Summary: Order and Confusion is the title of a groundbreaking and monumental reconstruction of the twelfth-century choir of St. Servatius Minster in Maastricht, based on its scholarly decoration program, comprising an altar, reliquary shrine, wall and vault paintings as well as other elements by Fred B.P Ahsmann. From the middle of the twelfth century on, the God-given Order was under ever-greater pressure. Confusion at the spiritual and governing level was giving rise to war and division in society. Which authority had been ordained by God to rule over his realm on earth: the emperor or the pope? The lack of certainty and heated conflict in response to this burning question had become a source of social upheaval, affecting both the pinnacle and foundation of the social pyramid. The enmity was so marked that the divine, cosmic Order was about to be plunged into chaos and utter confusion, with man pitted against man. It was a turn of events perceived at this time as the devil's pursuit. The end of days seemed near, with people waiting in fearful anticipation of the horrific scenes foretold by John the Evangelist in the Apocalypse. Nevertheless, the hope persisted that the emperor and those loyal to him might still be capable of restoring the divine Order. In the second half of the twelfth century, the choir of St. Servatius Church was completely renewed. A semicircular apse with dwarf gallery and flanking towers was added onto the existing choir, resulting in a monumental edifice that today still overlooks the Vrijthof. The choir's interior was also renewed at this time, with a large raised podium behind the altar built for the specific purpose of displaying the splendid and costly reliquary shrine of the church's patron saint, Servatius. Known as the 'Noodkist', the shrine is the only part of the choir's interior preserved to this day. All other elements have been lost over the centuries or are today dispersed among a number of different collections. The iconography of the representations on the Noodkist - the veritable showpiece of the Treasury of Saint Servatius - has been the subject of several studies. Never before, however, has anyone succeeded in discovering a unifying iconographic program that explains all of its elements. The key to solving this mystery, as has now been determined, lies not in the representations themselves, but in the twelfth-century surroundings in which the Noodkist once stood. The reliquary shrine of St. Servatius was by no means an object unto itself: new insights clearly indicate it was part of a much larger whole - a Gesamtkunstwerk - with a single all-embracing design that involved the choir interior's liturgical arrangement as well as the wall and vault paintings of the choir. In Order and Confusion, the author unravels the relationship between these various elements step by step. The results of this investigation into the monumental vault and wall paintings in the choir are nothing short of spectacular. As revealed here for the first time, the iconographic program of the choir of St Servatius is depicted in the Hortus Deliciarum, the famous manuscript compiled by the Abbess Herrad von Landsberg (ca. 1130-1195). Accompanied by additional research, this discovery laid the groundwork for the first successful analysis of the paintings in the choir. This in turn led to a new interpretation of the representations found on the Noodkist itself. When examined from the context of the images found on the choir vault and walls, elements of the shrine that had once seemed unusual and undecipherable (suddenly) fell perfectly into place. The iconographic studies presented in this book are supplemented with extensive reconstructions of the configuration of altar, retable, and Noodkist, as well as a description of all elements of the choir interior no longer existing. The book Order and Confusion elucidates how all key political and ecclesiastic themes of the twelfth century come together in the twelfth-century choir of St. Servatius: the conflict between pope and emperor; various notions of earthly power and heavenly order; and the anticipated end of days of the Sacred History. The Chapter of St. Servatius - having close ties to the emperor - apparently resorted to every visual means available in order to convey its position during this period of tumult, in an era hovering between order and confusion.

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