Åbo Akademi: Open Journal Systems
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Tubal-Kain och den mystiske smeden i Öja
Full text linkTitle: Tubal-Kain and the Mysterious Blacksmith in Öja, GotlandOn the late-Gothic north portal of Öja Church in southern Gotland, a strange human figure lies stretched out on top of the colonnettes. Dressed in a long robe and a peculiar hat, with a full beard and long curly hair, he is holding a hammer and a tong, which in turn grips a horseshoe. That he is a blacksmith seems obvious, but nothing else indicates his identity. Who is he, what is he doing there, and when did he get there? In previous research this figure is habitually identified as St Eligius or St Dunstan, both patron saints of blacksmiths. On the basis of his attributes, position in the portal and the contemporary literary and iconographic context, especially the immensely popular Speculum humanae salvationis, the author reviews the grounds for this assumption and argues for a new solution to the question of the smith’s identity: Tubal Cain, the antediluvian inventor of the craft of smithery and working of iron. However, none of these identifications can be considered secure: it is quite possible that we are dealing with a portrait of a local chieftain or magnate whose prominent position is legitimized by the addition of saintly attributes
Iconography of the Labour Movement. Part 2: Socialist Iconography, 1848–1952
Full text linkThis is Part 2 of a two-part study which aims at preliminary conclusions regarding the iconography of the international labour movement. Earlier research in the fields of social history, art history and visual rhetorics has been consulted for this purpose. After 1848, emerging socialist parties and labour unions depended on republican iconography for their manifestation of collective identity. The republican virtues of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity remained important, but Fraternity was gradually replaced or merged with Unity and Solidarity. In a process akin to the identification of the goddess of Liberty with a more common “Marianne”, the representation of Unity and manual work in socialist iconography became focused on images of individual male or female workers. In earlier prints and illustrations, these representations have strong affinities with how the concept of labour was personified in official monuments of the same period. Later, the doctrine of socialist solidarity between agricultural and industrial workers transformed the bipartite iconographic scheme of earlier personifications of Unity into a representation of agriculture and industry, or country and city. After 1917, the dilemma of how to represent dual aspects of society and its functions also included questions about the representations of the socialist leader. The Hjalmar Branting monument in Stockholm serves as an example of how the iconography of reformist social democracy is not always comparable to Soviet socialist realism
A Legacy of Resistance: The Case of the Freckenhorst Baptismal Font
Full text linkSince 1823 the consecration date of 1129 for the Church of St. Boniface, inscribed on the Freckenhorst baptismal font from the imperial convent of St. Boniface (Westphalia, Germany), has continued to be considered, by some, the date for when the font was carved. For over two hundred years this precocious date has divided academic communities, despite the numerous and comprehensive counter arguments asserting that the font is a later twelfth century if not early thirteenth century vessel. This raises the question, “Why has there been such resistance to recognize this vessel as a later product of the prolific Westphalian stone industry?” This article reviews the historiography to uncover the roots of the ‘sanctified status’ that the Freckenhorst font acquired over the centuries from the post-Imperial period of Germany through the two World Wars. The literature reveals not only why the Freckenhorst font came to symbolize ‘Germanic ingenuity’ for German art historians but also the challenges and changes within the evolving discipline of art history and the scholarly networks that connected art historians in the first half of the twentieth century
“Quale sit intus in his” – A Note about Abbot Suger’s Bronze Doors in Saint-Denis
Full text linkThis article is merely a note on the reading of Abbot Suger’s inscription on his gilded bronze doors on Saint-Denis’s west façade, handed down through his own writing De rebus in administratione sua gestis from 1144/45–1148/49. In particular the discussion concerns the translation of the second and sixth verses of the eight-line inscription, and the understanding of in his in verse six constitutes its focal point. In this new reading the focus is on the rhetorical use of gold to emulate the nature of spiritual light, which, when seen with the inner eye of faith, is able to lift the mind of the beholder towards the vision of eternal bliss. The author does not go into a closer discussion of the sources of Suger’s inspiration, Pseudo-Dionysius or a Western tradition in a broader sense, but his argument is based on the view that lumina vera specifically refer to Christ’s work of redemption, represented in the golden reliefs of the doors. Further support for this reading is provided by a reference to an inscription on a Danish golden frontal from around 1200
Christer Jonson, Eva Sjöstrand & Bengt af Geijerstam: Änglar och drakar. Gotlands kyrkor en kulturskatt, Visby 2018
Full text linkIconography of the Labour Movement. Part 1: Republican Iconography, 1792–1848
Full text linkThis is the first article in a two-part study of the background and development of the iconography of the international socialist labour movement. With the breakthrough of modern political ideologies after the American and French revolutions, the symbols of freemasonry long remained an important point of reference for new iconographic systems serving secular propagandistic needs. The virtues and vices of classical moral education were replaced or combined with new ones, and old symbols were invested with altered meanings in the context of political satire and allegory. The human and especially the female body retained prominence as a vehicle for conceptual personification in official display and in the minds of common people. After September 21, 1792 (the abolition of the French monarchy), the attempt to replace Christian religion with a cult of the Goddess of Liberty and other associated entities proved, however short-lived, to be of lasting iconographic significance. The rise of liberal democracy and the modern nation state meant that le peuple (common people) was now seen as an organic entity with a common will. Between 1792 and 1848, republican iconography provided allegorical representations of how this relationship between state and population was conceived. It offered symbols and personifications that later became integral to the political and agitational practises of the labour movement. This heritage was double-edged, however. Elements signifying governmental stability were combined with those associated with revolt and dissent. Symbols of rational progress were combined with religious or metaphysical symbolism
Opinion of Advocate General Hogan in Case C-336/19 Centraal Israëlitisch Consistorie van België and Others, ECLI:EU:C:2020:695
Full text linkAdvocate General (AG) Hogan advised the Court of Justice (ECJ) on 10 September 2020 that the Flemish legislation prohibiting the slaughter of animals without stunning, including animals slaughtered using special methods required for religious rites, is contrary to EU law
Gripsholmstavlorna åter omtolkade. En kommentar till Herman Bengtssons artikel i ICO nr 1/2, 2019
Full text linkTitle: The 16th-century paintings from Gripsholm Castle interpreted once again. Some notes on Herman Bengtsson’s article in ICO nr 1/2, 2019Adding a new interpretation to those previously presented, Herman Bengtsson takes a step towards clarity and another towards uncertainty. A hypothesis based on a hypothesis reduces any certainty. The small watercolour drawings of the lost paintings have not been analysed thoroughly enough to serve as historical sources. There seems to be two ways of treating the paintings, either as exempla or as a representation of contemporary history. In both cases the paintings could well be compared to tapestries, which Bengtsson also suggests. When it comes to exempla my main objection is that the identification of the story as depicting Virginia or Lucretia is not sufficiently well-founded. The illustration of Virginia’s death in the Latin-German Ab Urbe-edition of 1533 is used as Camilla’s death in the 1523 edition. Thus Lucretia’s history need not be based on the so-called Virginia illustration since she appears on her own in all the editions up to the 1570s. There are better grounds for treating the paintings as visualising the history of Erik XIV. The earliest certain notation (1715) points to this and the clothes depicted in the copies are more modern than those shown in Ab Urbe. Since almost nothing that could be called fact is known about the lost paintings, construing a hypothesis that is not based on the information from 1715 only increases the uncertainty
