Woman's Art Inc.

A Theophany of the Feminine: Hildegard of Bingen, Elisabeth of Schönau, and Herrad of

Landsberg
Author(s): Ann Storey
Source: Woman's Art Journal, Vol. 19, No. 1 (Spring - Summer, 1998), pp. 16-20
Published by: Woman's Art Inc.
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1358649
Accessed: 14-10-2018 03:53 UTC

REFERENCES
Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1358649?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents
You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

Woman's Art Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
Woman's Art Journal

This content downloaded from 168.176.5.118 on Sun, 14 Oct 2018 03:53:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 ICI1'I.IIUIIC1?ni?f

A THEOPHANY OF THE FEMININE

Hildegard of Bingen, Elisabeth of Schonau, and Herrad of Landsb
By Ann Storey

A lthough the misogyny of the Christian church is ex- gen, as well as a musician, poet, playwright, and theologian.3 She
pressed clearly in its imagery, an anomaly exists in the
claimed that her spiritual authority came directly from God in the
conceptions of female spirituality created by three form of visions that had begun in childhood, giving her the confi-
twelfth-century women, Hildegard of Bingen, Elisabeth of Scho-dence to create an original and influential body of work. She cred-
nau, and Herrad of Landsberg. While working within the ited the significant influence of her teacher and mentor, the An-
church's institutions, these women modified its iconographic choress Jutta of Sponheim.4
sources, especially the Woman of the Apocalypse (Revelation 12) Hildegard of Bingen's published writings indicate that she was
and Mater Ecclesia, the personification of the church as a
educated in biblical exegesis, the natural sciences, music, patristic
woman, to produce strong images of female theophany, or divinewriting, and philosophy.5 After the first book of her revelations,
manifestation. The twelfth century was, however, an ambivalentScivias (Know the XVays of the Lord), was endorsed by Bernard of
period for women, as the growing cult of the Virgin Mary oftenClairvaux (abbot, monastic theologian, and Doctor of the Church),
her work was favorably received in the winter of 1147-48, at the
reinforced the sexism of the contemporary culture. Since all oth-
er women contrasted unfavorably with Mary, glorifying her Synoddid of Bishops at Trier, presided over by Pope Eugenius III.6
not raise women's status. Scivias, a series of 35 visions, chronicles the history of salvation in
Hildegard and Herrad were both word and image.7 This
abbesses who produced both liter- recognition of Hildegard's gift
ary and artistic works and com- was neither routine nor insignifi-
bined their public activism with a cant, for it signified that a woman
rich spiritual vocation. Elisabeth, a St. Hil d A r could claim to receive divine rev-
mystic, was a spiritual adviser both elation." The authenticity of her
within and outside her monastic visions acknowledged, Hilde-
community. Partaking in the re- gard's advice was widely sought
birth of creative, scientific, and in- and her influence reached
tellectual interests that character- throughout Europe.
ized a twelfth-century German re- \ Notwithstanding this unusua
naissance, in a country with a rela- \ t- ~ ^Q 1 e~wn acceptance, her life and wor
tively high proportion of powerful veal conflicts that brought on th
women in convents and the nobili- emotional and physical distres
ty, these women, all members of B often found in women who def
the minor nobility, were able to society's norms. Hildegard suf-
contribute to an unprecedented ex- fered from ill health througho
tent-for women-to the cultural her life, including short-ter
life of the High Middle Ages.' All paralysis, migraine headache
three received a monastic educa- and several near-fatal illnesses.
tion, the only kind available to ' n i ;f' She also endured self-doubt and
women. The influence of a power- '~' , ., 5fear of ridicule.'
ful abbess was significant in each of Hildegard acquired a sens
their lives, and they in turn influ- ?/ 1 lher own mission throu
enced women in their charge. Each methods of validation; for e
managed to create an expanded ple, she exploited the profo
spiritual and intellectual place for reversal that is at the heart of
women, in spite of the ever-in- Christianity-that God makes
creasing constraints placed on con- wise the foolish and exalts the
vents by the eleventh- and twelfth- meek.'"' Thus, since women had
century Gregorian Reforms.2 been designated as weak and
Born in 1098, in the German foolish by the chulrclh, they could
province of Reinhessen, Hildegard be understood to be closer to
was founder and abbess of the Fig. 1. Hildegard of Bingen, Eccles
;iy v vith Virginitas and Her Companions God and spiritullal attainm

