Medieval Danish Wall-paintings an Internet Database Jesper lerne Borrild
This article is dealing with some of the methodological considerations on how to create an Inte et database containing medieval Danish wall paintings and on using the infonnation in a quantitative analysis of the images.
During the last ten years the computer has found its ways into the di erent areas of Hu anities. The computer is no Ionger exclusively an advanced typewriter with some memory, but also, among others, a worktool for scholars who work with !arge quantities of visual material1. The scanning, digitalising and storage of !arge quantities of visual material is no Ionger a problem neither from a teclmical nor from an economic point of view. Nowadays, different kinds of databases can easily manage hundred of thousands pictures or scanned docwnents. At the same time, the Inte et has developed world wide, and we have witnessed an incredible increase in its use. Today, we can easily get on the Inte et and visit databases all over the world, the only thing needed is a personal computer with a mode . And as cyberspace develops and new research databases will add up, it will become the new assembly for research. lt is in the light of this development we have to relate to research databases at the Inte et.
Compared with other European countries, Denmark has a unique collection of wall-paintings from the medieval period that are found all over the country. Most of the images are placed in smaller churches in the countryside, but there are some to be found in cathedrals and parish churches placed in !arger towns. Today, we find medieval wall-paintings in
1 Ju j Fikfak & Gerhard Jaritz (eds.), Image Processing in History: Towards en Systems, 1 993; Gerhard Jaritz, Images. A Primer of Computer-Supported Analysis with kleio JAS, 1 993; Manfred Thaller (ed.), Images and Manuscripts in Historica/ Computing, 1992.
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approximately 40% of our 2500 medieval churches/ and we know of a little more than 1 1000 individual motifs in these churches. This number includes images that still can be seen today as weil as those that have been registered but are now lost. Based on a pilot project carried out some years ago,3 we sta ed at the University of Copenhagen, Dep ent of History, to establish the Inte et database Medieval Danish Wall-paintings4 in 1995. The aim was, first of all, to create a complete image database containing all viewable medieval Danish wall-paintings. Secondly we wanted to o er access to a verbal icono aphical database containing information on all known medieval wall-paintings. Futhermore, other wall painting-related topics should be attached. Today, we can o er access to the above mentioned databases as weil as a bibliography containing relevant literature, a collection of articles and a number of di erent dia ams, which are to be commented later in this article.
The Image Database
Creating an image database with Danish wall-paintings raises a number of speci c problems. At this point, I shall just point out some of the more important considerations, about how we have constructed our image database, and how it works. Because we have to use a linguistic classi cation system to index the mi ages, we had to consider how to describe them. In order to deal with more advanced queries than just the title of each individual image, we had to create a system of information that covers all aspects such as location of the church where tlte images are found (district and diocese), where each individual motif is located in the church, dating of the wall-paintings, and any further details, such as whether the image su ered from a rough or severe restoration. We also had to consider how to describe each individual wall-painting. Unlike framed pictures, wall-paintings seldom have de ned demarcations. Especially the decorations in the village churches must be considered as one picture divided into several parts, whereas the wall-paintings in cathedrals and !arger parish churches in the towns mostly are detennined
2 Jes Wienberg suggests a nurober between 2348 d 2798 medieval Danish churches, which is the closest we get to a precise number. Jes Wienberg, Den gotiske labyrint. Mi elalderenogkirke eiDanmark, 1993,p. 71 .
3 el Bolvig, „Zur Kritik digitalisierender Geschichtsproduzenten“, Electronic Filing, Registration and Communication of Visual Historical Data, Abstract jor Round Table no 34 ofthe 18th International Congress ojHistorical Science, 1 995, p.
f
4 h t t p /w w w . k a l k m a l e r i e r . d k /
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by nwnerous extensions like chapels and sacristies, etc.5 Very o en these images make separated motifs for either adoration or just a short, but essential part of some saint’s legend. Because of the verbal indexing we have to divide all the di erent kinds ofdecorations into individual motifs, without exception.
