2023-04-18 11:53:00
On many samplers, a small, seemingly meaningless motif hides between countless sampler motifs that are easier to guess. At most a handful of birds, which together tell their own story. Once you recognize the motif as a sampler enthusiast, you will come across it more and more. An introduction to the mystical wine press.
Spies from the Holy Land of Canaan
The source
Augustine (354-430), one of the four Church Fathers, compares Christ to a bunch of grapes. He refers to two passages from the Old Testament. In the Book of Numbers, spies are sent ahead to explore the Promised Land of Canaan. The land of milk and honey. They return with a bunch of grapes on a pole. (Numbers 13:17-27). A reference to the Eucharist, which was instituted during the Last Supper, which Christ celebrated with his disciples. The second passage, from Isaiah, describes how an avenging God tramples the oppressors of the Jewish people in the winepress of his wrath. (Isaiah, 63:1-6)
Jesus in the Mystical Winepress, Cologne, 1450-1500. Collection: Radboud University Library
The Mystical Wine Press
The late Middle Ages derive the motif of Christ in the Mystical Wine Press from this. Dressed only in a loincloth, adorned with the crown of thorns and with the five wounds, Christ crushes grapes in a trough. He himself is pressed through the beam of the winepress, as if he were Augustine’s bunch of grapes. The blood that flows from his wounds mixes with the juice of the grapes and is collected in one or more chalices.
The mystical winepress in cross stitch
This representation is also a reference to the Eucharist. It shows the believer that the consecrated wine, according to the teaching of the Catholic Church, is the blood of Christ. A symbolic representation of the wine press is found mainly on North Holland samplers. This shape consists of two styles with two crossbars, sometimes resembling a capital H, between which a large heart is set. The Heart of Christ, which is venerated as an independent object. Above the heart is a bird that tightens the press with a screw. The other birds around the press probably represent the ascent of the soul. The simplified version was also popular and appeared regularly on all kinds of canvases. But the adept, not always Catholic fingers, who processed this motif in their handicraft experiments, were convinced of the meaning, that will forever remain a mystery.
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