In the Embrace of Christ (Amplexus Christi)
Early Uses
The motif of the crucified Christ embracing the Christian believer is found in medieval contexts of devotional practice and also in later European culture. In the following sections a number of exemplifications of this motif is briefly presented:
1. Konrad von Eberbach: Exordium Magnum Cisterciense
Konrad von Eberbach (†1221) in his Exordium Magnum Cisterciense (Dist. 2, cap. 7) pointed to a mystical experience of St. Bernard of Clairvaux:
Notus est mihi monachus quidam, qui beatum Bernardum abbatem aliquando reperit in ecclesia solum orantem. Qui cum prostratus esset ante altare, apparebat ibi quaedam crux com suo crucifixo super pavimentum posita coram illo, quam, quam isdem vir beatiissimus devotissime adorabat ac deosculabatur. Porro ipsa maiestas separatis brachiis a cornibus crucis videbatur eundem Dei famulum amplecti atque astringere sibi.
I [the cistercian monk Menard] knew a monk, who once came across the blessed abbot Bernard praying alone in the church. When he was prostrated before the altar, a cross with the crucified appeared on the floor, placed in front of him, that this very same and most blessed man worshipped and kissed with the greatest devotion. And the majesty himself, with the arms separated from the extremities of the cross, was seen embracing and clasping the very same servant of God to his bosom.
2. Manuale Augustini
An influential medieval devotional book (probably from the early thirteenth century, falsely attributed to St. Augustine), was transmitted under different titles, for instance the fifteenth-century Manuale Augustini (PL 40, 951–968). This book is a compilation of spiritual texts – in a framework of a theology of love – written by eleventh and twelfth century writers. It contains elaborate meditations on salvation history with a focus on the state of fallen man, the redemptive act of the passion, and the spiritual or mystical union with God. In Chapter 23, the motif of Christ embracing fallen man as a token of the divine grace and love is used – without reference to St. Bernard – as an image of the intimate relation between God and man, made possible through redemption:
Nullum tam potens est et tam efficax contra ardorem libidinis medicamentum quam mors redemptoris mei. Extendit brachia sua in cruce, et expandit manus suas, paratus in amplexus peccatorum. Inter bracchia salvatoris mei et vivere volo, et mori cupio. Ibi securus decantabo, exaltabo te, domine, quoniam suscepisti me, nec delectasti inimicos meos super me (Ps 29 (30), 2).
No medicine is so powerful and efficient against the fire of desire than the death of my redemptor. He streches out his arms on the cross, and lays open his hands, ready to embrace the sinners. In the arms of my Saviour I will live and die. There I safely will praise and laud you, my Lord, as you have accepted me, So that my foes will not triumph over me.
3. Two visual representations of the motif.
First, a late medieval woodcut by Jerg Haspel, is close to the Bernardian vision:
The second, more in line with the pseudo-Augustinian text, is the crucifix from the Neumünster in Würzburg (fourteenth century), which at the end of the Thirty Years’ War became the main devotional object of the confraternity Zu Ehren des sterbenden Erlösers, later Kreuzbruderschaft:
Post-reformation Reception
4. Musculus: Precandi formulae piae et selectae
The motif re-appeared in the devotional literature of the post-reformation and post-tridentine period (sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) through re-publications, translations and appropriations of the spiritual pseudo-Augustinian texts.
An example of such a devotional book is Precandi formulae piae et selectae, ex veterum Ecclesiae sanctorum doctorum scriptis… (Frankfurt an der Oder 1553) with many later editions by the Lutheran theologian Andreas Musculus (1514–1581). The motif of the “Amplexus Christi” is contained in an excerpt from the Manuale (Ch. 23) inserted into a section on the Passion of Christ.
Seventeenth-century Lutheran devotional writers often integrated the motif in reflections on commonplace theological thought structuring the interpretation of the passion. The Crux Christi, Leipzig 1618, by the Lutheran theologian Valerius Herberger (1562–1627) is an example of this approach and style, characterized by the mixture of Latin and German, and matter-of-fact consideration mingled with a more personal tone:
Seine Armen spannet er aus am Creutze/ Warumb? Extensus in cruce universum Orbem complexurus, brachia pietatis expandit, sagt Augustinus: Er will mit seinen Liebes Armen die gantze Welt vmbfangen/ vnd zu sich ziehen. Lactantius spricht: Extendit in passione manus suas, orbemq; dimensus est, ut jam tum ostenderet, ab ortu solis usq; ad occasum magnum populum ex omnibus linguis & tribubus congregatum, sub alas suas esse venturum: Christus misset mit seinen außgestreckten Armen den Erdkreiß/ damit er beweise/ daß ein grosses Volck von der Sonnen auffgang biß zu derselben niedergang aus allen Sprachen und Geschlechten vnter seine Flügel solle versamlet werden. Hier sihestu/ daß er seine Hände außstrecket den gantzen Tag/ zu einem bösen vnd vngehorsamen Volck/ dasselbe mit seinen Gnaden Armen zu umbfahen/ wie eine Mutter jhr Kind. Ja wie eine Henne jhre Keuchlein vnter jhre Flügel versamlet: Also haben auch wir Heyl vnter diesen außgebreiteten Flügeln. Hier sihestu klar/ daß er dich in seine Hände gezeichnet habe. Ey so sprich fröhlich vnd getrost: Intra brachia Salvatoris mei & vivere & mori desidero: In den Armen meines Heylandes begehre ich zu leben vnd zu sterben.
