Typology of German Andachtsbilder and its connection with votive iconography

Abstract

This article provides the author’s typology of a specific and underresearched genre of sacred art - Andachtsbilder, which in some cases was influenced by the iconography of votive images. From the fourteenth century onwards, pocket or home sacred images were used in Germany for piety. They were called Andachtsbilder, literally - “prayer images”. Commonly, they were images of saints and could be engravings, miniatures, or even appliqués. Andachtsbilder’s motifs were usually associated with the images of the Holy Family or mystical allegories, but there was another type of Andachtsbilder, in particular, images representing a scene of some miracle. Their prototypes were often originally votive objects (wax, silver, etc.) or votive images (Votiftafel), i.e. images created as a vow to God or saints. Some of the votive objects appeared on the votive images (Votiftafel). Further, the most famous votive images could be copied onto Andachtsbilder. Votive images copied onto Andachtsbilder, according to my hypothesis, could have a magical function, like the well-known Schluckbildchen. The paper presents a cross-section of the main Andachtsbilder typologies and provides examples of images that migrated from votive practices into the practice of domestic, “pocket” piety. The cultural and anthropological analysis of these phenomena follows.