Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.1964, Page 16

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ÁRBÓK FORNLEIFAFÉLAGSINS
SUMMAEY
A Picture of a Donor in an IcelancLic Manuscript of the 14-th Century.
The author defines „a picture of a donor“ and believes that the picture most
typically that of a donor is one where the donor offers the model of the object
being gifted: a church within a church, or a book within a book. She also gives
consideration to certain other „pictures of donors", where the object, which the
donor is offering, is shown, as in the picture of king Canute and queen Aelfgifu
(fig. 2) which shows the object they are offering; their action is made memorable
by showing it in the Calendarium of the church, and not by a picture in the
church itself. The pictures of persons kneeling in prayer in front of Christ or the
saints, the author does not consider likely to be pictures of donors, because their
hands are empty and therefore do not show what they are giving or whether they
are giving anything at all.
In the Icelandic manuscript, Skarðsbók — AM 350 fol. — dated 1363, there is
a picture of a donor, which has been unnoticed until now. This picture is unusual,
because the donor, who is not even of royal birth, offers a secular book, a law-
book, to the highest celestial power, God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.
In Kulturhistorisk leksikon for nordisk middelalder, Rune Norberg says that
pictures of donors are rare in Scandinavian medieval book illuminations. He
mentions only two examples: The Gospels from Horne and the Register from
Næstved cloister2 (figs. 3 and 4). Both these books were however written in Latin.
But Skarðsbók — AM 350 fol. — is written in Icelandic and illuminated in Iceland.
The picture of the donor is on fol. 2r, at the beginning of Þingfararbálkur which
starts with the letter F (colour plate). Inside the main frame of the letter, God
the Father, dressed in a voluminous coat, sits on a broad bench terminating in
lions’ heads. The bench fills the frame horizontally and the frame cuts a part of
the lions’ necks. God the Father, on the other hand, fills the frame vertically, even
to the extent of a part of the hem overlapping the frame below. The Father
blesses with His right hand, but the left one He holds up and out in a horizontal
position. The picture of Christ on the cross is small —- outlined against the body of
the Father. The knees of the Father are large and conspicuous and the coat falls
over them in heavy folds. Between His knees, the tiny feet of Christ can be seen.
Christ on the cross is almost lost in the figure of the Father in His huge coat
with the large, thick collar. A very pointed beard comes down into the centre of
the collar. The dove is not visible. The picture is somewhat worn, but also in the
picture of the Trinity in the Icelandic Sketchbook — AM 673a 4to — the dove is
missing (fig. 7). Cutside the main frame a man, the donor, is kneeling. He is
dressed in contemporary clothes (Kielland)-i and reaches with an open book (Skarðs-
bók) into the space of the Holy Trinity. The figure of the donor is nearly as big as
that of the Father. The artist has cut the main frame so that only a thin strip
separates the donor fram the Holy Trinity. But it is very interesting that the
donor holds the book with both hands and thus reaches into the space of the
Holy Trinity, not only with his hands, but as if kneeling in an opening leading
to the Holy Trniity.
The question is discussed as to which chief in Iceland in the year 1363 thought
himself so important that he ventured to show himself offering a secular book to
the Holy Trinity? The author supports the theory of Ólafur Halldórsson, Govern-