In order to deal e ectively with a !arge nwnber of images there must be a logical and still advanced system for queries. It is not satis ing to record the images by describing them using free text. Hits will be random samples without exactness, and recall and precision will be low.6 A systematic classi cation system must be used, which also has definite advantages over di erent vocabulary terms. Therefore, the images are being described both on the iconographical Ievel as weil as on the analogue Ievel. At the iconocraphic Ievel the motifs are described as: Annunciation, Visitation, Cruci xion, Saint Martin, etc. These are all motifs referring to the Bible, the apocrypha and the legends. Furthermore, we record other symbolic representations such as donation motifs, and di erent kinds of Grotesques. At the analogue Ievel we have developed a detailed index of keywords containing items such as clothing, architecture, individuals, and so on. These items are again divided and described in more precise tenns which might be, in the case of clothing, shoes, garter, cloak and hat. lt is the same for architecture, individuals and other general items. Additionally to the indexing ofthe images there must be a dating of each speci c image and where it is placed in the church. Most of the wall paintings have been dated within a period of25 years, and some are dated exactly. lnstead of art historical terms like Romanesque, Gothic or late medieval, we have used a nwnerical system which allows the user to search for a speci c motif or group of motifs within a given period or in a certain year; for example all motifs between 1400 and 1450, or the Annunciation in the year 1 5 0 0 . Finally, we have a eld describing where each individual motif is located in the church. As we divided the decorations into individual motifs, we have infonnation on where in the church each motif is placed. Still, to avoid ee text, we have described the location in keywords like nave, rst vault, east vault cell.
We have ended up adding to each digitalised image the following information in separated elds:
s U a Haastrup (ed.), „Danske kalkmalerier 1 175-1275“, Danske kalkmalerier Vol. 2, 1987, p. 18.
6 Jörgen van den Berg, „Subject Retrieval in Pictorial lnformation Systems“, Electron ic Filing, registration, and Communication of Visual Historica/ Data, A bstract for Round Table no 34 ofthe 18th lme ational Congress ofHistorica/ Science, 1995, p. 23.
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• the name of the church. Nonnally the name of the church is equal to the name of the parish where it is situated, but in those cases where you nd more than one church in the parish we have both the name of the church and the name of the parish.
• the name of the district where the church is situated. A district covers several parishes.
• the diocese to which the church belonged.
• There are separate elds for the motif at the icono apic Ievel and for the keywords at the analogue Ievel.
• dating of the wall-paintings. Because of the numerical system the dating is divided into two fields: From ear and To ear. In cases where the wall-painting has been exactly dated, the two elds are identical.
• Motif location, which of course is where the individual motif is placed in the church, for example: nave, northwall east, etc.
• And at last we have created a separate eld for comments.
To achieve a more precise result for each query we have added a munber of different operators.7 This way it is possible to avoid random hits. By dividing the info ation into several elds and o ering these operators, there are various kind of search-opportunities available. Though it is possible to Iook up the different images without using tl1e de ned elds and Operators, we strongly reconunend it, otherwise hits will be
random.
The Iconographical Database
As mentioned before, the material includes wall-paintings that still can be seen today, as weil as wall-paintings that have been registered but are now lost. Approximately een to twenty percent of all known medieval Danish wall-paintings are lost today. Because of the fact timt the image database only can contain wall-paintings to be seen today,8 it will never include infonnation on all tl1e known wall-paintings. In various kinds of analysis, such as a quantitative analysis, we must have access to the highest possible Ievel ofinfonnation on the entire material. To manage this proble we have made the icono aphical database.
7 These are: And, or, between, excepl, before, after, near, in, last, =, <, >, , .. Futhennore the database contains the following exclusions: a, an, , at, but, by, do, for, from, he, I, , in, it, /ike, not, of she, shou/ some, than, !hat, the, there, they, this, to, we, what, when, which, who, will, wou/d, you.
