Week 8 - February 26-28

Disruption in Europe

Otto I Presenting Magdeburg Cathedral to Christ, one of a series of nineteen ivory plaques, known as the Magdeburg Ivories.  German or North Italian.  c. 962-973 CE.  5" x 4.5"  The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
During the reign of Otto I, Magdeburg was on the edge of a buffer zone between the Ottonian Empire and the pagaan Slavs.  In the 960s, Otto established a religious center there from which the Slavs could be converted.  One of the important saints of Magdeburg was Maurice, a Roman Christian commander of African troops who is said to have suffered martyrdom in the third century for refusing to worship in pagan rites.  In later times, he was often represented as a dark-skinned African.  The warrior saint appears here presenting both Otto and Magdeburg Cathedral to Christ.