LWL-Denkmalpflege, Landschafts- und Baukultur in Westfalen
Visual Worlds – World Views.
Romanesque Wall Painting in Westphalia

Bochum-Stiepel, Protestant Village Church, ground plan (The mappings (German version) can be opened by clicking on the red markings).

Building structure
Hall church with two bays with west tower and choir polygonal closed on three-sides.

Building data
Previous building dates from early 11th century. Around 1170/80 new construction of a triple-naved basilica with west tower, single-bay central nave, transept with eastern side apses and choir with semi-circular partition. In 1476 new construction of choir and vestry. Around 1500 remodelled into a hall by extension of the narrow side aisles of the basilica to the width and height of the transept.

Romanesque polychrome architectural decorations
The Romanesque building components of the central nave and transept bear polychrome architectural decorations from the time of construction which define the overall impression of the room. The first thing one notices is the richly ornate paintings on the vaults. Mainly red-veined, painted marble on the diaphragm arches, red tree-of-life motifs and fable creatures in the vault caps stand next to tendril ribbons in circular, heart and wave shapes, that rise up to the side of the vault groins in the Romanesque nave and transept. The apses in the transepts are framed by painted piers with fictitious marble arches. Tendrils with narrow, intertwined palmettes run in many varied forms in red and ochre as a frieze below the windows and on the beams of the transverse arches. The friezes to the side of the transept walls provide a base for some painted arcatures around the arched windows (today unfortunately lost to a great extent due to the Gothic enlargement of the windows). The painted wall hangings fastened on poles in the transept arms sometimes appear, following the irregular incorporation of the apses into the east walls, at the side but more often in the middle next to or over them as if spontaneously hung in front of the wall. Further wall coverings can be found on the diaphragm arches of the crossing. The ornamentation is harmonious with the coloured framing of the architectural elements, the warm grey piers and arches with white and red painted joints and small columns positioned in the corners of the central nave piers that are today painted simplistically in red. The Romanesque polychrome architectural decoration in Stiepel is therefore a characteristic and early example of the so-called Westphalian painting system.

Figurative Romanesque wall painting
Crossing (eastern central nave bay), diaphragm walls above the arcade arches: Sacrifice of Cain and Abel with God the Father in the figure of Christ and Rivers of Paradise.
Northern transept (now side aisle, east bay), north wall: predatory cat (lion or panther) as a symbol of Christ.
East wall of the northern transept: Flight into Egypt.
North apse: The Massacre of the Innocents. The figurative depictions in the calotte, Blessing Christ and Evangelist symbols, are the results of an overpainting around 1260. The standing figure of a saint at the side of the window is Gothic.
East wall of the south transept: No figurative depictions of the first version are preserved, but arcature and wall hanging. The apostle visible there is late-Gothic or from the Renaissance period.
South apse: In the calotte, The Blessing Hand of God with the seven rays, medallions with sun and moon, heads and hands of the saints standing below, two archangels in box frame below the window. The formerly six saints on both sides of the windows are the results of an overpainting in 13^th century (around 1260).

Crafting technique/painting technique
Ground is a lime wash with differing thicknesses that was applied to the still damp plaster. Preparatory incisions are partially marked in the plaster. Also the lime wash was still damp when applying the paint so that in parts there has been an al fresco bonding with the plaster. There are both iron-oxide red as also ochre yellow preparatory drawings, which follow no recognisable concept in the distribution within the painting sections in the church interior. Very distinct is the parallel between the painting technique of the well-preserved figures in the Massacre of the Innocents in the north apse and the youths of the Rivers of Paradise at the crossing. The Incarnate was applied in both painting sections extensively, opaquely and in pastose consistency as local colour in light ochre mixed with lime white. On this the shadows have been emphasised by subtle glazes in slightly darker ochre shades. The white highlights on the enhanced parts were only added afterwards. The last stage was the drawing of the contours in iron-oxide red. There are also traces of the remains of black contours. Further typical features of the Stiepel paintings are the almost complete restriction of the colour palette used to earth colours and the omission of gilding. In particular various yellow and red earth colours and black mixed with lime were used. There were also no plastic stucco applications or incised plaster modulations.

Conservation history
Exposure and conservation in 1952, in the case of the polychrome architectural decorations with new overpainting. 1963-66 repeated exposure and renewed conservation. Again restored in 1988 and 2002/03. The depiction of God the Father in the crossing and two of the Rivers of Paradise there still show extensive parts of their original paint layers. The case is different with the illustration on the wall surfaces in the transept and the apses there. Here only the illustration of the Massacre of the Innocents is so well preserved that an analysis of the entire paint layers and painting style can be undertaken. The picturesque scene of the Flight into Egypt continues to provide information on composition and individual elements, although it is marked by a strong reduction of the paint layers. The legibility of the paintings in the apses is strongly impaired due to partial exposure of several overpaintings, the first dating from the end of the Romanesque period. Likewise strongly decimated is the paint layer of the depiction of the desert landscape with two predatory cats in the large arched niche on the north wall of the transept.