8 As far as the lost images have not been photographed or saved another way. 24
In principle, the iconographical database has the same structure as the image database. Each individual motif has got its own card where we entered:
• name of church
• district
• diocese
• the iconocraphical term
• the year or period when it was painted
• location in the church
• a eld for either further description or comments
• and an extra eld referring to the dating of the image.
Because this is a non-pietonal database which only refers to the individual motifs, we have decided to keep it strictly at the iconographical Ievel. This way, we have managed to make a systematic classi cation, and, as in the image database, these are all motifs referring to the Bible, apocrypha and legends.
At the linguistic Ievel we had to consider how to obtain an adequate classi cation without compromising the material. Take for example the saints. These might be depicted with tl1eir attributes, during their martyr dom or in a scene or several scenes from their legend. To avoid uncontrollable free text description in the motif field, they have only been described as, for example, St. Lawrence, and any further description is to be found in the comment- eld, which of course goes for all the motifs. This way, the classi cation is equal to the ICONCLASS-system. At the one hand you have to know what your are looking for, but on the other hand the database o ers a very precise reply on a given que . As in the image database the elds for the dating of the wall-paintings have been made munerical, which allows the use of the symbols „less than“, „less than or equal“, „greater than“, “ eater than or equal“ and „exact match“.9 The location of each individual motif is also described as in the image database.
For the time being, the image database is mainly used for research in motifs and di erent categories of motifs, whereas the iconographical database also is weil quali ed for quantitative analysis.
9 In this database there are no operators, but the following symbols can be used: range, ! = duplicates, // = todays date, ? = invalid date or time, @ = one character, * = zero or more characters, “ “ = Iitera! text.
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Quantitative Analysis and Visual Source Material
In Denmark, there is no tradition runeng medievalists to use quantitative analysis when it comes to comparable images, including wall-paintings. There are several reasons why, but rst of all because the wall-paintings mainly have been subject for individual iconographical analyses, which have Iead to a very exquisite iconographical identi cation.10 One might say that most of the research into wall-paintings in Denmark has been de ned by formalism as far as formalism in medieval studies is de ned, as the interpretation of that stresses the heavy or exclusive dominance of traditional standard images or motifs, etual coded formulas of representation and description.11 Within this point of view, there has not been room for quantitative analysis. This point of view is mostly emphasised by Danish historians. On the other hand, if the Danish historians use wall-paintings as source material at all, they mainly focus on what the wall-paintings might tell us about the everyday life of conunon people on the analogue Ievel,12 rather than analysing the wall-paintings as a whole.13 Besides, we have to admit that the material has not invited to such an extensive analysis because of the rather con sed way it has been organised until this database was made. Previously, medievialists had to use a register based on inaccurate index cards in a huge ling cabinet.14 All in all, this has, until now, just resulted in some ve vague guesses on the dispersion ofthe medieval Danish wall-paintings.
In general, it is up to the historian personally to decide whether the present source material is quali ed to be quantified, and subsequently to de ne any pre-conditions needed. A superior pre-condition when analysing source material quantitatively must be that it consist of a !arge number of quantitatively comparable phenomena. This is true for the medieval Danish wall-paintings. Some of the more important methodological problems that occur when analysing images quantitatively are in the rst place the question of representativeness, the iconographical classification of the images, how the wall-paintings have been dated, and whether the source material provides us with an adequate Ievel of infonnation.
10 Axel Bolvig, Kirkekunstens storhedstid Om kirker og kunst i Danmark i romansk Iid, 1992, p. 184.
1 1 Norman F. Cantor, /nventing the Middle Ages, The Lives, Works and ldeas oj the G r e a l M e di e v a l i s l s oj t h e Tw e n l i e l h C e n t u , 1 9 9 1 , p . 1 6 2 .
1 2 Morten Bjem & Oie Reiter, „Middelalderens billedbog“, Fortid og Nutid XXVll, 1978, p. 497.
