The Art of the Late Middle Ages (1250–1400) 4. Art of Scandinavia

The Gothic era, like the Romanesque, did not give Scandinavia an integral and original artistic style.

But the island of Gotland further artistic development completely stopped. The ruins of two hall churches, St. Nicholas and Catherine, rebuilt in the XIII century., With their pointed arches, framed by ivy, do not give the impression of consistent Gothic buildings. The conquest of the capital of Gotland, Visby by the Danes (1361), brought an end to the prosperity of the “Queen of the East”, and the invasion of the Lyuberks (1525) turned it into one of the most majestic cities in the world of ruins.

The complete transition from the Romanesque to the high Gothic style is represented by the Linkoping Cathedrals in Sweden and Trondheim in Norway. During the third construction period of Linköping Cathedral, which lasted from 1280 to 1350, it was rebuilt into a hall church. Round columns were turned into octagonal, and then into typical beam columns; The window frames received a rich gothic finish. In the last construction period of the Tonheim Cathedral, which lasted until the end of the 13th century, a longitudinal corpus was attached to the choir, performed in the early English style of the first third of this century, producing with its two western towers and rich portals the impression of an early German Gothic construction. The gothic choir of the cathedral in Stavanger and after 1272 retained the forms of the early English style (Early english; see fig. 180), while the cathedral in Skara, which was resumed after 1300 in the Gothic style, is supported by beam columns with profiles, rather, of French type The Cathedral in Uppsala stands out of brick basil, the ornamental parts of which, however, are carved from hewn stone. His choir with a base in the form of a half decagon is provided with a roundabout and a crown of chapels. A significant height corresponds to its developed system of buttresses. In the forms of beam pillars, in the weaving of window frames, in the style of sculptural stone works, traces of the activity of the French colony of stonecutters, called up to Sweden in 1287, are visible. However, in the later parts of the cathedral German-Baltic influences, especially in the western part, a pair of slender and tall towers. The church of the monastery of St. Brigitte in Wadsten, in Sweden (construction started in 1388). Three equal in height nave, located in width, with five naves in length and rectangular-cut choir influenced even the church of the Order of St.. Brigitte on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea. The simplicity and spaciousness of this system spoke for themselves.

Consideration of the visual arts of this epoch in the Scandinavian north is of no particular importance for ascertaining the historical development of styles. All the interesting things that can be found in Scandinavia, for example, tombstones, easel paintings and other convenient for transportation artistic works, for the most part are brought here from the Lower Germanic countries. The medieval church frescoes of Denmark, as Magnus-Petersen admitted and P. Weber insisted on this, represent “the colonial reflections of medieval artistic movements in Germany”. It should be noted that all the same in details in them separate national features affect.