MASTERPIECES IN WOOD - Medieval Wood-Carvers in Norrland

Paradoxically, Swedish pictorial art lost its distinctive character at the very time when the country became a unified nation. Prior to this, during the period of the migrations and the age of the Vikings, i.e. between 600 and 1100, a totally unique artistic world had developed. Our early Viking silversmiths and bronze founders combined technical expertise with a well-developed feeling for the principles of artistic creation. They wove together slender, very stylised figures in intricate patterns on a highly abstract level, and were responsible for pictorial images without parallel in other parts of the world.

This Scandinavian distinctiveness can be traced right up to the missionary phase and can be studied today on stave-church doorways and rune stones. But when the Catholic Church took a firmer hold, it distanced itself from these "hedonistic" pictures, and a tidal wave of general European motifs and styles invaded our shores - a harbinger of new and foreign influences which, at a stroke, were to wash away our own ancient traditional forms. At the same time, the Church played an active role in the process leading up to political unification, which explains why, in artistic respects, we lost our national identity just as Sweden was emerging as a nation.

During the Middle Ages, i.e. the period from the start of the 12th century to the Reformation during the 1520s, Sweden was part of the community of Europe.

Through the agency of the Church, we became part of the development which was taking place in the world at large. But, seen from a European perspective, it was hardly a matter of a mutual exchange of ideas. Sweden was the recipient party, and barely made any contribution to the common development which was taking place.

There are, therefore, a large number of pictures from our early Romanesque period which closely resemble the international models on which they were based and which, in many cases, were requisitioned or were imported in a finished state.

One of Europe's finest Romanesque madonnas can be found in Skellefteå Rural Parish Church. It originates from the continent, where it had been carved in walnut during the 12th century, many hundreds of years before Skellefteå had any church. We have no idea how it finally arrived there. It may possibly have been ordered for a church in Uppland, but during the late Middle Ages came to be seen as so hopelessly out-dated that it was relocated to a remote part of the then archdiocese. There, together with similar pictures, it subsequently exerted an influence on Norrland wood-sculptors up to as late as the 16th century. In the south of Sweden the situation was different. Certainly, the imports were to be of great significance during the whole of the Middle Ages, but soon domestic artists emerged who, in all essentials, associated themselves with the stylistic ideals found on the continent and to the best of their ability sought to follow general European trends.

Most Swedish art from the Middle Ages constitutes a well-integrated part of a larger Catholic complex and distinguishes itself from its models only in that it gradually took on an increasingly provincial character - which should not be understood as a negative appraisal. On the contrary, we are justifiably immensely proud, for example, of our rich treasury of murals, but from a European perspective they need to be compared with contemporary paintings in e.g. Italy and France.

Sweden was a remote part of Europe, and quite simply one can say that Norrland had a relationship with the south of Sweden similar to that which the south of Sweden had with Europe. There were delays of several years before the stylistic trends which developed with the construction of French cathedrals and in German workshops reached Stockholm, and the road north from there was both long and winding. There are many indications that, at the beginning, Trondheim had more significance for Norrland than did Uppsala. In Jämtland, and in a wide area to the east, down towards the coast, we find a group of slender, extremely elegant wooden sculptures of a type which is wholly absent from the country's more southern parts. They came into existence during the 13th century and are strongly characterised by English stylistic features, a result of English influences coming in via Norway.

The 14th century was a poor, unhappy century throughout our country, but some remarkable crucifixes and madonnas from that period have been preserved in Norrland. None of this work can be considered as being specific to Norrland, but some of it is of very high quality. The processional crucifix, which belongs to the Chapel at Storsjö in Härjedalen, was undoubtedly imported and is one of the most notable from this period in Europe. In other cases, the material, pine, suggests that certain works were carved by active local sculptors who nevertheless faithfully followed international designs. Like the Skellefteå Madonna at a later date, the imported works may have been taken from some churches in Uppland, where there had been a little more sensitivity to variations in fashion. The distinctiveness of Norrland first became really apparent during the decades around 1500 i.e. the final phase of the Middle Ages. At that time a large group of distinctive carvers emerged quite suddenly. They were associated with some large workshops which, during a short period of economic boom, furnished the churches of Norrland with a considerable number of triptychs and images of saints.