13 exception is Axel Bolvig, Bondens billeder. Om kirker og kunst i nsk
senmi elalder, 1994.
14 This is placed at the National Museum, Copenhagen.
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The value of the wall-paintings as source material depends on what kind of research one is doing. Therefore, it is impossible to create a precise set of rules when it comes to the question of representativeness. A generat proble connected with the representativeness of the medieval Danish wall-paintings is how they have been brought to light. In the nal decades of the last century, museum conservators and historians employed at museums were mainly interested the Romanesque style, which meant that some of the younger Gothic wall-paintings might have been lost during restoration.15 On the other band, the museuro conse ators might have found a well-prese ed Gothic or post-Refo ation decoration covering the church. In that case, they did not Iook for older wall paintings in the Romanesque style,16 and, therefore, there might be some old decorations hidden behind Gothic wall-paintings. Besides, late medieval vaults and other extensions have destroyed and still hide some of the Romanesque wall-paintings. So, to a certain de ee we have to pay some attention to the fact that some wall-paintings might be hidden or lost.
Secondly, how to classi the images. When analysing the wall paintings quantitatively, it is a necessity to consider how the images are classi ed. We might argue that a contemporary campai of decoration should be considered as a whole without distinguishing between iconographically de ned images. By doing so we avoid the problems of de ning the iconographical levels within the images.17 But this implies that we have reduced the Ievel of the quantitative analysis so that we only can examine the chronology of the wall-paintings as a whole. Instead, if we use the iconographically de ned images, we have the possibilities to see not only the chronology of the wall-paintings as a whole, but also the chronology and the proportional size of di erent groups of motifs. Of course, there has to be an identical iconocraphica\ classiftcation as in tl1e previously described databases.
A third pre-condition of great importance is the dating of the wa\1- paintings. To categorise and use specific historical periods is in itself a forced and metl10dological simplification, but still a necessary pre condition to observe any statistic change. It is commonly known that
historians use expressions such as Romanesque and Gothic to describe medieval art and, to a certain point, to typi the style of architecture. And, of course, the wall-paintings are also to a certain degree de ned as
IS Though if found before having been destroyed, they are registered in the iconographical database.
16 Ulla Haastrup (ed.), „Danske kalkmalerier 1275- 1375“, Danske lkmalerier Vol. 3, 1989, p. 17.
1 7 Jes Wienberg. Den gotiske labyrinll. Middelalderen og kirke e i DG11mark, 1993, p. 120.
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Romanesque and Gothic. Though most of the medieval Danish wall paintings have been dated within a period of no more than 25 years, some of them are still just dated by style. But to use phrases as Romanesque and Gothic when making a quantitative analysis is problematic, and they should, therefore, be avoided. Firstly, because the two periods are not comparable, the Danish Romanesque period covers just a period of 1 50- 200 years and the Gothic style a period of 300 years. Secondly, because there is some disa eement how to use the phrases. They are used to describe ce ain historical periods as well as a speci c style, mostly without any distinguishing whether it is the style or the period being described. Consequently, this makes them inapplicable conce ing statistics.18
The last methodological problem, I am going to comment on, is whether the source material provides us with an adequate Ievel of information for a quantitative analysis. Before quantitative tendencies can be accepted, we have to make sure that we have enough information about the churches as well as wall-paintings within the geographic area of medieval Denmark, so that the analysis will be statistically justi able.
As mentioned before, there is some insecurity whether the own n ber ofwall-paintings are representative ofthe medieval Danish patte of decorations. But with the knowledge, we have today, most of the conservators and art historians conclude that all the medieval churches most likely had been decorated with wall-paintings.19 The number of churches with medieval Danish wall-paintings we know of today is approxi ately I 000. Compared with an estimated number not far o 2500 medieval Danish churches, we then know of at least 40% of the decorated churches today, and in the iconographical database we have infonnation on more than I I000 individual motifs within tl1ese churches. Though we do not know tl1e exact number of medieval Danish wall-paintings, the main issue is that we have the ve detailled icono aphical identi cation of the images. Unlike otl1er kinds of medieval imagery such as altarpieces and sculptures, which might have been removed from their origins, there are no doubts about the provenance of the wall-paintings. Almost 100% of the medieval Danish wall-paintings are still to be found were they had been painted20. Due to the Ievel of information provided by the source material as organised in the iconographical database, quantitative Iendeneies should be statistically justi able.