Description and iconography
Crossing: God the Father in the figure of Christ standing on a pedestal with two steps, facing the observer completely with opened, raised arms, holding in the left hand a scroll, the right hand is raised in a blessing gesture. He is clothed in a red toga under which a light tunic is visible. His head is framed with a cruciform halo. Fitting exactly into the spandrel of the triumphal arch wall, Cain and Abel each hold up their sacrifices to God. The blessing hand of God is pointed to Abel on his right, whose sacrifice, the lamb, is being accepted by God, the sacrifice of Cain, the sheaf of corn, is being rejected by God. The largest surface of the walls above the diaphragm arches is taken up by the hangings that appear to be suspended from painted eyelets. The four young men as a personification of the Rivers of Paradise are sitting with drawn up legs on the lower sides of the walls above the arches and are causing water to pour from jugs that run into four to five rivulets.
Northern transept (now side aisle, east bay), north wall: centrally on the wall surface is a large predatory cat that is depicted turning round, running with open mouth and narrow tongue hanging out. Exactly in the middle of the picture an incised horizontal line divides the picture into two halves: the lower one that indicates in brown earthen shades a barren, hilly desert landscape, in which low, ochre-coloured hills are outlined against the narrow dark horizon, and the upper sphere that is hardly recognizable, its ochre-coloured rudiments are still preserved today. Immediately above the head of the predatory cat is a consecration cross. Before the front paws in the direction in which the large animal is running there is on the right lower side a much smaller creature that, except for its stance with view towards the east and a longer neck, looks like a smaller, somewhat shrunken image of the larger one. It is probably a young animal that is accompanying its father or mother.
East wall of the northern transept: the scene of the Flight into Egypt is reduced to the bare essentials. On the left Mary is riding side-saddle on a donkey with the Christ Child on her lap. Joseph is striding out to the right of this group, holding a stick in his left hand and the reins of the donkey in his right.
North apse: The depiction of the Massacre of the Innocents consists of two male figures on the left half of the picture and three mothers who are each bemoaning the loss of their children. They personify the various stages of bereavement. The right-hand one frames the scene by staring in quiet grief at the floor, the middle one is standing in a melancholy gesture with her left-hand on her cheek and her limply hanging right hand turned away from the soldiers. Only the left-hand one of the mothers has not yet come to terms with her fate and in her despair is tugging at the arm of the soldier in the centre of the picture in the hope of persuading him to return her robbed child to her. The left-hand one standing next to him is wearing the same leggings and shoes, but instead of armour, he is wearing a light-coloured tunic with belt. He is holding two almost unrecognisable toddlers in his folded arms and is looking over towards the mothers.
This leads to the following overall interpretation of the first decorative paintings of the Romanesque Basilica: In the north apse one can find scenes from the childhood of Jesus whereby in addition to the preserved scene of the Massacre of the Innocents and the consequent Flight into Egypt, the Birth of Christ and the Adoration of the Magi need to be reconstructed in the apse. As a matching painting in the no longer existent choir apse, as far as contemporary paintings are concerned in the Westphalian area, one can presume a depiction of Christ in Majesty in the apse calotte. On the triumphal arch above it, comparisons of pictures make a reinterpretation of the central figure as being a depiction of God the Father in the figure of Christ with Cain and Abel probable. The reminder to the observer to lead a life that is pleasing to God, can also be implied in this picture. Near to the main altar there is always a reference to the Sacrifice of the Mass as a typological correlation of the sacrifice of the brothers. In the Rivers of Paradise positioned to the side of this, a connection can be seen from the earthly to the heavenly paradise that is depicted symbolically in the crossed vault above it and in other vaults in tree-of-life motifs, fable creatures and stars. The illustrations in the south apse with the Blessing Hand of God and the Outpouring of the Holy Ghost in the form of seven rays take up reference to the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit and lead us to assume a Pentecostal picture underneath it that is unfortunately lost today and that was possibly combined with an Ascension picture. After the Pentecost the Apostles were filled with the Holy Ghost and carried the Gospel out into the world whereby the work of Christ had been passed on for deliverance by the Apostles and later by clergymen. The cycle is therefore given a meaningful expression in the south apse. In the niche of the northern transept a large predatory cat is seen in the depiction as a symbol of Christ and reminds of the resurrection of Christ at Easter. In the preserved pictorial scenes one can find depictions that are unique in Westphalian wall paintings.

Art-historical classification
The Stiepel figures take various influences from pictorial art. The handling of the incarnate parts in painting – with shading and highlights within the faces and the naked parts of the body – are based on procedures established in a wall painting tradition that can already be found in the 11^th century in the vault paintings of Saint-Savin in central France, furthermore in a slightly more abstract and consolidated form in the former Burial Church of Sigward of Minden in Idensen (1120-1130) and of which fragments have also been preserved in St. Gereon in Cologne. However, in these three wall paintings the figures are quite differently fitted into a coloured frame system and therefore into the architecture. The isolated position of the figures on a white background in the crossing vault tends to indicate relationships with illuminated manuscripts. Here individual figures have been set selectively on the wall, like the drawings in the manuscripts of Regensburg monasteries. The paintings of the crossing diaphragm walls also stand immediately in front of the light wall, the figures only adjust to the architectural surroundings in their placing and their posture. The individual motifs are very closely related to those in Ostönnen and it is therefore quite possible that the patterns for these paintings were on pattern sheets that bore similar drawings to those known in the Regensburg manuscripts.
The painting of the apses and the big exedra of the northern transept are comprehended differently. The exedra shows a coloured background landscape, in front of which the light-coloured predatory cat stands out like in the negative. Correspondingly, only in the reverse manner, the graphical style of the picture stands in front of an earth-coloured background. The only preserved scenic depictions in the north apse and on the wall next to it stand as a frieze on a triple-striped floor, nevertheless on a light background. These multiple-striped floors can also be found in Saint-Savin, but there they have light and coloured backgrounds above them.
The stylistic elements used in Stiepel, the types of figures and faces are deeply anchored in existing paintings from the second half of the 12^th century, with numerous examples for comparison. The wall paintings on the west wall from the time of construction in Soest-Ostönnen with depictions of Cain and Abel offer a good reference framework for dating the Stiepel paintings. The close relationship to these reliably dated wall paintings gives additional confirmation of the dating gained via comparison of styles of the painting work in Stiepel around 1170/80.

Dating
Around 1170/80 and around 1260 (Romanesque overpainting).