Benedictine community at Bin- (c. 1141-51), Eibingen ms. Courtes

y Be enediktinerinnenabtei St. Hildegard. Another method was to emph

0 WOMAN'S ART JOURNAL

This content downloaded from 168.176.5.118 on Sun, 14 Oct 2018 03:53:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
size the female aspects of the divine, what Barbara Newman calls stars, and with an airy Fig. 2. Hildegard of Bingen, Caritas (1173),
her "theology of the feminine."" Hildegard also relied on her wind, as if by an invisi- De operatione Dei. Courtesy Lucca, Biblioteca
knowledge of folk wisdom, medical lore about women, and theo- ble life which sustains Statale, su concessione del Ministero

logical concepts that derived from Jewish and Greek rather than the whole, I arouse all per i Beni Culturali e Ambientali.
Latin sources.'2 things to life.,8
It is believed that Hildegard was the first Christian theorist to
In this extraordinary
appraise the nature of femaleness in a serious and positive light.13
An example of her theological boldness in Biblical topics was revelation
her an impos-
modification of 1 Corinthians 11:9, "For the man was not created ing female personifi-
for the woman but the woman for the man" by substituting: "Thus cation of Divine Love,
it is written: Woman is created for the man and man is made for Caritas (1173; Fig. 2),
woman."'4 Hildegard conceived of an equality and complementari- holds the Lamb of
ty of male and female roles. God and treads upon
While working within the traditional Christian framework,a all
personification of
evil, while from her
three women managed to create new possibilities for their gender
head a male godhead
by extending the conception of female sacredness. Each tran-
erupts. Hildegard in-
scribed her innovative ideas and gender conceptions, Hildegard
cludes herself in the
and Herrad in painted illuminations, Elisabeth in written texts.'5
act of witnessing this
Hildegard repeatedly used female personifications of abstract
ideas-Sophia (Wisdom), Scientia Dei (knowledge of God), revelation,
and which she
Caritas (Divine Love)-to represent the female aspect of the Di-said "made all her or-
gans tremble."'9 She
vine, which she often conflated with the more traditional concep-
tions of Mary, or Mater Ecclesia (the Church). An example ofand thisVolmar, the monk
who is transcribing her
conflation is her image of Ecclesia with Virginitas and Her Com-
vision, are located in
panions, from the manuscript Scivias (c. 1141-51; Fig. 1).16 Mater
the bottom right of
Ecclesia towers over and shelters the monastic communities of the
this illumination.20 A
mystical body of the church. Her hieratic scale, formal posture,
and stylized crown are analogous to goddess figures of the Hel-radiant stream of sub-
stance indicating the
lenistic world. Ecclesia spreads her arms wide in the ancient
prayer gesture (orans). vision flows from the
Hildegard describes this vision: "And I heard a voice from upper illumination into her forehead.
Heaven saying, 'This is the blossom of the celestial Zion, the Hildegard has boldly inserted a
woman into the traditionally male
mother and flower of roses and lilies of the valley.'"17 Virginitas
Trinity. Since the lamb refers to Christ
is the symbol of this "flowering"; it is characteristic of Hilde-
gard to use an active metaphor from the natural world. This andra- the bearded male is certainly God
diant young girl stands bareheaded in a red tunic just abovethe theFather, the female figure in the
center is the Holy Spirit, the personifi-
center of the composition, also in the orans attitude, surround-
ed by virgins and virgin martyrs who are crowned and adorned cation of love.2 The generation of God the Father from the Holy
with gold and jewels. Hildegard believed that virgins were theSpirit's head explicitly implies that male divinity derives from fe-
most important component of the church. In the mystic's vi- male intellect.
sion, these virgins were encircled with the emblems of Mary-A similar rhetorical device appeared in the second-century Ro-
music, flowers, and the first light of dawn-mirroring the man re- philosopher Lucius Apuleius's Metamorphoses, in which Isis
sponsory for the feast of the Assumption. Although not every extols her powers in an analogous fashion:
element of her vision is expressed in the painting, the illumina-
tor used the glowing pink and blue colors of the dawn toI am
en-she that is the natural mother of all things, mistress and gov-
hance its radiant qualities. erness of all the elements, the initial progeny of worlds, chief of the
By personifying the institution of the church as a beautiful powers
girl, divine....At my will the planets of the sky, the wholesome
Hildegard was creating an affective symbol for the nuns within her of the seas, and the lamentable silences of hell be disposed."
winds
care. White, purple, and blue glowing around Mater Ecclesia's
head and body symbolize the priesthood, monasticism, and the This reference to the goddess Isis widens the Christian context
for female spirituality, just as the personification of the church
married laity, respectively. This wonderful vision is characteristic
as both Mary and Ecclesia in the illumination discussed above
of Hildegard's theology, literally embodied in the visual/ecological:
All portions of the mystical Christian community are represented expanded the frame of female divinity.
in Mater Ecclesia's body, indicated by colored fields and refer-Hildegard's Caritas vision is also a re-imagining of the
ences to the natural world. Thus Hildegard glorifies spirituality Woman of the Apocalypse, whose source is the revelation to
within the church, at the heart of which are the female religious. John the Divine on Patmos: "And there appeared a great won-
An illumination in her last and most highly regarded theologicalder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon un-
work, De operatione Dei (Book of Divine Works), 1173, demon- der her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars." (Reve-
strates the consistency of Hildegard's thought in creating a femalelation 12:1)23 Hildegard transformed the conventional imagery
divinity. She describes this vision: of the Woman of the Apocalypse, which stressed the vulnerable
and threatening aspects of this revelation, into a powerful con-
I am the highest fiery power, who has enkindled every spark that ception of femaleness."4 What she has ultimately created is "less
lives....l shine in the waters and blaze in the sun, the moon, and athe
doctrine than an iconography,"25 with rich implications for the

