Antonia of Württemberg
Encyclopedia
Antonia of Württemberg was a princess of the Duchy of Württemberg
, as well as a literary figure, patron
ess, and Christian Kabbalist.
in 1613, Princess Antonia was the third of nine children from the marriage of Duke Johann Frederick of Württemberg
and Barbara Sophie of Brandenburg
, the daughter of the Elector Joachim Frederick of Brandenburg
. Highly educated and generous, she was the sister of Duke Eberhard III of Württemberg
, who more than his father played an important role in the Thirty Years War.
During the course of the war many churches in Württemberg were looted and became stripped of their ornaments, especially following the battle of Nördlingen
in 1634. Antonia made it her mission to establish foundations to repair and restore the churches. Her charity, piety, gift for languages and all-encompassing scholarship were widely praised, and she became celebrated as "Princess Antonia the learned", and "the Minerva
of Württemberg". Wherever possible she dedicated herself to the arts and sciences, together with her two sisters the princesses Anna Johanna and Sibylle.
She became a close associate of the evangelical Protestant theologian and mystical symbolist Johann Valentin Andreae, and later was on friendly terms with the founder of the Pietism
movement, Philip Jacob Spener. In addition to painting, her interests were above all in the realm of philosophy and languages, with a special preference for Hebrew
, and the study of the Jewish Kabbalah
. Her specifically Christian expression
of this tradition found its culmination in the unique large Kabbalistic triptych painting
designed and commissioned by Princess Antonia and her academic teachers in 1652, installed in 1673 in the small town church of Holy Trinity at Bad Teinach-Zavelstein
in the Black Forest
, a personal witness of faith.
Princess Antonia died in 1679, having never married. Her body was buried in the Collegiate Church in Stuttgart; but she directed that her heart should be buried
in the wall of Trinity Church in Bad Teinach, behind her painting.
in Germany, and royal and noble families included it sometimes even in the curriculum of their daughters' education. In the seventeenth century many German women attained to quite a considerable knowledge of Hebrew. Antonia of Württemberg has become one of the best known. She acquired a remarkable mastery of Hebrew; and according to contemporary evidence was also well versed in rabbinic and Kabbalistic lore.
Esenwein, dean of Urach and later professor at Tübingen, wrote in July 1649 to Johannes Buxtorf
at Basel that Antonia, "having been well grounded in the Hebrew language and in reading the Hebrew Bible, desires to learn also the art of reading without vowels," and three years later he wrote to Buxtorf that she had made such progress that she had "with her own hand put vowels to the greatest part of a Hebrew Bible".
Philipp Jacob Spener, another pupil of Buxtorf, during his temporary stay at Heidelberg, was on friendly terms with the princess, and they studied Kabbalah together. Buxtorf himself presented her with a copy of each of his books. There is a manuscript extant in the Royal Library of Stuttgart, entitled Unterschiedlicher Riss zu Sephiroth which is supposed to have been written by Antonia. It contains kabbalistic diagram
s, some of which are interpreted in Hebrew and German. Her praise was sung by many a Christian Hebraist
; one poem in twenty-four stanzas with her acrostic
, in honour of the "celebrated Princess Antonia", has been preserved in Johannes Buxtorf's collection of manuscripts.
The painting is in the form of a triptych. The two outside panels depict the procession of the soul as the mystical bride of Christ
. These open to reveal in two flanking panels a daytime scene of the finding of Moses
in the Nile, and a night-time scene of the flight of the Holy Family
to Egypt; and in the centre an immensely detailed systema totius mundi - a depiction of a philosophical system of the whole world.
The central panel finds a woman holding in her right hand a flaming heart (charity), with in her left an anchor (faith) and a cross (hope), standing at the threshold of a garden enclosed by a hedge of roses
. In the middle of the garden is Jesus, and around him a circle of the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Beyond them hovers a female figure, in front of a richly decorated temple with an onion dome. Arranged in the composition on and around the temple are nine female figures representing the sephirot, according to their places in the traditional tree of life
of the Kabbalah. The tenth of the sephirot, Malchut (kingdom), is represented by the figure of Christ himself. Everywhere in the execution there is more and more intricate detail, symbol upon symbol, meaning upon meaning.
Württemberg
Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....
, as well as a literary figure, patron
Patrón
Patrón is a luxury brand of tequila produced in Mexico and sold in hand-blown, individually numbered bottles.Made entirely from Blue Agave "piñas" , Patrón comes in five varieties: Silver, Añejo, Reposado, Gran Patrón Platinum and Gran Patrón Burdeos. Patrón also sells a tequila-coffee blend known...
ess, and Christian Kabbalist.
Life
Born in StuttgartStuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
in 1613, Princess Antonia was the third of nine children from the marriage of Duke Johann Frederick of Württemberg
Johann Frederick, Duke of Württemberg
Duke John Frederick of Württemberg was the 7th Duke of Württemberg from 4 February 1608 until his death on 18 July 1628 whilst en route to Heidenheim.- Life :...
and Barbara Sophie of Brandenburg
Barbara Sophie of Brandenburg
Barbara Sophia of Brandenburg was the daughter of the Catherine of Küstrin and Elector of Joachim Frederick of Brandenburg...