He streches out his arms on the cross. Why? Extensus in cruce universum Orbem complexurus, brachia pietatis expandit, says Augustine, He will embrace and attract the whole world with his arms of love. Lactance says, Extendit in passione manus suas, orbemq; dimensus est, ut jam tum ostenderet, ab ortu solis usq; ad occasum magnum populum ex omnibus linguis & tribubus congregatum, sub alas suas esse venturum: Christ measures with his outstreched hands the orb to show that a great people covering all languages and generations from sunrise to sunset will be assembled under his wings. You see that he has streched out his hands the whole day towards a evil and disobedient people to embrace it with the arms of his grace, like a mother her child. Yea, like a hen gathers its chickens under her wings. Thus we also are saved under these outstreched wings. You see clearly that he has inscribed you in his hands. O, then speak cheerfully and comfortedly: Intra brachia Salvatoris mei & vivere & mori desidero: In the arms of my Saviour I desire to live and die.
Music
The motif of the “Amplexus Christi” is also found in musical settings of devotional texts.
5. Schütz: Cantiones sacrae
In the seventeenth century, the German composer Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672), Hofkapelmeister in Dresden, used the motif in his Cantiones sacrae (1625) (Nr. 30, SWV 82). The text is most likely based on Musculus’s work. The purpose of this collection of musical interpretations of biblical and devotional texts in Latin, set in a highly sophisticated and expressive polyphonic style, is disputed. It seems probable that it was intended for court use in more private circumstances, perhaps as Tafelmusik, possibly pointing to an aesthetic appreciation of religious music.
Schütz: Inter bracchia
salvatoris
Text: Inter bracchia salvatoris mei et vivere volo, et mori cupio. Ibi securus decantabo, exaltabo te, domine, quoniam suscepisti me, nec delectasti inimicos meos super me.
6. Bach: Matthäuspassion
Another example is found in Johann Sebastian Bach’s (1685–1750), liturgical High Baroque oratorio passion, the Matthäuspassion (1727), with the libretto compiled by C. F. Henrici (Picander) (1700–1764) (nr. 60). In the Actus Crux, the libretto develops a meditation on the crucified Christ, where the motif of the Embracing Christ is employed, appropriating ideas from devotional literature.
The section, consisting of a recitative (alto) and an aria (alto) with inserted choir responses, is attributed in the libretto to the respective allegorical figures, “die Tochter Zion” (the Daughter of Zion), and “die Glaubigen” (the Believers) who also appear in other sections of the work.
| 59. Rezitativ (A) |
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| Ach Golgatha, unselges Golgatha! Der Herr der Herrlichkeit muss schimpflich hier verderben, der Segen und das Heil der Welt wird als ein Fluch ans Kreuz gestellt. Der Schöpfer Himmels und der Erden soll Erd und Luft entzogen werden. Die Unschuld muss hier schuldig sterben, das gehet meiner Seele nah; ach Golgatha, unselges Golgatha! |
Ah, Golgatha! Unhappy Golgatha! ’Twas there the Lord of glory vilely was rejected. The blessed Saviour of the world, Here hangs upon th’accursed tree. The God who heaven and earth created, On thee must perish from the earth, The innocent must die, as do the guilty. Ah! How this grief afflicts my soul. Ah, Golgatha! Unhappy Golgatha! |
| 60. Arie (A) mit Chor |
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| Sehet, Jesus hat die Hand, uns zu fassen, ausgespannt; kommt! – Wohin? – in Jesu Armen sucht Erlösung, nehmt Erbarmen, suchet! – Wo? – in Jesu Armen. Lebet, sterbet, ruhet hier, ihr verlassnen Küchlein ihr, bleibet! – Wo? – in Jesu Armen. |
See, ye, see the Saviour’s outstretched hands! He would draw us to Himself. Come! – Where? – In Jesus’s bosom. Seek redemption, seek ye mercy, Seek them! – Where? – In Jesus’s bosom. Live ye, die ye, rest ye here, Ye whom sin and guilt oppress, Rest. – Where? – In Jesus’s bosom. |
A nineteenth-century visual representation
Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833–1898), The Merciful Knight (1863), Gouache, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
Questions
- To what extent is the motif of the Embracing Christ to be considered as ‘the same’ when used in different contexts of genres, media, or in different historical situations with their individual intellectual, religious or secular agenda?
- How do we distinguish between tradition and innovation in our efforts to define a ‘cultural heritage’ or a ‘tradition’?
- What are the conditions for talking about a medieval cultural heritage in the chosen examples?
- What happens when motifs are transposed into other media, from text to music or in the visual arts? In what ways can the motif be seen as transformed?
- In what ways are different media related to each other in interpretative strategies, and how are these relations historically conditioned?
- In the context of the Passion narrative the motif of the Embracing Christ substantiates the interpretation of the Passion of Christ as an act of divine love appealing to a response of man. At least in the oratorio setting, the motif has also become the object of an oratorical dramatisation and emotionalisation. To what extent has the liturgical function of the Passion music been transformed to that of an artwork, appealing to the aesthetic perception of an audience.
- To what extent is it only a modern construction to see a well-defined motif of an Embracing Christ retained or revived in the various examples given? For instance, in the text from the St Matthew Passion, knowledge about the Bernardian or other medieval traditions for this motif are not necessary to interpret the text as it stands.
- In continuation of the previous question: In what ways will the idea of a transmission through the centuries of such a medieval motif influence the interpretation of the text of the St Matthew Passion?