SPRING / SUMMER 1998

0

This content downloaded from 168.176.5.118 on Sun, 14 Oct 2018 03:53:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
visual arts, since many important stood a large throng of angels. And
aspects of Christian belief are de- after a little while, she rose up out
picted in inventive visionary form. of the sepulcher and together with
One of Hildegard's proteges was that throng of angels she was lifted
Elisabeth of Schinau (1128/9-64), a . S up into the heavens. And while I
mystic and spiritual activist. In was gazing at her, there rushed to
1152, five years after Hildegard's meet herfrom on high a man, glori-
visions were authenticated by Pope ous beyond description, holding in
Eugenius III and one year after the his right hand the crucifix and a
publication of Scivias, Elisabeth standard, and I understood that this
began her own experience of reve- was our Lord and Savior Himself,
lation, which continued until her and with Him were countless thou-

death thirteen years later. In 1156 sands of angels."

Elisabeth visited Hildegard and,
encouraged by her work, began \J ,// \ Additional revelations of Mary i
writing Liber Viarum Dei, "The ^*14 ~ / \V~ ~ priestly vestments as a strong, dig
Book of God's Ways," whose sub- J 1 nified presence helped to reassure
ject was the various paths that lead ' I 4_^^^7^ ^ ~ Elisabeth during her torment
to spiritual fulfillment.26 i ei ^?i^^^^ !s episodes and became the basis fo
Like Hildegard, Elisabeth suf- her maturing acceptance of herself.
fered intense doubts about her Both of these spiritual insights,
calling. Her earliest revelations the female Christ and Mary's ap-
were associated with severe physi- pearance in priestly vestments, in-
cal and emotional anguish, which volved gender reversals that helped
eventually subsided.2 Drawing up- , i /to substantiate Elisabeth's authori-
on the tradition of Old Testament - /,,,S 7''< 29 ty, despite her sex. The approxi-
female prophets such as Judith, .. *.. mately 145 written accounts of her
Hilda, Deborah, and Jael to serve M-o ^ *visionary experiences were widely
as models for her own inspired - '* '' disseminated and were partially re
rg, V
Voman Clothed with the Sun sponsible for the dynamic conc
work, Elisabeth resolved the prob- Fig. 3. Herrad of Landsber
s Mu
lem of female authority. She wrote: (c. 1149-75). Courtesysees de la Ville de Strasbourg. tion of Mary's physical, wakefu
of Les
sumption of both body and soul.32
In order to enthuse the souls of women, a woman judged, a woman Herrad of Landsberg (1125/30-95) was a member of the re
decided, a woman prophesied, a woman triumphed and, in the gious congregation of Augustinian canonesses at Mont Saint Od
in Alsace, during the time it was thriving under the inspired
midst of the fighting troops, taught men the art of war underfemi-
nine command.2' cational reforms initiated by the Abbess Relindis.33 When Reli
died in 1167, Herrad, as her protege, was elected abbess.
Elisabeth, too, had a vision of the Woman of the Apocalypse,Even more learned than Hildegard, Herrad also created an
beautiful and clothed with the sun, offering a golden vessel to luminated
the encyclopedia that included natural history, comm
world. However, a dark cloud repeatedly obscured this radiance. taries on the scriptures, and a comprehensive history of
mankind. Herrad's text, Hortus Deliciammii (Garden of Deligh
A visiting angel who became Elisabeth's celestial advisor explains
the meaning of her revelation: The woman represents the human- (c. 1160), was compiled for the instruction of the nuns in her
ity of Jesus, the sun His divinity, and the cloud the triumph of vent.34
sin Considered one of the more brilliant achievements of
in the world.29 Elisabeth's monastic guides were concerned about twelfth-century art,:5 tragically, it was destroyed by fire during t
the female exemplification of the humanity of Jesus and request- 1870 German artillery bombardment of Strasbourg. Fortunatel
outline tracings had been made of most of the illuminations.
ed her to question the angel as to the meaning of her vision. After
doing this, Elisabeth reported back to her earthly guides that the Herrad composed her encyclopedia to emphasize the mor
