Medieval stained glass in Sweden
The surviving amount of medieval stained glass in Sweden is relatively small, compared to some other European countries.
[4] Judging from both written sources and archaeological discoveries, it was common to decorate churches lying within the current borders of Sweden with stained glass during the entire Middle Ages.
[1] It may also be noted that between 1440 and 1540, at least eleven glaziers are known to have been active in Stockholm (at least one of them seems to originally have been German), but whether or not it can be assumed that it was part of their skill set to also produce decorated glass is a matter of differing opinions.
[3][8] Like in the rest of Catholic Europe, stained glass windows played a role in conveying Christian themes and stories to the congregation.
The exposed position and brittle material of the glass windows meant that the majority were lost to storms, fires and violence during the subsequent centuries.
[10] During the second half of the 19th century, the churches of Gotland furthermore suffered when individual window panes were removed and sold or given to private collectors, including public figures like King Charles XV of Sweden and painter Anders Zorn.
A research team under the leadership of art historian Johnny Roosval took this opportunity to make a close study of all of the window panes, and published the results in a book in 1950.
[15] In 1964, art historian Aron Andersson published a complete inventory of all known medieval stained glass windows in Sweden.
[16][17] In the standard multi-volume art history of Sweden Signmus svenska konstistoria from 1996, Mereth Lindgren mentions only three of the notnames invented by Roosval.
[19] The total area of medieval stained glass amounts to about 60 square metres (650 sq ft), most of it from the time period between 1225 and 1350.
[20] Compared with a country like France or the United Kingdom, it is however a very small amount; the remaining medieval stained glass in Sweden would not suffice to decorate a middle-sized Gothic cathedral.
[21] Although stemming from a relatively short period of time, and despite the fact that a reduced number of window panes remain, certain stylistic characteristics and trends can be identified among the stained glass from Sweden.
[25] The oldest stained glass windows preserved in situ in Sweden are found in Dalhem Church on Gotland.
[25] The Byzantine influence, as seen e.g. in the representation of Christ Pantocrator in Dalhem, thus probably arrived with craftsmen from western Germany, who are also known to have been active as tradesmen on the island at this time.
[32] Apart from Dalhem, window panes of broadly the same style and age are also known from Atlingbo, Barlingbo, Eksta, Endre, Lojsta, Rone, Sjonhem and Väskinde churches.
[34] Aron Andersson is critical of this assumption but notes that the composition has elements which would develop in many International Gothic works of art, and cites especially the contrapposto of the figures in the Crucifixion scene in Klinte.
[42][43] The Gothic character is expressed through elongated, ethereal figures, an airy composition, a delicate ornamentation, and a cooler scale of colours.
In some panes the iconography is also decidedly Gothic (e.g. in the depiction of one of the figures in the mocking of Jesus scene), even though the representation of subject matter on Gotland remained conservative.