, the daughter of the Elector Joachim Frederick of Brandenburg
Joachim Frederick, Elector of Brandenburg
Joachim III Frederick , of the House of Hohenzollern, was Prince-elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg from 1598 until his death.-Biography:...
. Highly educated and generous, she was the sister of Duke Eberhard III of Württemberg
Eberhard III, Duke of Württemberg
Eberhard III, Duke of Württemberg ruled as Duke of Württemberg from 1628 until his death in 1674....
, who more than his father played an important role in the Thirty Years War.
During the course of the war many churches in Württemberg were looted and became stripped of their ornaments, especially following the battle of Nördlingen
Battle of Nördlingen (1634)
The Battle of Nördlingen was fought on 27 August or 6 September , 1634 during the Thirty Years' War. The Roman Catholic Imperial army, bolstered by 18,000 Spanish and Italian soldiers, won a crushing victory over the combined Protestant armies of Sweden and their German-Protestant allies .After...
in 1634. Antonia made it her mission to establish foundations to repair and restore the churches. Her charity, piety, gift for languages and all-encompassing scholarship were widely praised, and she became celebrated as "Princess Antonia the learned", and "the Minerva
Minerva
Minerva was the Roman goddess whom Romans from the 2nd century BC onwards equated with the Greek goddess Athena. She was the virgin goddess of poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, crafts, magic...
of Württemberg". Wherever possible she dedicated herself to the arts and sciences, together with her two sisters the princesses Anna Johanna and Sibylle.
She became a close associate of the evangelical Protestant theologian and mystical symbolist Johann Valentin Andreae, and later was on friendly terms with the founder of the Pietism
Pietism
Pietism was a movement within Lutheranism, lasting from the late 17th century to the mid-18th century and later. It proved to be very influential throughout Protestantism and Anabaptism, inspiring not only Anglican priest John Wesley to begin the Methodist movement, but also Alexander Mack to...
movement, Philip Jacob Spener. In addition to painting, her interests were above all in the realm of philosophy and languages, with a special preference for Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
, and the study of the Jewish Kabbalah
Kabbalah
Kabbalah/Kabala is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the esoteric aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It was systematized in 11th-13th century Hachmei Provence and Spain, and again after the Expulsion from Spain, in 16th century Ottoman Palestine...
. Her specifically Christian expression
Christian Kabbalah
The Renaissance saw the birth of Christian Kabbalah/Cabbalah , also spelled Cabbala/Cabala...
of this tradition found its culmination in the unique large Kabbalistic triptych painting
Triptych
A triptych , from tri-= "three" + ptysso= "to fold") is a work of art which is divided into three sections, or three carved panels which are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all multi-panel works...
designed and commissioned by Princess Antonia and her academic teachers in 1652, installed in 1673 in the small town church of Holy Trinity at Bad Teinach-Zavelstein
Bad Teinach-Zavelstein
Bad Teinach-Zavelstein is a town in the district of Calw, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated in the northeastern Black Forest, 6 km southwest of Calw....
in the Black Forest
Black Forest
The Black Forest is a wooded mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, southwestern Germany. It is bordered by the Rhine valley to the west and south. The highest peak is the Feldberg with an elevation of 1,493 metres ....
, a personal witness of faith.
Princess Antonia died in 1679, having never married. Her body was buried in the Collegiate Church in Stuttgart; but she directed that her heart should be buried
Heart-burial
Heart-burial is a type of burial in which the heart is interred apart from the body. This is a very ancient practice, and the special reverence shown towards the heart is doubtless due to its early association with the soul, affections, courage and conscience of man.In medieval Europe heart-burial...
in the wall of Trinity Church in Bad Teinach, behind her painting.
Hebrew scholar
An increased interest in the Hebrew language among Christian scholars was one of the effects of the ReformationProtestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
in Germany, and royal and noble families included it sometimes even in the curriculum of their daughters' education. In the seventeenth century many German women attained to quite a considerable knowledge of Hebrew. Antonia of Württemberg has become one of the best known. She acquired a remarkable mastery of Hebrew; and according to contemporary evidence was also well versed in rabbinic and Kabbalistic lore.
Esenwein, dean of Urach and later professor at Tübingen, wrote in July 1649 to Johannes Buxtorf
Johannes Buxtorf II
Johannes Buxtorf the Younger, was son of the scholar Johannes Buxtorf, and a Protestant Christian Hebraist.-Life:...
at Basel that Antonia, "having been well grounded in the Hebrew language and in reading the Hebrew Bible, desires to learn also the art of reading without vowels," and three years later he wrote to Buxtorf that she had made such progress that she had "with her own hand put vowels to the greatest part of a Hebrew Bible".