18 See the contribution of el Bolvig, Ars Longa – Vita Brevis, in this volume.
19 Ulla Haastrup (ed.), „Danske kalkmalerier 1575-1475“, Danske kalkma/erier Vol. 4, 1985, p. 16.
A few wall-paintings have been transferred to canvas during restauration and saved that way.
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Statistics
The Iack of quantitative analysis of the medieval Danish wall-paintings has resulted in some very vague guesses on the dispersion of them?1 Though the di erences between eastem and westem Denmark are weil known, there have not been done any statistics to show and speci the geographic variations. A quantitative analysis of the medieval Danish wall-paintings provides us not only with new knowledge about medieval Danish imagery, but also emphasises the diachronic as well as the synchronaus development of the wall-paintings. The rst wall-painted decorations in the
Danish churches were created at the end of 1 1 1h centu (diagram 1 ) Therea er, the amount of new wall-paintings increased, though with a Stagnation in the second half of the 141h centu . This might be due to the late medieval agrarian crisis in Denmark and, to a certain de ee, to the Black Death. The wall-paintings reached their climax at the end of the l 51h and beginning of the 16th century. Due to the fact that the dia am covers periods of 50 years, it is not possible to see how the Reformation in Denmark (1536) influenced the amount of new wall-paintings. One might believe that the Refonnation marked the ending of wall-paintings. It did not, but it meant a change in tl1e motifs and also a decrease in the number of wall-paintings. So, the climax of the wall-paintings is to be found in the period l 450-1536. ln this period of less than 1 00 years, more than 50% of all known wall-paintings were produced.
To show the syncltronous development of the medieval wall paintings, I have distributed the wall-paintings within the medieval dioceses to which they belonged (dia am 2) 12 This diagram showing the dispersion of tl1e wall-paintings clari es that most of the wall-paintings are located in tl1e eastem part of Derunark, in Ltmd and Roskilde dioceses. The di erences between eastem and westem Denmark might have been expected, but not with such a contrast. The diagram also reveals that the amount of new wall-paintings in Lund and Roskilde dioceses reached their climax in the period before 1 5 00, whereas the westem dioceses reached theirs a er 1500.
21 Ulla Haastrup (ed.), „Danske kalkmalerier 1575-1475“, Danske ka alerier Vol. 4, 1985,p. 17.
22 In Jutland we nd the dioceses of Berglum, Viborg, Arhus, Ribe and Slesvig. Odense diocese covers the islands ofFunen, Lolland, Falster and Als. Roskilde diocese covers Zealand and the island of Men. Lund diocese covers Scania, Halland, Blekinge, today part of Sweden, and the island ofBornholm.
.
29
�
� 0
Diagram1: Chronolo oftheDanishwall-paintingsintheperiod1100-1600.Thediagramcovers
each ofthe iconographically demarcated motifs, inscriptions, etc. that have been registered in the iconographic database.
w0
�
1
1�
Diagram 2: Chronolo ojthe Danish wa/1-painlings between 1/00 and 1600. Thediagramcoversallthewa/1-paintingshavingbeenregistered. 111eyareallocatedtothediocesesinwhichthechurchesaresituated.
