Iconographic Program of the Church of St. Mary and St. Clement in Schwarzreindorf. On the Role and Interpretation of Images of Kings

The article deals with the study of the monumental decoration in the Church of St. Mary and St. Clement in Schwarzreindorf. The double church in Schwarzreindorf, built in the middle of the 12th century in the suburbs of Bonn, represents a unique picturesque ensemble of the Romanesque era. Arnold von Wied, the founder of that building, was a prominent statesman and a bright representative of the church aristocracy, close to the reigning house. The picturesque ensembles of the upper and lower chapels leave many questions concerning the dating of the murals, the interpretation of individual characters, and the possible influences of Arnold von Wied’s environment on the design of the iconographic program. The article considers various existing interpretations of one of the most controversial objects of the iconographic program of the monument – the images of the Kings represented in the niches of the lower church of Schwarzreindorf. Based on the historical, biographical and iconographic method of analysis, the author offers a generalized version of their interpretation and identifies their role in the implementation of the overall plan of the double chapel program, representing “two cities”, two Jerusalem – earthly and Heavenly. It is shown that the main role of those images in the program of the Schwarzreindorf church is to combine the programs of two chapels into a single integral ensemble.