The Teinach painting is an initiatic map - This hidden chapel painting (1618) shows Princess Antonia as Sophia being initiated through King Solomon's Temple (with checkered pavement), holding faith-hope-charity symbols, encountering Nicolas Flamel with the Grail, and ultimately wedding Christ - the entire Gnostic path in visual form.
The "Lehrtafel der Prinzessin Antonia" (Princess Antonia's Didactic Panel), painted by Johann Friedrich Gruber between 1659 and 1663, is a unique and complex Christian Kabbalistic altarpiece. Housed in the Holy Trinity Church in Bad Teinach, Germany, it serves as a visual guide to the mystical union of the soul with Christ.
Key Aspects of the Artwork
- Triptych Structure: The artwork is a triptych, a three-paneled altarpiece that can be opened and closed, revealing different scenes.
- Integration of Faiths: It is remarkable for its synthesis of Protestant Christian theology and concepts from Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah), a "pansophic" expression that fuses theology and natural sciences.
- Educational Purpose: The panel was designed by Princess Antonia and her academic teachers for devotional and educational purposes, intended to be understood on different levels by both the regular Christian laity and experts with deeper knowledge of Kabbalah.
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Closed Panels
When closed, the outer panels depict the "Wedding Procession of Sulamith" (referencing the Song of Solomon), portraying 94 women ascending in five stages toward heaven. At the highest stage, Jesus is shown greeting the women and crowning them as the "Bride of Christ"; the first woman to receive the crown is a portrait of Princess Antonia herself.
Open Panels
When opened, the triptych reveals detailed inner panels:
- Flanking Panels: These show a daytime scene of the Finding of Moses in the Nile and a night-time scene of the Flight of the Holy Family to Egypt.
- Central Panel: This is the core of the work, presenting a "systema totius mundi" (a philosophical system of the whole world).
- A woman, representing the soul, stands at the threshold of a walled rose garden, holding a flaming heart (charity), an anchor (faith), and a cross (hope).
- Inside the garden is Jesus, circled by the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel.
- Above them hovers a female figure in front of a temple, around which are nine female figures representing the first nine Sefirot (divine attributes or vessels in Jewish mysticism).
- The tenth Sefira, Malchut (kingdom), is represented by the figure of Christ himself, unifying the Kabbalistic structure with Christian imagery.
Princess Antonia's deep engagement with Kabbalah led to this unique devotional object. Upon her death in 1679, her heart was interred in the wall of the church behind the altarpiece, a testament to her profound personal connection to the artwork and its spiritual message
