Golden Madonna of Essen

It is the only full-length survival from what appears to have been a common form of statue among the wealthiest churches and abbeys of 10th and 11th century Northern Europe; some of these were life-size, especially figures of the Crucifixion.

The statue is dated around the year 980[2] and was thus created during the tenure of Mathilde, a granddaughter of Emperor Otto I, as abbess of Essen Abbey.

Under her reign and those of her successors Sophia of Gandersheim (1012–1039) and Theophanu (1039–1058), the abbey acquired what is today considered the most precious of the works of art of the Essen treasury.

The core of the sculpture was carved from a single piece of wood, most likely from a poplar tree,[2] though earlier art historians have assumed it to be pear, plum or lime.

The sculpture's surface is entirely covered with sheets of gold leaf less than 0.25 millimetres (0.01 in) thick, which are held in place by minute golden bolts.

The restorers carefully wrapped the statue in a plaster cast, insufflated the cavities to remove bore dust, impregnated them with insecticides and finally filled them with a mixture of glue, chalk and water, turning the figure around repeatedly in the process so as to reach every nook and angle.

X-rays and endoscopy were used to detect remaining cavities, and both wood from the core and the sooty film that had accreted on the gold leaves over the centuries were chemically analyzed.

Whether and exactly when the statue was commissioned, acquired or donated is unknown, and documents referring to the Madonna are scarce for the first couple of centuries of its existence.

Apparently the bitter conflict between the diocese of Cologne and the Lords of Isenberg over control of Essen Abbey that resulted in the murder of Archbishop Engelbert at the hands of Friedrich von Isenberg in 1225 did not affect the sculpture, nor did the centuries-long quarrel over whether the city of Essen was legally a free imperial city or rather a dependency of the abbey.

A liturgical manuscript dating from around 1370 simply describes it as "dat gulden bild onser vrouwen" (literally “the golden image of Our Lady”).

The 1626 treasure inventory of Essen Abbey lists Noch ein gross Marienbelt, sitzend uff einen sthuell mit lauteren golt uberzogen ("[A]nother image of Mary, sitting on a chair and covered with pure gold").

In 1634 the then abbess of Essen, Maria Clara von Spaur, Pflaum und Valör, sought shelter in Cologne and took the cathedral treasure with her.

After the communist revolt in the Ruhr area in the spring of 1920, the authorities of St. Johannes parish, fearing another uprising, decided to hide the statue in a safe place that would be unknown even to its own priest so as to prevent discovery by treason or extortion.

The voucher deposited in the Netherlands was destroyed after the treasure was finally brought back to Essen in 1925 when the political situation seemed stable.

Gilded sculptures are frequently mentioned in medieval documents, but apart from an image of Saint Fides in the abbey of Saint-Foy in Conques in Southern France not many of those artifacts survive.

The overall form of the Madonna indicates that the sculptor was not experienced in carving free-standing sculptures, since profile, front and rear view do not match up to a harmonic whole.

Sitting on her lap is the Christ child, whose ornate chasuble betokens his significance as ruler of the heavens, the book his role as herald of the faith.

Bearing in mind other medieval portrayals of Christ as teacher, it may be supposed that the child's lost right arm was originally raised in a gesture of blessing.

While such an object may not have been part of the coronation ceremony of the Holy Roman Empire until the next century, the idea of an orb symbolizing power over the Mundus, i.e. the world, was well known by the time the sculpture was crafted.

She was paraded in all major processions, and the altar dedicated to Mary in the cathedral was the place where deeds of donation to the religious community were received and deposited, thus putting them under the symbolic custody of the Virgin.

On the following morning the statue was veiled and carried in a solemn procession back to the cathedral, where it was laid down on the steyn, the "stone" where offerings to the abbey were usually placed.

The crowned Madonna was then carried back into the minster under the eyes of the congregation, just as Mary had been welcomed by the people of the Heavenly Jerusalem upon her arrival there according to the scripture.

The Purification processions ceased in 1561 when the Protestant Reformation reached the city of Essen – though not the abbey –, and the parish of St. Gertrude was converted to the Lutheran faith.

The medieval tradition of the coronation of Mary was revived in 1978 by Essen's first bishop Cardinal Franz Hengsbach but had to be stopped in 2000 due to the restorer's concerns.

When the Diocese of Essen (the so-called Ruhrbistum) was established in 1959, Mary was elected as its patron saint under the title “Mother of Good Counsel”,[2] and thus came to be a symbol for the whole Ruhr area.