woman denoted Mary. This episode reveals the mystic's nontradi- than 600 illuminations containing some 9000 figures.'3 The draw
tional use of gender imagery and the external pressures that con-ings were created before the text, which suggests that the imager
fronted her when she revealed an unorthodox message. Elisabeth communicated the important themes as, more typically, the te
was privileged.
did not withdraw the earlier interpretation, because she believed
that if Christ is divine as well as human it was logical that Christ'sLike those of Elisabeth and Hildegard, Herrad's interpreta-
representation could be female as well as male.3" tion of the Woman of the Apocalypse emphasizes female powe
She does this by slightly rearranging the order of the Biblica
Elisabeth was influential in changing beliefs about the Assump-
tion of Mary. During the early Medieval period it was posited thattext. Her VWoman Clothled with the Sun (c. 1149-75; Fig. 3), a
only Mary's soul was taken to heaven after her death; this event majestic figure in a long robe and crown of stars, towers over
was represented (quite passively) as the Dormition. However, the accompanying men, angels, and demons. Ignoring the men
Elisabeth saw Mary rising bodily to heaven on the Feast of the acing
As- dragons on either side of the lower part of the illumina
sumption in a manner that paralleled the Ascension of Christ. Shetion, she nevertheless gives her newly born son to an angel fo
recounted her vision: safekeeping. All of these details are in verses 1-5 in John's text
Herrad then jumlps from verse 5 to verse 14 in order to give th
And I saw in a very distant place a sepulcher bathed in a strong woman her most prominent feature, an enormous set of wings
light, and in it what seemed the form of a woman, and all about Like Hildegard, Herrad chose those portions of the text th

0 WOMAN'S ART JOURNAL

This content downloaded from 168.176.5.118 on Sun, 14 Oct 2018 03:53:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
support the transcendent power of this personification of the
church rather than illustrating the ominous features of the
prophecy, such as the flight into the wilderness to escape danger
in verse 6. The abbess's accompanying inscription makes it clear
that this illumination refers to Mater Ecclesia: "The woman seen
in heaven is the Church whom Christ introduces into the celes-
tial kingdom." Herrad, too, worked within the established insti-
tutions and iconography of the church but found ways to amend
them to emphasize a more egalitarian message of spirituality
and power.
Despite these breakthroughs, medieval theological and scientif-
ic views of women remained negative. Women were believed to
be physically defective and spiritually and morally weak. Always
unequal partners within the church, biblical sources, from
Deuteronomy in the Old Testament to Paul in the New, com-
manded women to obey in silence.38
The women should keep silence in the churches. For they are not
permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, even as the law says.
efited from the example of the powerful women who acted as their
advisors. By the middle of the twelfth century, total enclosure for
nuns, disapproval of their study of Latin, and the effecting of their
spiritual tutelage by priests (rather than by abbesses) had become
common practice.46 Elisabeth exemplified the beginning of a turn
to mysticism, which was to be the primary locus of intellectual life
for women during the next two centuries, given the increasing re-
strictions on their ecclesiastical authority and their lack of access
to the newly developing universities and cathedral schools.
These outstanding women created a richly nuanced spirituality
that quite literally re-envisioned the feminine. Their legacy is vital:
the Hortus Deliciarum and Scivias are two of the most important
religious collections produced during the twelfth century, while
Elisabeth's works were influential for several centuries after her
death. All three women expressed their most profound spiritual
experiences in visionary form, re-imagining what it might mean to
revere a sacred womanhood. .
NOTES

