medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
A review of six hundred forty five halos on the figures of God, Christ, the
Dove of the Holy Ghost, and the Virgin Mary found three hundred thirty eight
too unclear to be categorized. They were unclear for several reasons, loss
of detail through time, unclear because the image on the slide was too small
to be seen clearly and lack of contrast in the halo coloration. This left
three hundred seven images to be classified. There five attachments for this
document, one for each of stylistic periods. The images in an attachment are
images first found during that stylistic period.
Early in the work it became clear that there were only three basic halos,
the simplest being the empty space in the circular outline. This may be seen
as Rom 6. The second basic halo was the Romanesque halo of molded plaster.
This was in a circular form, with scallops around the edges as shown in Rom
1.
The halos derived from Rom 1 were painted and show several adaptations of
the three dimensional images. The third basic form of halo was the
cruciform, where a design element was used to form a cross on the halo.
Painters in the time span 1250-1600 frequently mixed the two last basic
forms to create innovative images.
The wall paintings in Denmark are divided into the Romanesque period,
1100-1250, the Transitional period, 1250-1350, the High Gothic period,
1350-1400, the Late Gothic period 1400-1525 and the Renaissance period,
1525-1600. Denmark became Lutheran about 1530, so it is safe to say that the
wall paintings in the Renaissance period, were painted in Lutheran churches,
and reflect the changes in theological thought.
The Isefjord Workshop uses a unique halo found in none of the other churches
in Denmark. The halo uses a square mounted on another square (look at
Ferslev on the attachment for Transitional halos) as in, Ferslev, dated
1250. (I apologize for the poor quality of the reproduction, but this is
copy of a copy of a halftone reproduction. You can however see the shape of
the image.) This cross end is described as follows in "Danmarks kirker".
"Part of the original cross for the rood in Figure 18. The holes along the
edges were for precious stones. There are traces of brown pigment on the
cross, the tree of life symbol shows traces of green and there are traces of
silver compounds on the rectangular field on the end of the cross."
The other two arms of the halo are copies of the top moved either 90° right
or left.
The Isefjord Workshop worked in northern Sjaelland, about 50 kilometers west
and a little north from Copenhagen about 1450. The workshop painted in the
following churches, Herlev, Maaloev, Lynge, Noerre Herlev, Over Draby, Kirke
Hyllinge, Vallensbaek, Reerslev, Tuse, Soender Asmindrup, Moerkoev,
Skamstrup and Bregninge. Noerre Herlev has an example of this unique halo.
Look at LG 9. In the years before the Isefjord Workshop was formed, besides
the example dated 1250 above, the following churches had roods with the same
type of ends as the example from Ferslev. Foellenslev, c.1400, Sigersted,
c.1400, Gimlinge, 1400-1440, Fuglebjerg, 1400-50, Vester Vanned, 1400-1450,
Ho, 1425, Nustrup, 1425, Agerskov, 1425, Bevtoft, 1425, Bested, 1425,
Pedersborg, 1450, Oede-Foerslev, 1450. The Isefjord Workshop may have
derived their halo from rood cross in one of these churches. These other
churches named are the minimum that might be considered Late Gothic.
Nustrup, 1475, Brede, 1475, Rislev, 1475-1500, Tjaerebjerg, 1475-1500, and
Broendum 1475-1500.
Please remember that many of these crosses had "holes along the edges were
for precious stones."
And that the painted images may have followed by using painted "precious
stones".
All single dates should be read as "±20 years"
All of this information is abstracted from my slide collection and "Danmarks
kirker", a publication of the National Museum in Copenhagen.
If you want any, or all, of the attachments, please let me know and I'll
send them.
Good hunting, Jim.
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