Between aspiration and reality: light, the use of light, the staging of light and lighting devices among the Cistercians of the Middle Ages
Project subject and objectives
Light was of particular relevance to the medieval clergy. It not only made people visible, but was also necessary for illuminating rooms, furnishings and rituals by day and night. It served to rhythmize the day and measure time, and was therefore also a prerequisite for the correct performance of the officium divinum or the clerical daily routine. This entailed a corresponding amount of effort in terms of the necessary organization, costs and personnel. Moreover, the light visible in the here and now referred to a transcendent sphere, was an expression of Jesus Christ, indeed of God himself. Through this semantics and iconography peculiar to light, as well as through its extraordinary preciousness as a resource, the staging of light in the course of the church year characterized the sacred space as a sacred place, removed from the everyday. This went hand in hand with the clergy's intensive engagement with the theoretical foundations and questions of the theological interpretation of light. In this respect, both natural and artificial light attracted the attention of the clergy in general and the religious orders in particular.
The Cistercians played a key role in this. They dealt intensively with light in their religious rules, presumably mainly because they saw a contradiction between the clergy's enormous use of light and their ideal of poverty. In fact, however, the Cistercians also had a demonstrably extensive use of light with corresponding lighting equipment, some of which also proved to be at least up to date, if not innovative.
The project aims to investigate the use of light by the Cistercians of the Middle Ages on the basis of their legal system, their written tradition, their architecture and the material equipment of their convents, in particular the lighting equipment. At the same time, it is necessary to ask how the Cistercians' criticism of excessive light, the use of light, the staging of light and lighting devices related to this.