This notable expansion took place during a period when painters and sculptors on the continent contemptuously turned their backs on the Middle Ages in order, instead, to associate themselves with the ideals of form that had characterised art in antiquity. It was the time of the Renaissance, and the centuries after the decline and fall of the Roman Empire were considered an interim period of darkness and barbarity. Such ideas never reached Norrland - they had not even crossed our borders when Gustav Vasa and the Reformation cut off, at a stroke, the Bow of inspiration from the continent which for 400 years had determined developments in our country. The Norrland artists were never distracted by any of the demands of the Renaissance; they felt no need for a rebirth and spiritual renewal. They were secure in their traditions and followed quietly in the steps of their medieval predecessors. Their notability does not lie in new and subversive formative principles, but in the way they gave expression to their talents.

In contrast to their contemporaries south of the Alps, the artists north of Uppland were hardly concerned with the need to preserve their individual identities. They worked collectively, often at very specialised tasks, in large workshops where there was little scope for individual inventiveness. Some of them, however, did possess an artistic integrity strong enough to ensure, even working within strictly defined limits, the creation of some of the period's most expressive works of art. Their artistic personalities are not the product of goal-conscious efforts to create their own, unique identities, but paradoxically of their total submission to and imperturbable faith in tradition.

As has been pointed out above, there is a rich treasury of wooden sculptures in the churches of Norrland from all phases of the Middle Ages. These works reflect English, French, German and southern Scandinavian stylistic features - an importation which did not cease until after the Reformation. In other words, the artists did not lack models, but what was unique to Norrland was that there the artists of the late Middle Ages showed very little interest in the development of styles. They had no need to appear modern and aware of the times, but happily blended features from many different periods - even often drawing on the distant past. This has led to the situation where some style-fixated art theorists have been unable to understand the distinctive qualities of Norrland's artistic works. In the history of Swedish art, the group is given only a passing mention and in the outside world it is totally unknown. This is remarkable for an era of which our academically nurtured naivists have shown immeasurable appreciation. Norrland's carvers of the late Middle Ages were certainly not naivists, but they possessed, in a natural way, many of the qualities which modern naivists have sought to imitate through various devices. By present-day standards, they can perhaps be said to be naive in the best sense of the word. Naivity and naivism are, as is well known, not the same thing. There is nothing artificial about the Norrland artists but rather a warm-hearted intimacy and total lack of consciousness about the trends of the era, which means that what they actually created were some of our country's most individual works of art.

Only one member of this large, anonymous circle is known by name. On the bottom of a triptych in Enånger he has written carefully in large letters: "Jag Haaken Gulleson Målare" ('I, Haaken Gulleson, Painter'). The same name reappears on further pieces, amongst others on a large image of the Virgin Mary in Bollnäs, the clear sculptural features of which are of a completely different in character from the triptych. These works, in other words, were carved by two totally different sculptors, but both were painted by Haaken Gulleson. In the scant literature which touches upon these questions, Haaken Gulleson has been portrayed as a sculptor, and his name, the only one to survive, has been linked to an enormous number of works. This is implausible for many reasons.

He was a painter and was probably also in charge of a large studio, which possibly explains why his name alone has been handed down to posterity. However, he should by no means be given the credit for the incontestable distinctiveness and artistic quality of the productions. In a triptych there are usually two types of painting. One part consists of the brushed ornamentation and the sculpted, painted figures, the other consists of the two dimensional pictorial portrayals on the panel doors. In examples of the work from Haaken Gulleson's workshop, the latter are rather simple. The group's notability thus hardly rests with its painters. It is the picture-carvers who, with their unique feeling for form and strong expressive powers, created the basis for the product's eventual absolute distinctiveness. The sculptural character is especially prominent in the face of the figure. The form, as a whole, is very stylised, and has a pronounced plasticity. All details are omitted and the faces are constructed in large, whole forms by matching concave and convex surfaces. In contrast to this extreme, almost cubist, simplification there is the meticulous formation of the curls in the hair and the beard, and this often gives the finished product a pronounced ornamental character.

In traditional art history, Haaken Gulleson's group has usually been portrayed in negative terms and has often been described as consisting of clumsy bunglers.

This is not only extremely unfair, but also completely mistaken. On the contrary, they were extremely capable and well-trained professionals. Even if the painting is in many cases strikingly simple, in technical appearance it can indeed be compared favourably with the output from contemporary continental workshops. While almost all wooden sculptures from the southern and central parts of Sweden have today lost their original colour and gilding, their Norrland equivalents remain in many cases amazingly fresh and well preserved.