Having posted myself on her feast day last week A new history of Syon Abbey, I now see that John Dillon has posted on the Medieval Religion discussion group a splendid series of medieval images of St Bridget (Birgitta) of Sweden. These indicate the popularity of this saint in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries across much of north-west Europe. They also onvey the quality of later medieval Scandinavian ecclesiastical art. I have been able to open and paste some, but others - and all are worth seeing - readers will need to click on themselves:
a) as depicted (at lower right, experiencing her vision of the Nativity) by Niccolò di Tommaso in a later fourteenth-century panel painting (between 1373 and circa 1380) in the Pinacoteca Vaticana:
b) as depicted (at lower left, experiencing her vision of the Nativity) by Turino Vanni in a late fourteenth- or earlier fifteenth-century panel painting (between 1395 and 1433) in the Museo Nazionale di San Matteo, Pisa:
c) as portrayed in a late fourteenth- or early fifteenth-century wooden statue in the monastery church of the BVM and St. Birgitta in Vadstena (Östergötlands län):
d) as depicted in two illuminations in the earlier fifteenth-century Burnet Psalter (Aberdeen University Library, AUL MS 25, fols. 28v, 61r):
e) as depicted (tempted by a devil whilst writing) in the earlier fifteenth-century frescoes of Nørre Tranders kirke, Nørre Tranders (Nordjylland):
f) as portrayed in an earlier fifteenth-century wooden statue (ca. 1425-1435) in the monastery church of the BVM and St. Birgitta in Vadstena (Östergötlands län):
g) as depicted by Johannes Rosenrod in two of his earlier fifteenth-century frescoes (1437) in Tensta kyrka, Uppsala kommun (Uppsala län):
1) Receiving a revelation:
2) with Urban VI:
h) as portrayed (at right; at left, St. Gertrude) in a statue belonging to the recently restored earlier fifteenth-century Kumla Altar (1439-1440; made in Lübeck) from Kumla kyrka, Kumla kommun (Örebro län), now in the Historiska Museet in Stockholm:
i) as depicted (at left) in a mid-fifteenth-century triptych (betw. 1440 and 1455) by the Master of Pratovecchio, formerly in the Getty and sold at auction by Sotheby's, New York on 27. January 2011:
http://tinyurl.com/pzb2m4f
http://tinyurl.com/pzb2m4f
j) as portrayed in a mid-fifteenth-century wooden statue, perhaps of German origin, from Padasjoen kirkko / Padasjoki kyrka (Pirkanmaan maakunta / landskapet Birkaland) in the Suomen Kansallismuseo, Helsinki:
Detail view:
k) as portrayed (at center) in the great mid-fifteenth-century altarpiece (betw. 1455 and 1459; made in Lübeck) of the monastery church of the BVM and St. Birgitta in Vadstena (Östergötlands län):
http://tinyurl.com/o8habz9
http://tinyurl.com/o8habz9
Detail view (Birgitta):
http://tinyurl.com/pb7nzfu
http://tinyurl.com/pb7nzfu
A digitally restored view of the altarpiece can be seen here:
l) as portrayed in a later fifteenth-century statue (betw. 1450 and 1500) in an altarpiece from Törnevalla kyrka in Törnevalla, Linköpings kommun (Östergötlands län), now in the Historiska Museet in Stockholm:
St Bridget is at the centre of the altarpiece:http://tinyurl.com/q95p98f
Detail view:
m) as portrayed in a later fifteenth-century wooden statue (betw. 1450 and 1500) in Viksta kyrka, Uppsala kommun (Uppsala län):
During the restoration of the church in 1932-33?:
After the rebuilding of 2006:
n) as portrayed by the Master of Soeterbeeck in a later fifteenth-century wooden statue, originally painted, (ca. 1470) of Brabantine origin in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York:
