LOCATION, OBJECT
Abbey of Magdenau, Wolfertswil, municipality of Degersheim, Canton of St.Gallen. Abbey of Cistercan nuns; founded in the 13th c., expanded in the 16th and 17th centuries; restored 1970/73. Guesthouse (Gästehaus), located in the north-eastern tract, built in the 17th c. and decorated under abbess Verena
V. Müller (r. 1638-61).

EMBLEMS (54)
Context
Vestibule of 2nd floor with decorated ceiling and walls. Frieze between the trussed girders of the walls with painted emblems in irregular frames (nos. 1-53), some in poor condition and corrupted by later hands, others damaged due to later renovations and installations (nos. 22, 23A and 24A). The single extant emblem in the vestibule of the 1st floor (no. 54) appears to belong to the same cycle that may once have extended over both floors of the guesthouse, including many more emblems. Last restored 2014/15.

Authorship, Date
Unknown artist; dated 1656 (no. 1). The attribution to Kaspar Meglinger, who painted the emblems in Hergiswald (LU) in 1654, first suggested by Gruber 1947, is unlikely. The second largest cycle of applied emblems in Switzerland, and unique for its use of Masen’s Speculum imaginum (1650) as main source.

Significance
Moral emblems, some also concerning the ideals of monastic life.

Sources
Masen 1650 (nos. 1-7, 9-13, 16-21, 23, 26, 30-34, 36-42, 44, 46-48, 51 and 52; partly derived from Paradin 1557, Bargagli 1594, Zincgref 1619, Cats 1618 and 1627, and Imago primi saeculi 1640); Saavedra 1640 or later ed. (no. 28); Alciato 1621 (no. 29).

LITERATURE
KF 1: 400-401; Gruber 1947; Graf 1974: 153f., 164; Vogler 1994; Anderes/Mathis 2003: 15-17.