It is an interesting aspect that there is a coherence between the dioceses that rst got 1ate medieval vaults and the dioceses that rst saw the climax of decorations. The avity of the new late medieval vaults is found at Zea1and23 and, part1y, in Lund diocese, the same dioceses where the amount of wall-paintings reached their climax rst. Furthe ore, the quantitative analysis reveals that there also is a coherence between the amount of new vaults and the increase of late medieva1 wa11-paintings. a wide belt from the northeast of Jutland to the southeast of medieval Denmark,24 we nd the churches itured with new late medieval vau1ts.25 It is in the same be1t where we nd the churches with renewed wall-paintings or decorations from the period 1 4 5 0 – 1 5 5 0 . This was the culmination of „Gothicisation“ in Denmark.26
Due to the fact that the iconographical database has an identical icono aphical classi cation, it is feasible to make the same kind of quantitative analysis with any major oup of motifs. obvious oup of motifs might be the saints because of their eat signi cance, being a part of ecclesiastical as weil as of secular life. „Certainly reminders of them were everywhere . . . . – engraved on drinking-cups and bowls, carved on lintels and gable-ends, their ve names given to children at baptism. Their i.mages lled the churches g ing down in polychrome glory from altar pieces and bracket, from windows and riches.“27
analysis of the quantitative tendencies of depicted saints (dia am 3) reminds of diagram I . The rst saints in the Danish wall-paintings date from the 1 1 th century as a part of Christian iconography. Then there is an increase in the amount of depicted saints, though with the same Stagnation as with the total amount of wall-paintings in the second half of the 14th century. Again we see a climax in the end ofthe 15°‘ and the beginning of the 16th century, when more than half of all the depicted saints were painted.
Jes Wienberg, Den gotiske labyrint. Middelalderen og kirke e i Danmark, 1993, p. I17. A
24 Covering the dioceses of Viborg, rhus, Odense, Roskilde and Lund.
2s Jes Wienberg, Den gotiske labyrint. Middelalderen og kirke e i Danmark, I 993, p. 1 18.
26 Jes Wienberg, „The Decline and Fall ofthe Church“, Visions ojthe Past. Trends and Traditions in SwedishMedievalArchaeolo , 1997, p. 460.
21 Quotation from Eamon Du , The Stripping ojthe Altars. Tradilional Religion in England 1400-1580, 1 992, p. 1 5 5 .
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Diagram 3: Chronolo ofdepictedsaints(I100-1550) comparedtothechronolo ofthe totalnumberofwall-paintings in the same period. As seen in the diagram, the saints played a signi cant rote in the wal!-paintings.
w
1500-1550
lt is not only in the total number of depicted saints that we see this increase. At the end of the Romanesque period, in the middle of the 13m century, we know of23 di erent depicted saints, but at the end of the 16m century we nd approximately 100 di erent depicted saints,28 some more popular than others. One might explain this development with a change from early medieval devotion to the saints focusing on their relics to late medieval devotion directed towards their images?9 Within the Danish late medieval wall-paintings the amount of di erent saints more than doubles in the period from 1400 to 1500, from 44 to 100. Here, I will only focus on one speci c saint, namely St. Lawrence, because he is to be found in the decorations from c. 1 1 5 0 and rther on as one of the most widespread
saints. 3° From the beginning of the 15th century depictions of St. Lawrence are found all over the count . Most of these Danish late medieval depictions of saints and their martyrdom are very violent, they can be paralle1ed with the description of Remiel’s . „The most horri c and violent deaths in Remiel’s occur not in political or even in pagan history but in his depiction of sacred time in the Mirair historial.“31 C lle also describes the martyrdom of St. Denis: „The saint’s disciple is decapitated by a grinning executioner on the le , and in front centre stands the saintly bishop, his halo still hanging like a sunrise over an oval red sea where his head should be. He cahnly holds tbe mitred head, it eyes closed – a dead head – in his living hands.“32 In Denmark, we nd the most horri c and violent deaths depicted in the wall-paintings when we, for instance, see St. Lawrence lying at the gridiron calmly smiling to the four executioners saying „Assatus sum“, or wben he is being whipped and tortured in other ways.