If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands 1. Germany at this time was in political transition bet
at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. Empire and the Holy Roman Empire-so-called after 12
(I Cor. 14:34-35) of the striking quantity of women represented in Ottonia
pared to those from the Carolingian period (its immediat
The ambivalent attitude that Christianity held toward women see Rosamond McKitterick, "Women in the Ottonian Chu
intensified during the twelfth century with the strengthening graphic Perspective," in W.J.Shiels and Diana Wood, e
of the cult of the Virgin Mary.39 The problem for women since Church (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990), 79-100. McKitt
the Early Christian period always had centered on the church's the multitude of female images, most of which stress lea
conviction that while woman's soul expresses the image of indicates a positive milieu for women within the aristocr
God, her body does not.40 This led to beliefs that women rep- as well as clear evidence of women's role within the Otto
resented the irrational, passionate, and sexual sides of human ther, the royal family established many new religious fou
nature. These ideas even became encoded in the medieval le- women during this period. For a synthesis of the increas
gal system, especially canon law. Bernard of Parma (d. 1266),lar women at this time, see Christine Klapisch-Zuber, ed
for example, asserted: Women in the West II: Silences of the Middle Ages (Ca
University, 1992), 184-85.
A woman, on the other hand, should not have [jurisdictional] pow- 2. The Gregorian Reforms were a lengthy and complex
er...because she is not made in the image of God; rather man is the revisions within the church that concerned the assertion
image and glory of God and woman ought to be subject to man and,clerical and monastic reforms, and the release of the chu
as it were, like his servant, since man is the head of the woman and control. These modifications eventually affected the pow
not the other way around.41 govern monastic institutions and to have an overt role in
The three women discussed here lived just before the enf
Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274) reinforced these ideas as well as foster-strictures. A more important consideration in allowing th
ing the belief that women were biologically inferior to men. He expression, however, could have been their ties to nobilit
found support for his theories in the classical writings of Hip-Hildegard's and Elisabeth's reliance upon the tradition of
pocrates, Aristotle, and Galen.42 tion as authority.
The governance of double monasteries by abbesses came to an 3. For a study of Hildegard's life and work see Fiona
end at the same time the ideology of divine womanhood wasDavies, eds., Hildegard of Bingen: Mystical Writings, Rob
reaching its apogee.43 In addition, the political and legal status of(New York: Crossroad Spiritual Classics, 1992).
women deteriorated during the High Middle Ages, in spite of in- 4. An anchoress was a woman dedicated to a religiou
creasingly affective images of the Mother of God within the con-a primarily solitary existence in a cell built against the wa
ventional church.44 There is evidence, however, that women wereta was the daughter of the Count of Sponheim; her fami
less attracted than men to the growing cult of the Virgin.45 For ex-tionship with Hildegard's. As a pupil and companion to
ample, emulation of Mary as a unique phenomenon plays a rela-learned to read the Latin Bible and chant the monastic
tively small part in Hildegard's theology; she regarded all manifes-
J. Newman, "Introduction," Hildegard of Bingen: Scivias,
tations of the virginal life as hallowed. Perhaps these learned
bia Hart and Jane Bishop, trans. (New York: Paulist Pre
women were able to sense the dangerous ambivalence implied by 5. Gerda Lerner, The Creation of Feminist Consciousne
the growing adulation of Mary while actual women were being de-Middle Ages to Eighteen-Seventy (New York: Oxford Un
valued. Instead of producing images that glorified the Virgin
54. Although the church insisted that Hildegard's visions
Mary, they drew from and modified alternative sources, stressingsource of her theological insights, thus discounting educa
an awe-inspiring rather than sentimentalized female spirituality. her writings prove that she was learned.
Hildegard of Bingen, Elisabeth of Schonau, and Herrad of 6. Bowie and Davies, Mystical Writings, 11. Bernard
Landsberg lived and worked just before the Gregorian Reformscised international authority within the church. Canonized
reduced the status and freedom of abbesses and other women in
death, his doctrine and spirituality had a profound influ
ecclesiastical life. Although they encountered obstacles, they ben-
church. See Etienne Gilson, The Mystical Theology of Sa
SPRING / SUMMER 1998
0

