What is it about?
The authors (conservators, heritage scientists and a dendrochronologist) set out to determine how three fragmentary religious objects from Norwegian churches relate to each other. These include a shrine from Bygland church (Agder county), painted wings from Røldal stave church (Vestland county) and an altarpiece from the medieval church at Skjervøy (Troms county). This chapter clarifies and problematizes similarities and earlier attributions via physical and chemical data.
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Photo by Wolfgang Weiser on Unsplash
Why is it important?
The data, gained via dendrochronology and analyses of cross-sections of paint and gilding, suggest chiefly that multiple painters were responsible for the wing-panels, while separate boxmakers produced the corpus boxes and other elements. The results point to a variety of craftspeople, probably working well beyond the bounds of Lübeck. The results also confirm that the objects were produced over quite a long period, through the second half of the fifteenth century and into the early part of the sixteenth century. This research also suggests strongly that groups of north-German craftspeople met the needs of a Norwegian market that was not bound to north-German regulations or patrons.
Perspectives
Multidisciplinary collaborations were essential for the foundations of this chapter, and the results certainly bring new perspectives for art historians working with late medieval devotional objects and questions about Lübeck attributions. However, we still have quite a few unanswered questions - as is so often the case with research on unique heritage objects.
Professor Noëlle Streeton
University of Oslo
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Long-Lost Relations and New-Found Distinctions: Redefining Lübeck Attributions for Three Late Medieval Fragments, December 2024, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004712034_009.
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