The many depictions of St. Lawrence at Zealand have been explained as images not for the peasants or as pa of popular culture but as images for the ruling class as a defence and justification of the pope and the ecclesiastical instiMions through underlining their bene cent activities. Another explanation used, is that he was depicted because of political and theological reasons/3 or even for the church to reform itsel 34 These
28 All diagrams at: http: .kalkmalerier.dk/englis feature/chartlintrodia.htm
Eamon Du , The Stripping of the Altars. Traditiona/ Religion in England 1400- 1580, 1992, p. 167.
30 In the period I ISO-l550 we nd 125 depictions of St. Lawrence in the wall paintings.
31 QuotationfromMichaelCamille,MasterofDeath,1996,p.118. 32QuotationfromMichaelCamille,MasterofDeath, 1996,p. 118.
33 Seren Kaspersen, „Om folkelighed og ufolkelighed i senmiddelalderligt v gmaleri“, Kunst, sam md, kunst – En hi/sen til Broby, 1987, p. 2 1 .
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explanations have also been used to describe the growth of other saints. This is due to fonnalism. Most of the Danish researchers have sought to explain a continuity from the Romanesque imagery to Iate medieval imagery, when the wall-paintings were seen as the product of a deeply le ed, historically minded and a luent elite joint continuously over the centuries in which this elite was part of the ruling class, and the painters under the pa onage of the ruling-class families and royal institutions 35 But saints such as St. Lawrence and other very popular saints, or just the majority of saints appea ng in the Danish late medieval wall-paintings, are more likely to be seen those regarded with most a ection by Iate medieval men and women. The quantity in both the number of different saints as weil as the total munber of saints suggest this. From the period 1350-1450 we know of 347 individual depicted saints, which in the period 1450-1536 ew to 1 397 depictions.36 The most frequent group of saints are the apostles and other saints from the New Testament. This is natural because they were the collective symbol of saints, they represented the whole heavenly hierarchy as weil as being the primary witnesses of the C ci xion and Resu ection of Christ, whose image they supported.37 Therea er, we have a large oup of martyrs who are ve frequently depicted,38 such as St. Christopher, Martin, George, Catharine and Barbara, among others. It is di cult to imagine tl1at all these saints were depicted as a result ofpolitical and theological considerations dictated by a landowner. Many factors a ected the pattem of depicted saints, but it is unlikely that the church should have tried to refonn itself by using depictions of St. Lawrence or other ma yrs.39 Economically, the period was in favour of the peasants. In the late Middle Ages, the Danish peasants in ilie villages developed a high degree of collective autonomy, iliough being under total jurisdiction of their lords 40 The landowners had their land spread over many parishes which did not give the landowner any direct a iliation to the churches in the parishes where the land was placed.
34 S“ren Kaspersen, „Om folkelighed og ufolkelighed i senmiddelalderligt v gmaleri“, Kunst, sam md, kunst – En hilsen tilBroby, 1987, p. 30.
35 This point ofview has especially been stressed by Soren Kaspersen, „Om folkelighed og ufolkelighed i senmiddelalderligt v gmaleri“, Kunst, sam md, lamst – En hi/sen til Broby, 1987, p.9-33.
36 http:// w.kalkmalerier.dk/english/featurelchart/25/25htm
37 Eamon Du , The Stripping of the Altars. Traditiona/ Religion in England 1400- 1580, 1992, p. 158.
3 8 http://www.kalkmalerier.dk/english/featurelcha /26/26htm
39 Axel Bolvig. Bondens billeder. Om kirker og mst 1 nsk senmi elalder, 1 994, p. 88.
4 0 Anders Beg, „Feudalisering og bondekommunalisme, Danmark i senmi el alderen“, 1994, p. I04-5.
35
The landowner’s interest in a church was naturally directed on the parish church where he lived himself.41 Therefore, it is di cult to imagine that all these saints were depicted as a result of political and theological considerations dictated by a landowner in late medieval society.
