Hans Memling, Saint Ursula Shrine

0:00:04.7 Dr. Beth Harris: We’re in Saint John’s Hospital in Flanders, in the city of Bruges, and we’re looking at a reliquary in the shape of a chapel. And this is fabulously decorated with paintings by the great Northern Renaissance painter, Hans Memling. The shrine tells the story of Saint Ursula.

0:00:26.6 Dr. Anna Koopstra: It is made out of wood, but it is sculpted and has these beautiful decorations like finials, and turrets, and small figures of saints in niches. And then the sides are painted.

0:00:38.8 Dr. Harris: And it’s hard, I think for us to overstate the importance of relics. These objects, these physical pieces of the bodies of saints, or even objects that were associated with saints and holy figures were venerated, people made pilgrimages to visit them. These were objects that mediated between the earthly and the spiritual world and could in a very tangible way, help you earn a space in heaven.

0:01:10.3 Dr. Koopstra: As we stand here on one of the short sides, we see the Virgin with two nuns from the community here in the hospital. They are depicted as also standing inside of a church. Now, we know that the shrine was intended for this community, but it is interesting that it is two nuns who are depicted. Though they may be standing for the whole of the community rather than two specific individuals.

0:01:38.6 Dr. Harris: We start on one side and we move, and in a way, this object could take you on a virtual pilgrimage together with Saint Ursula. And Memling is such an amazing painter in terms of creating these illusions of reality that we very much feel a part of what we’re seeing.

0:01:58.5 Dr. Koopstra: So the actual story that we see of Saint Ursula is a story about traveling, making a pilgrimage to Rome. The story begins with Ursula disembarking her ship. She is traveling accompanied by other female virgins, 11,000 it is said, and she’s disembarking here in Cologne. And we know that because the buildings that we see in the distance, one of those is Cologne Cathedral.

0:02:27.5 Dr. Harris: They’ve set out from Brittany. They’ve sailed along the Rhine, they disembark at Cologne, and the figures are so filled with movement. Their ship has docked. The figures are unloading goods. We see Saint Ursula beautifully dressed in blue and white. She looks very noble, and the entourage is about to make its way into the gates of the city. If we look really closely, we can see that Ursula appears again in the background.

0:02:56.9 Dr. Koopstra: Cologne will also be the place where, upon return, she will die, and this is alluded to in the background where we see an angel announcing this.

0:03:08.0 Dr. Harris: We’re seeing three stops on this side in her journey, and in the next one, she’s disembarking at Basel. And from here, they’ll make their way on foot.

0:03:18.3 Dr. Koopstra: These scenes are filled with people, and yet they are so cleverly devised that our eye immediately picks up on Ursula, who is dressed similarly in every scene. And then the journey continues on foot and we see people receding into the distance and snowy mountaintops, which will be the Alps.

0:03:40.9 Dr. Harris: Ursula and her entourage have to travel across the Alps on their way to Rome, which is the final destination of their pilgrimage. Ursula is kneeling and being greeted by the Pope.

0:03:53.3 Dr. Koopstra: Her tresses are now undone, her hair is long, but we recognize her. And then through this open portal, we look into the building, where her husband to be will be baptized. And that is on the right. We see Ursula attending mass, another person confessing.

0:04:11.4 Dr. Harris: So here in this next scene, we understand that they’ve left Rome and they’ve arrived at Basel, and we can see them disembarking. And in the foreground, we see the figures again this time leaving Basel in order to head back toward Cologne. Memling is an amazing narrator of this story, but also an amazing painter of these small details that draw us in. For example, the vestments that the Pope is wearing, his tiara, patterns that we see, the small gems, the different hats, the texture of the figure’s hair. There’s so much to convince us of that reality.

0:04:54.0 Dr. Koopstra: And still in all of that variation, you are able to follow the main storyline, and that is the skill of the artist.

0:05:04.3 Dr. Harris: And our eye does immediately go to Ursula herself in the foreground, her hands clasped in prayer as she continues her pilgrimage. The next two scenes are the climax of the story. And here we see terrible violence. And those figures are Huns, they’re pagans, and these innocent Christian women are being brutally murdered. But it’s that very martyrdom that ensures their place in heaven.

0:05:35.7 Dr. Koopstra: And we see Ursula twice. We see her once still on the ship, where she catches the body of her husband to be, who’s been pierced by a sword. And on the right we see Ursula very serene, moments before her death. And there’s so much you see here as well. Details like, the armor, that is shiny, and it also reflects the people standing around. Ursula herself is very serene, like a beacon of calm.

0:06:05.5 Dr. Harris: One of the things that’s so interesting about the legends of Saint Ursula is that the people of Cologne found just outside their walls, a large cemetery that dated back to Roman times, but which they interpreted as the site of the burial of Ursula and the maidens that accompanied her. And so there were so many relics to be had, and these relics made their way to all sorts of places in Europe that became themselves, sites of pilgrimage like here in Bruges.

0:06:40.6 Dr. Koopstra: We know that it was finished in 1489 because in that year, on the feast day of Saint Ursula, on the 21st of October, in a very solemn ceremony, the relics were taken out of an older shrine to this much more ambitious shrine painted by Memling.

0:07:02.8 Dr. Harris: So this is an object that is commissioned by the community here to honor Ursula’s relics and to also, as the patrons, show their devotion and their faith.

0:07:16.0 Dr. Koopstra: One of the other things is the roof. We see on each side three medallions, here with the virgin, Christ and God, the father, the coronation, and then two music-making angels. But the way that it is painted also references a different material.

0:07:33.8 Dr. Harris: And we might have other reliquaries actually made of gold with enamel. But here, very simple materials made to look and to appear very luxurious. Until I was in front of this, it was hard for me to believe that the gold decorative forms that we see on the roof weren’t real, weren’t sculpted, but they are painted. Memling is showing us what he can do as a painter.

0:08:02.3 Dr. Koopstra: And so opposite the panel with the standing Virgin in the chapel, we see Saint Ursula protecting, in her robe, a large group of women. She holds the arrow referencing how she died.

0:08:17.1 Dr. Harris: And these beautiful jewels in her crown, the clasps of her cloak, the beauty and sumptuousness of Ursula in heaven. Here Ursula is being likened to the Virgin Mary.

0:08:31.8 Dr. Koopstra: It should also be noted that this object would’ve only come out once a year on the Feast day of Saint Ursula.

0:08:38.2 Dr. Harris: So like so much art history, this object has been transformed from one that helped people on a spiritual journey to what it is today, a work of art, that we can admire and perhaps still have some of that sense of it’s tremendous spiritual value.