In the centre of this painting is Cunibert, or Saint Kunibert, who was a seventh century bishop of Cologne and one of the more important church figures in the Frankish Rhineland. He was bishop from roughly the early 620s until his death, usually dated to around 663, and he also seems to have played a political role at the Merovingian court. That was seemingly quite common for senior bishops of the period across Europe, who were expected not merely to pray and look solemn, but also to help hold together the fragile early systems of governance.
I was a bit muddled up at the museum as I couldn’t work out which one was Cunibert, but the artist has done a bit of a job lot of Cuniberts here, so he’s in the artwork twice. This time he’s looking pleased having discovered the tomb of St. Ursula in the church of the same name, which is where this painting is on loan from. There was a medieval story that Ursula walked about with 11,000 companions, but this story isn’t taken particularly seriously by anyone today. I can’t imagine why…. The artwork was painted for the church in around 1640 and perhaps it is the skull of Ursula that has been discovered which is exciting and delighting them.
That seemed to me to be the most interesting thing about this arrangement, a reminder of two of the most important saints in the city, asserting the power of the church and its reason for existence. And this was at a time when work had been stopped on Cologne Cathedral, religious continuity was not guaranteed…..