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Eilbertus of Cologne
( fl 1129–60). German metalworker and enameller. A monk in the monastery of St Pantaleon, Cologne, he was one of the principal masters of its important workshop and among the most outstanding German metalworkers of the Romanesque period. His name is engraved as part of an inscription on a small portable altar (ex-Welf treasure; Berlin, Tiergarten, Kstgewmus.), produced c. 1150–60, which reads: EILBERTUS COLONIENSIS ME FECIT. The form of the altar (see fig.) follows that commonly found in portable altars of the 10th and 11th centuries. Eilbertus’s achievement was to replace the silver niello decoration customary on altars up to that date, and perfected by Roger of Helmarshausen, with enamel work; and to do so at about the same time as Mosan masters (see ROMANESQUE, §VII). He also prepared the ground for the formal convergence in the 13th century of portable altars with larger shrines. The figures decorating the altar are individually characterized with spare lines, and they show the artist’s distinctive use of champlevé enamel with marked ridges separating areas of shaded colour. On the top of the altar the Twelve Apostles and scenes from the Life of the Virgin and the Passion are depicted in reserved gilt copper on blue and green enamel backgrounds. In the centre a rock crystal altar stone covers a Christ in Majesty painted on parchment. On the sides this is reversed, showing standing 13 prophets and Jacob, Bileam, David, Melchizedek and Solomon in coloured enamel against gilt backgrounds. The engraving of the figures on the top, partly enamel-filled, and the ridges around the enamelled backgrounds outlining the figures show Eilbertus’s ability to convey emotion and action with sparse, woodcut-like lines, seen especially in the faces. In contrast to Roger of Helmarshausen’s tightly packed, dramatic figural friezes on the Abdinghof Altar (after 1115; Paderborn, St Josef; for illustration and further discussion see ROGER OF HELMARSHAUSEN), Eilbertus arranged isolated groups and figures within frames or separated those on the sides with architectural pilasters, without losing the overall coherence of the programme. He thus divided up the altar casing while respecting its functional integrity, giving it a character of almost classical tranquillity.
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