Danish Wall-paintings – an Introduction

Danish Wall-paintings- an Introduction
Axel Bolvig
Compared to other European countries Denmark possesses, relatively,
both the most and the best preserved medieval wall-paintings.
After the Reformation, in Denmark we never experienced any form of
iconoclasm worth talking about. Gradually the old paintings were
wh.itewashed, not because of a hostile attitude towards Catholic irnagery
but simply caused by their gradual tuming old-fashioned and dirty.
During the last ISO years a great effort has been made by getting the
pictures to light again. Consequently, much research into the wallpaintings
has been done. This research has ahnost exclusively concentrated
on singular motifs and decorations, on iconographic problems, on the
religious contents and programmes, on foreign influence and on the use of
models.1
As a result of this traditional research a refined iconographic
description of the painted motifs has been developed which fonns the basis
of the first attempt to make a register.2
During the last couple of years I have directed a database containing
pictures of our wall-paintings. The base has been established in
cooperation with some students. Through their werk on the imagebase and
the teaching cormected to it, a fertile setting for a renewed research into
the Danish wall-paintings has developed inspired by the access to
quantitative use of images, the new theories on visual methodology and the
recent research results from different scholars and departments, mnong
others the Institut für Realienkunde at Krems (Austria).
The articles in this volume represent some of the new Danish
research into the images. The contributors are:
1 As the Iiterature which I refer to is enormous, I refer to the bibliography on our website:
www.kalkmalerier.dk
2 Part of this register han been published: A Catalogue oj Wa/1-Paintings in the
Churches oj Medieva/ Denmark 1100-1600. Scania Hailand Blekinge Vol I-IV (ed.
Knud Banning), 1 976.
7
Martin Bo N0rregärd. A student whose main project is a review of
the traditional dating and ascribing of Danish medieval art. He also
functions as one of the webmasters on our web-site. E-mail:
martinbo@dorit.ihi.ki.dk
Annedorte Vad. A student whose main project is a quantitative
analysis of the depictions of the devils in our wall-paintings. She is
responsible of the scanning of the photos of the wall-paintings. She has
developed hyperdocuments with the presentation of some Danish churches
on the Internet. E-mail: vadp@dorit.ihi.ku.dk
Steen Schj0dt Christensen. A student whose main project is the great
variety of alternative figures (grotesques) in the wall-paintings. He is
responsible of the imagebase itself. He also has developed a
hyperdocument with the presentation of some Danish churches. E-mail:
steen@adr.dk
Jesper Jeme Borrild graduated 1997 with a dissertation on
quantitative analysis of images of saints in Danish wall-paintings.3 He has
developed the complete iconographic register and is working on an
analysis of the difference between the wall-paintings in eastern and
westem Denmark. E-mail: borrild@vip.cybercity.dk
My name is Axel Bolvig. I am research professor at the Departrnent
of History, University of Copenhagen. Since the 1970s I have researched
into the subject „History and Images“. I have written many books and
articles on this topic covering subjects from modern press photos and
commercials to medieval altarpieces and wall-paintings. E-mail:
bolvig@coco.ihi.ku.dk