Philipp Jacob Spener, another pupil of Buxtorf, during his temporary stay at Heidelberg, was on friendly terms with the princess, and they studied Kabbalah together. Buxtorf himself presented her with a copy of each of his books. There is a manuscript extant in the Royal Library of Stuttgart, entitled Unterschiedlicher Riss zu Sephiroth which is supposed to have been written by Antonia. It contains kabbalistic diagram
Tree of life (Kabbalah)
The Tree of Life, or Etz haChayim in Hebrew, is a mystical symbol used in the Kabbalah of esoteric Judaism to describe the path to God and the manner in which he created the world ex nihilo...
s, some of which are interpreted in Hebrew and German. Her praise was sung by many a Christian Hebraist
Christian Hebraist
A Christian Hebraist is a scholar of Hebrew who comes from a Christian family background/belief, or is a Jewish adherent of Christianity. The main area of study is that commonly known as the Old Testament to Christians , but Christians have occasionally taken an interest in the Talmud, and...
; one poem in twenty-four stanzas with her acrostic
Acrostic
An acrostic is a poem or other form of writing in which the first letter, syllable or word of each line, paragraph or other recurring feature in the text spells out a word or a message. As a form of constrained writing, an acrostic can be used as a mnemonic device to aid memory retrieval. A famous...
, in honour of the "celebrated Princess Antonia", has been preserved in Johannes Buxtorf's collection of manuscripts.
The Kabbalistic Lehrtafel at Bad Teinach
The Kabbalistic Lehrtafel ("teaching painting") of Princess Antonia at Bad Teinach stands over six metres tall and five metres wide, dominating the area to the right of the altar in the small church. Planned in 1652 by the princess with a circle of court academic advisors, it was executed in 1659-1663 by Johann Friedrich Gruber, the court painter at Stuttgart, and installed in 1673 at Bad Teinach, where the ducal family used to take holidays in summer, and where Antonia's brother Duke Eberhard had established the church as a private family chapel, built in 1662-1665.The painting is in the form of a triptych. The two outside panels depict the procession of the soul as the mystical bride of Christ
Bride of Christ
The Bride of Christ or bride, the Lamb's wife is a term used in the New Testament of The Bible. Sometimes the Bride is implied through calling Jesus a Bridegroom. Sometimes the Church is compared to a bride betrothed to Christ. However there are instances where the interpretation of the usage of...
. These open to reveal in two flanking panels a daytime scene of the finding of Moses
Shemot (parsha)
Shemot, Shemoth, or Shemos is the thirteenth weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the first in the book of Exodus...
in the Nile, and a night-time scene of the flight of the Holy Family
Flight into Egypt
The flight into Egypt is a biblical event described in the Gospel of Matthew , in which Joseph fled to Egypt with his wife Mary and infant son Jesus after a visit by Magi because they learn that King Herod intends to kill the infants of that area...
to Egypt; and in the centre an immensely detailed systema totius mundi - a depiction of a philosophical system of the whole world.
The central panel finds a woman holding in her right hand a flaming heart (charity), with in her left an anchor (faith) and a cross (hope), standing at the threshold of a garden enclosed by a hedge of roses
Rosy Cross
The Rosy Cross is a symbol largely associated with the semi-mythical Christian Rosenkreuz, alchemist and founder of the Rosicrucian Order...
. In the middle of the garden is Jesus, and around him a circle of the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Beyond them hovers a female figure, in front of a richly decorated temple with an onion dome. Arranged in the composition on and around the temple are nine female figures representing the sephirot, according to their places in the traditional tree of life
Tree of life (Kabbalah)
The Tree of Life, or Etz haChayim in Hebrew, is a mystical symbol used in the Kabbalah of esoteric Judaism to describe the path to God and the manner in which he created the world ex nihilo...
of the Kabbalah. The tenth of the sephirot, Malchut (kingdom), is represented by the figure of Christ himself. Everywhere in the execution there is more and more intricate detail, symbol upon symbol, meaning upon meaning.
Ancestry
Further reading
- German WikipediaGerman WikipediaThe German Wikipedia is the German-language edition of Wikipedia, a free and mostly publicly editable online encyclopedia.Founded in March 2001, it is the second-oldest and, with over articles, the second-largest edition of Wikipedia, behind the English Wikipedia...
has an extensive bibliography of works in German. In particular:
External links
- Eva-Johanna Schauer (2006), Jüdische Kabbala und christlicher Glaube: Die Lehrtafel der Prinzessin Antonia zu Württemberg in Bad Teinach
- Adam McLean (1981), The kabbalistic-alchemical altarpiece in Bad Teinach. From the Hermetic JournalHermetic JournalThe Hermetic Journal started out as a quarterly journal dedicated to the hermetic tradition, edited by Adam McLean. The first issue was released in August 1978 and publication continued until 1992....
12, Summer, 1981, pages 21–26. - Bad Teinach evangelical church community. Visiting information