Henry II

Unknown Sculptor, Casting Workshop of the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum (cast maker)

Artist: Unknown Sculptor

Casting Workshop of the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum
(cast maker)
Berlin, 20. század első fele
Dated: 1230s (original), 1909 (cast)
Classification: sculpture, plaster cast
Medium: plaster cast
Dimensions: 185 × 63 × 50 cm with base: 254 cm
Inv.no.: Rg.10
Department: Sculptures - Plaster casts
Current Location of the Original Artwork: Germany, Bamberg, Cathedral
Location: National Museum Conservation and Storage Centre (Budapest), Building A, Ground Floor. European Architectural Sculpture. Selection from the Cast Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts. Visible Storage

Bamberg Cathedral, founded by Henry II, Holy Roman emperor (973–1024), was consecrated in 1012 and acquired its present form during several phases of construction. Adam’s Portal on the east façade was built in the 1190s and was formerly the church’s main entrance. The originally undecorated portal was embellished with sculptures in the 1230s, including the depiction of the church’s founders, Emperor Henry II and his wife, Cunigunde (the plaster cast of the latter is now missing). The original sculptures, now in the Diözesanmuseum in Bamberg, are now the most remarkable works of thirteenth-century in Germany. Based on stylistic analogies, their sculptors may have also worked on the figures of Reims Cathedral in France. Commissioned by the museum in 1909, the cast was made in the casting workshop of the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, Berlin. It was installed in the Romanesque Hall in 1910. Between 1997 and 2015 the copy was exhibited in the Library of the Museum of Fine Arts.