additional territory in southern Italy in an alliance with the King of Sicily did not come to fruition due to his early death in 1313.
Henry VII founded a ruling dynasty which was to gain an importance that stretched right across Europe. His son John married Elisabeth of Bohemia, a princess from the House of Přemysl – a wealthy kingdom that later came into the possession of the Luxembourgs through inheritance. Charles, John’s son and Henry’s grandson, was elected Holy Roman Emperor in 1355, 43 years after his grandfather, and is considered one of the most influential European rulers of his time.

Codex Balduini Trevirensis: The Electors are elcting Count Henry of Luxemburg as a King. Wikipedia, in the public domain

French Fashion

at the Court of Pisa

The Böhler Madonna is not only depicted in her role as the Mother of Christ. Her elaborate clothing, in keeping with the taste of the time, emphasises her earthly radiance as the Queen of Heaven. At the court of Henry VII in Pisa, Pisano observed first-hand the fashions popular in France that had reached Italy through Henry VII and his imperial wife, Margaret of Brabant. The ladies at court were dressed in heavy, voluminous pleated garments and wore headscarves held in place by a diadem or crown, tied under the chin and around the neck. The sculptor’s artistic realisation of the heavy material folds that the Madonna gracefully gathers together on the right, is masterly.

The Codex Manesse: Gottfried of Neifen.
Wikipedia, in the public domain

Guelphs and Ghibellines

Wars in Italy

The Böhler Madonna was created around 1313 at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII in Pisa.

The Ghibelline city of Pisa, sympathetic to the emperor, was one of the most important maritime strongholds in Italy in the Middle Ages. It faced fierce competition from Genoa and was later entangled in a serious power struggle with the Guelphs in Florence who sided with the pope. The city had anticipated that its status within Italy as a whole would be strengthened through the arrival of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII in 1312. However, his sudden death in 1313 dashed any such hopes. The imperial condottiero, Uguccione della Faggiola, briefly filled the resultant power vacuum. He conquered the city of Lucca that was sympathetic to the pope and defeated the Florentines at the Battle of Montecatini in 1315.
The Guelphs chose the lily as their heraldic symbol, based on Capetian Charles of Anjou’s coat of arms. The Ghibellines, on the other hand, adopted the imperial eagle.

Battle of Montaperti, detail.
Wikipedia, in the public domain



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Kunsthandlung Julius Böhler
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Kunsthandlung Julius Böhler Copyright 2021
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