o) as depicted (as a pilgrim) in a later fifteenth-century hand-coloured woodcut (1470s or 1480s) of Bohemian origin pasted inside the front cover of a late fourteenth-century manuscript of her Revelaciones (Praha, Archiv Prazského Hradu, Knihovna Metropolitní Kapituly, C. LXXXVII (519)):
p) as portrayed in a later fifteenth-century wooden statue (ca. 1475) from an altarpiece from Sollentuna kyrka in Sollentuna (Stockholms län), now in the Historiska Museet in Stockholm:
http://medeltidbild.historiska.se/medeltidbild/mbbilder/bilder/94/9416427.jpg
http://medeltidbild.historiska.se/medeltidbild/mbbilder/bilder/94/9416427.jpg
q) as portrayed (at right, after Anna själv tredje [Anna selbdritt / Anne trinitaire] and a crowned female saint]) on a wing of the later fifteenth-century altarpiece (between 1475 and 1500) from Hammarby kyrka (Stockholms län), now in the Historiska Museet in Stockholm:
r) as portrayed in a later fifteenth-century wooden statue (between 1475 and 1500) in Borgs kyrka in Norrköpings kommun (Östergötlands län):
Detail view:
s) as depicted (at far right) in a painting on a wing of a later fifteenth-century altarpiece (betw. 1475 and 1500) from Salems kyrka in Salem (Stockholms län), now in the Historiska Museet in Stockholm:
Detail view:
t) as depicted (at lower right, experiencing her Eucharistic Vision) in a later fifteenth-century manuscript (betw. 1475 and 1500), of Neapolitan origin, of her Revelaciones and other texts (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M.498, fol. 4v):
u) as depicted (receiving a revelation whilst writing) in a later fifteenth-century Birgittine / Bridgettine breviary (1476) in the New York Public Library (Spencer Collection Ms. 63):
v) as depicted in the later fifteenth-century frescoes (ca. 1480) of Gislinge kirke in Gislinge, Holbæk Kommune (Nordvestsjælland):
w) as depicted (praying before a crucifix) in a late fifteenth-century prayer book (betw. 1480 and 1500) of southern Netherlandish origin (London, BL, Yates Thompson MS 18, fols. 202-244, at fol. 234r):
x) as depicted (giving her order its Rule) in a late fifteenth-century hand-colored woodcut print (between 1480 and 1500) of south German origin (Augsburg?) in the British Museum, London:
y) as depicted in two hand-colored, late fifteenth-century woodcuts in a copy in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, München, of the first complete printing of her Revelaciones (Lübeck: Bartholomaeus Ghotan for the Vadstena monastery, 1492):
1) Dictating to a scribe (p. 29):
2) Imparting a revelation (p. 36):
z) as depicted (receiving a revelation whilst writing) in a late fifteenth-century woodcut in a copy in the Kongelige Bibliothek, København, of the Sunte Birgitten Openbaringe, a Low German reworking of her Revelaciones (Lübeck: Hans van Ghetelen [the Poppy printer], 1496):
aa) as depicted (at left; at right, St. Katarina / Catherine of Sweden) in an altar painting of ca. 1500 said to be in Högsby kyrka in Högsby (Kalmar län):
bb) as depicted (at far right) in an altar frontal of ca. 1500 from Urjalan kirkko / Urdiala kyrka in Pirkanmaan maakunta / landskapet Birkaland, now in the Hämeen museo in Tampere / Tammerfors:
http://urjala.ekirkko.fi/kuvat/isot/urjala-00010426-2.jpg
http://urjala.ekirkko.fi/kuvat/isot/urjala-00010426-2.jpg
Detail view (at left, St. Hemming):
cc) as depicted in the early sixteenth-century frescoes (ca. 1510) of Nibe kirke in Nibe, Aalborg Kommune (Nordjylland):
dd) as depicted (receiving a vision whilst writing) on the earlier sixteenth-century screen (1528) in the church of St Mary and St Andrew, Horsham St Faith (Norfolk):
ee) as depicted (receiving a revelation whilst writing) in an earlier sixteenth-century indenture (1530) conveying lands to Syon Abbey, Islesworth (London, BL, Harley MS 4640, fol. 15r):
