Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.1999, Blaðsíða 106

110
ARBOK FORNLEIFAFELAGSINS
imaginative large-flowered scrolls with the folded ribbonwork of the Régence style in a
very personal manner (see fig 62). A group of pieces that may be the work of his son,Jón
Hallgrímsson, contains applied polychrome openwork foliage on a minute scale, sometimes
combined with figurative work and elegantly executed (e.g. fig 63). He was one of many
carvers who portrayed the contemporary gentry (cf. figs 61 and 64).
The second half of the century also produced several objects fromVestfirðir with a more
Baroque type ofscroll decoration than the old medieval variety (e.g. figs. 64-65).The bench
for the bridal couple (fig. 65) otherwise has features similar to the earlier example from
1739 (fig. 60).
Acanthus Baroque is the latest style which is represented in the 18th century carving, apart
from a few small examples of Rococo. However, the use of the acanthus leaf is handled
carefully - in low rehef (e.g. figs. 68-69). Acanthus ornament is only given any real volume by
AmundiJónsson, a master builder and wood-carver ffom the south coast (figs. 70-71).
In the 19th century „folk art“ died out in Iceland, as in the rest of Europe.While much
of Icelandic carving must be regarded as folk art, there was no sudden cessation of carving
and sculpture, but rather a slow decline. The neo-Classical styles allowed little room for
wood-carving in church inventory, but it was still natural to decorate household objects
with carving.
Tradition was very conservative concerning the subject matter on the various objects.
Foliage and inscriptions in höfSaletur dominated. However, the forms were larger and
coarser and almost only in flat relief, with extensive use of chip-carving (e.g. figs. 72, 73,
75-78). Some richly decorated chairs from East Iceland form the exception with carving in
high relief and pierced decoration (e.g. fig. 74).
One wood-carver from this period whose name is known to us was the poet Hjálmar
Jónsson from Skagafjörður. He was particularly productive between 1820 and 1840. His
work falls into two main groups, very different from each other: one consists of a series of
caskets with a simple schematic foliage decoration and höfðaletur inscriptions (e.g. fig. 76);
the other has a much richer repertoire. The fronts of a couple of wall-cupboards are
especially well executed (e.g. fig. 77), inspired no doubt by 17th-century Icelandic
cupboard fronts, but with a strong personal stamp.
Guðmundur Pálsson in the second half of the century worked in a manner that was
different frorn the old Icelandic tradition. He trained in Copenhagen and back in Iceland
he carved religious scenes in wood in high relief, which was quite exceptional in the 19th
century (e.g. fig. 79).
In the closing decades of the century the art of the wood-carver was much less
popular. A couple of names should nevertheless be mentioned: Guðmundur Viborg from
ísafjörður with his many fine bed-panels (e.g. fig. 80) and the very productive Filippus
Bjarnason from Rangárvallasýsla, who confined himself to ornamentation in a very small
format executed with painstaking exactitude (fig. 82).
Many pieces are characterised by a forceful naturalism (as in fig. 81), which contrast
with the more traditional foliage scrolls with ribbon-like stems, in a somewhat
Romanesque pattern.
Finally, we should mention a little „epilogue" in the early decades of the 20th century,
when trained wood-carvers under the leadership of Stefán Eiríksson attempted to re-create
the ancient handicraft (e.g. fig. 83). His pupil RíkarðurJónsson was the first in Iceland to take
a formal apprenticeship in wood-carving.
Translated by Cliíford Long.