The Dome in Halberstadt

The dome in Halberstadt was constructed over centuries. The early parts of the church were built in the Romanesque style and the later in the new Gothic style. It was dedicated in 1491.

Since I was told that I was not allowed to use a tripod I had to crank up the ISO setting. The people around were pretty astonished seeing a guy photographing laying on his back but I wanted something special, something that I have not seen before.

The pointed arch is one of the main recognition point of the Gothic style.

I used my 85mm portrait at f 2.2 to photograph this portrait. This image medieval portrait would pass as a photograph at any portrait photography class. The body is at a good angle, face composed that the left eye is at the edge of the face, eyes are sharp and the painter used props (Bible and bishop’s staff) on a striking backdrop.

I believe this image was painted on some kind of leather. Unfortunately you see the damage on the left hand side. A security guard told me that visitors cut parts of the paintings off to keep as souvenirs. What a shame!

Let me point out that we visited the attached dome treasury chamber. It contains the second largest collection of medieval carpets after the Vatican in Rome. It is a must to see if  you are in the area.

Happy photographing

This entry was posted on 1. August 2009 at 05:23 and is filed under Architecture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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