Iconography of the Misericords of the Church of the Nativity of the Holy Virgin Mary in the City of Kempen

This thesis is dedicated to the study of the iconography of misericords on choir stalls in the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in the town of Kempen. Misericords are unique monuments of carved wooden art that served both practical and symbolic functions in medieval churches. The primary aim of this research is to identify the sources of the scenes depicted on the misericords, and to classify and systematize them. Special attention is given to introducing these little-studied artifacts into scholarly discourse in the Russian language. To achieve this aim, the following objectives were set: finding information about the construction of the church and biographical data about the carver of the choir stalls, describing the misericords of Kempen, searching for textual or visual sources that could have served as the basis for the creation of the misericords, and studying the subsequent history of the depicted images. The research employs the iconographic method. The work is based on a vast corpus of historical sources and contemporary studies. In the course of the research, publications, including those by Elaine Block, and databases, such as the Elaine Block Database at Princeton University and the STALLA Database at the University of Nijmegen, were examined. Special attention is given to the analysis and systematization of the scenes depicted on the misericords within the context of the general artistic trends of the Rhine-Meuse region. The primary source for the scenes depicted on the Kempen misericords was the oral tradition of the Rhine-Meuse region, particularly proverbs and sayings. These played a significant role in the decorative program, even surpassing the importance of Christian literary sources for the patrons and carvers. The misericords also feature depictions of everyday life scenes of people from the late Middle Ages. The side panels of the Kempen stalls contain images of the Church Fathers and saints particularly revered in the Rhine Valley.