The use of Inte et databases provides us with a very e ective tool, which can be used in qualitative as weil as in quantitative analyses. The database can tell us about the use of i ages of saint, which was more related to their popularity among people than to the religious and political use by the top of society.
41 el Bolvig. Bondens bi eder. Om kirker og kunst i dansk senmidde/alder, 1994, p. 85.
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MEDIUM AEVUM QUOTIDIANUM
39
KREMS 1998
HE USGEGEBEN VON GERHARD JARITZ
GEDRUCKT MIT UNTERSTÜTZUNG DER KULTURABTEILUNG DES AMTES DER NIEDERÖSTERREICHISCHEN LANDESREGIERUNG
Titelgraphik: Stephan J. Tramer
Herausgeber: Mediwn Aevwn Quotidianum. Gesellscha zur Erforschung der materiellen Kultur des Mittelalters, Kö ermarkt 13, A-3500 Krems, Österreich. Für den Inhalt verantwortlich zeichnen die Autoren, olme deren ausdrückliche Zustimmung jeglicher Nachdmck, auch in Auszügen, nicht gestattet ist. – Dmck: KOPITU Ges. m. b. H., Wiedner Hauptstraße 8-10, A-l050 Wien.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Vorwort…………………………………………………………………………………….. 5
elBolvig,DanishWall-paintings-anIntroduction………………………… 7
elBolvig,Ars/onga-vitabrevis………………………………………………. 9
Jesper Jerre Borrild, Medieval Danish Wall-paintings-
anInte etDatabase………………………………………………………….. 21
AnnedorteVad,Devilshere,thereandeverywhere…………………………. 37
Steen Schj0dt Christensen, Mysterious Images –
Grimacing, Grotesques, Obscene, Popular:
Anti-orConunentaryImages?…………………………………………….. 55 Martin Bo N0rregärd, The Concept ofLabour
intheDanishMedievalWall-paintings…………………………………. 76 el Bolvig, Images ofLate Medieval ‚DailyLife‘:
AHistoryofMentalities…………………………………………………….. 94
Annamäria Kovacs, Costumes as Symbols.
The Pictorial Representations of the Legend of
KingLadislas of Hungary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Anca Golg tan, Family, Patronage, and istic Production:
The Apa s and Mäläncrav (Almakerek, Malmkrog),
Sibiu District, in Transylvania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
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Vorwort
Medium Aevum Quotidianum legt mit He 39 einen Band vor, welcher sich schwerpunktartig mit der Analyse von Bildquellen, vor allem Wandmalerei, auseinandersetzt Die Autoren der Beiträge stammen aus zwei Institutionen, in denen Bilddokumentation und Analyse konzentriert betrieben werden: dem Department of Histo an der Universität Kopenhagen und dem Department of Medieval Studies an der Central European University, Budapest. Das erstgenannte Institut ist besonders durch seine Digitalisierung des Gesamtbestandes dänischer Wandmalerei bekannt geworden, der über das Inte et allgemein zugänglich geworden ist und als Basis für umfassende qualitative und quantitative Bilduntersuchungen herangezogen werden kann. Das Depa ment of Medieval Studies der CEU konzentriert sich in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Institut für Realienkunde des Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenscha en auf die Sammlung, Katalogisierung, Dokumentation und Analyse zentraleuropäischen Bildmaterials. Die VerfLigbarkeit des aufgearbeiteten Bestandes via Inte et ist in Vorbereitung.
Medium Aevum Quotidianum ist nun auch mittels Inte et erreichbar (http:// .imareal.oeaw.ac.at/maq/). Im Augenblick bieten wir das Inhaltsverzeichnis aller seit unserer Gründung im Jahre 1982 erschienenen Bände. Aktuelle Informationen, Links zu anderen, uns wichtig erscheinenden Websites sowie Berichte werden in Zukun das Service ngebot erweite .
Gerhard Jaritz, Herausgeber
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