This content downloaded from 168.176.5.118 on Sun, 14 Oct 2018 03:53:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
A.H.C. Downe, trans. (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1990).
7. Excellent color plates can be found in Adelgundis Fihrk6tter, The
Miniatures from the Book Scivias-Know the Way-of St. Hildegard of Bin-
gen from the Illuminated Rupertsberg Codex, Father Hockey, O.S.B., trans.
(Turnhout, Belgium: Brepol-Turnhout, 1977).
8. This is in contrast to the condemnation of works of Abelard, for
example. Abelard (d. 1142), a French scholastic philosopher and theolo-
gian, composed a treatise on the Trinity that was pronounced heretical; he
was compelled to burn it himself.
9. Lerner, Feminist Consciousness, 57, 53, 59. See also Barbara New-
man, Sister of Wisdom: St. Hildegard's Theology of the Feminine (Berke-
ley: University of California, 1987), 7, 9-1 1.
10. See Caroline Walker Bynum, Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spiritu-
ality of the High Middle Ages (Berkeley: University of California, 1982),
21. Other influential women of this period, such as the 13th-century be-
guine and visionary Mechthild of Magdeburg, also made use of this point.
11. Newman, Sister of Wisdom, 35.
12. Ibid., 90.
13. Ibid., xvii.
14. Hildegard, Scivias, Book 1, vision 2, chap. 12, 78-79.
15. The visions were written down by Elisabeth's brother Ekbert, who
joined her in 1155 at the double monastery in Schonau. For the texts of
Elisabeth's visions, see F.W.E. Roth, ed., Die Visionen der heil. Elisabeth
und die Schriften der Aebte Ekvert und Emecho von Schonau (Brunn:
Studien aus dem Benedictiner und Cistercienser Order, 1884).
16. Hildegard, Scivias, Book 2, vision 5, 201-06. The illuminations for
this manuscript are believed to have been painted under Hildegard's
supervision.
17. Ibid.
18. Hildegard, De operatione Dei, Book 1, vision 1, quoted in Kent
Kraft, "The Eye Sees More than the Heart Knows: The Visionary Cosmolo-
gy of Hildegard of Bingen" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin,
1977), 283-85.
19. Quoted in Newman, Sisters of Wisdom, 71. The Caritas image is
from De operatione Dei, Book 1, vision 1, cod. lat. 1942.
20. Volmar was her teacher initially, and later became her secretary
and close friend, according to Newman, "Introduction," 11.
21. Hildegard identified this vision as Trinitarian. The Holy Spirit, the
church, and the cosmos often were personified as female in the sapiential
tradition, a school of Christian thought that focuses on the discovery and
veneration of Divine Wisdom within the actions of creation and redemp-
tion; see Newman, Sister of Wisdom, 258-64.
22. Lucius Apuleius, The Golden Ass Being the Metamorphoses of
Lucius Apuleius, quoted in Kraft, Visionary Cosmology, 286. Apuleius,
born in Madaura, Africa, in the second century A.D., wrote satires and
philosophical works.
23. This vision was first interpreted as the victory of the church over its
enemies, then as Mary personifying the church, and later as Mary herself.
See Marina Warner, Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the
Virgin Mary (New York: Knopf, 1976), 93.
24. Since there was a tradition of the apocalyptic woman representing
both the church and the personification of wisdom, Hildegard must have
drawn upon these sources; ibid., 247.
25. Newman, Sister of Wisdom, 93.
26. Anne L. Clark, Elisabeth of Sch6nau: A Twelfth-Century Visionary
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1992), 21, 34.
27. Newman writes in Sister of Wisdom: "Not only did she endure sick-
ness and short-term paralysis, like Hildegard; she also suffered from pro-
found depression, anorexia, suicidal temptation, and demonic apparitions,
which alternated for a long time with her more wholesome visions." (38)
28. Elisabeth, citing Ambrose on Deborah; quoted in Newman, Sister
of Wisdom, 39, n. 93.
29. Clark, Elisabeth of Sch6nau, 104.
0 WOMAN'S ART JOURNAL
This content downloaded from 168.176.5.118 on Sun, 14 Oct 2018 03:53:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
30. For the text of this vision, see Clark, Elisabeth of Sch6nau, 6, 10
04, and Newman, Sister of Wisdom, 40.
31. Quoted in Elizabeth A. Petroff, Medieval Women's Visionary Li
ture (Oxford: Oxford University, 1986), 169.
32. On her influence, see J.D. Strachey, ed., Poem on the Assumpt
(Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University, 1924). By the 14th century
image of the assumption of Mary's body and soul had replaced the e
er iconography of her dormition. Italian Renaissance examples by Titia
Correggio, Perugino, and Rosso Fiorentino are illustrated in James Bec
Italian Renaissance Painting (New York: Harper & Row, 1981).
33. Th6erse B. McGuire, "Monastic Artists and Educators of the Mi
Ages," WAJ (F88/W89), 7. Canonesses are female members of a rel
gious community not bound by vows but living under common rules.
34. For discussions of her texts, see A. Straub and G. Keller, Herra
Landsberg: Hortus Deliciarum, Aristade D. Caratzas, ed. and trans. 2
vols. (New Rochelle, N.Y.: Caratzas Brothers, 1977); Gerard Cames
Allegories et Symboles dans L'Hortus Deliciarum (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1
Herrad of Landsberg, Hortus Deliciarum: Le "Jardin des delices" de H
rade de Landsberg, un manuscrit alsacien a miniatures du Xlle siecle
(Strasbourg: Edition Oberlin, 1945); Herrad of Landsberg, Hortus De
rum, Herrad of Hohenbourg, Rosalie Green, et al., eds., 2 vols. (Lond
University of London, 1979).
35. For this assessment of Herrad and the Hortus Deliciarum, see
Charles Gerard, Les Artistes de I'Alsace pendant le Moyen Age (Nan
France: Librairie des Arts et Metiers-Editions, 1977), 42. Annemarie
Carr considers the Hortus Deliciarum to be the "greatest of the mediev
pictorial encyclopedias," in "Women Artists in the Middle Ages," Fem
ArtJournal (Spring 1976), 5-26.
36. McGuire, "Monastic Artists," 8. Scholars believe that many of
illustrations were created by Herrad, while the remainder were painte
under her direction.
37. Revelation, chapter 12, consists of 1 8 verses that recount John's
visions in a complex narrative. Figure 3 is from Hortus Deliciarum, fol
261V.
38. For an analysis of Jewish and Christian views toward women
through the 20th century, see George Henri Tavard, Women in Christian
Tradition (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame, 1973). Also see
Graham Gould, "Women in the Writings of the Fathers: Language, Belief,
and Reality," in Shields and Wood, Women in the Church, 1-14.
39. Warner shows how the papacy augmented both its power and its
political and social conservatism by promoting the cult of the Virgin; see
her Virgin Mary, 237.
40. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo (d. 430), was one of the most influen-
tial theologians expressing this belief; see Tavard, Woman in Christian
Thought, 115, and Gould, "Women in the Writings of the Fathers," 7, 8.
41. Quoted in Joel T. Rosenthal, ed., James A. Brundage, "Sexual
Equality in Medieval Canon Law," in Medieval Women and the Sources
of Medieval History (Athens: University of Georgia, 1990), 66. Bernard
of Parma, influential churchman and reformer, was elected bishop of
Parma and eventually cardinal.
42. Shulamith Shahar, The Fourth Estate: A History of Women in the
Middle Ages, Chaya Galai, trans. (London: Methuen, 1983), 24.
43. Innocent III (d. 1216) worked toward augmenting the power of the
papacy. He eliminated the few liturgical and sacerdotal privileges that
had been granted to certain abbesses. See Claudia Opitz, "Life in the
Middle Ages," in Klapisch-Zubar, A History of Women, 243.
44. Bynum, Jesus as Mother, 142.
45. Ibid., 141.
46. Lerner, Feminist Consciousness, 73.
Ann Storey teaches art history at Evergreen State College in
Olympia, Washington, where she is currently developing interdiscipli-
nary classes about women artists and writers.