Skírnir - 01.01.1965, Qupperneq 165

Skírnir
Gömul krossfestingarmynd
147
The author gives reason for thinking that several other antipendia in
“refilsaumur” were made in the convent at Reynistaður, and that there
is a strong probability that the marriage of the two brothers, Benedikt
and Björn from Syðri-Akrar, to two of the daughters of Eiríkur Magnús-
son at Svalbarð and Möðruvellir, explains how the antipendium at Höfði
came to be made and also two other antipendia, those from the churches
at Svalbarð (fig. 4) and Draflastaðir (fig. 8) in North Iceland, both now
in the National Museum in Reykjavík.
The third daughter of Eiríkur Magnússon was companion to the priest
and patron of the arts Steinmóður Þorsteinsson at Grenjaðarstaður. In
that church there was an antipendium with the legend of St. Martin,
now in the Cluny Museum in Paris (fig. 5). Gertie Wandel (21), who
first recognized the St. Martin antipendium as being Icelandic, pointed
out its close resemblance to an antipendium with stories from the life
of the Virgin, from the church at Reykjahlíð in North Iceland, now in
the National Museum in Copenhagen (fig. 6).
The author stresses the great affinity between the St. Martin anti-
pendium and the one from Svalbarð, which Gisli Gestsson has shown
depicts the story of St. John the Apostle (12). In later additions to the
inventory of the church at Grenjaðarstaður for the year 1394, it says
that Steinmóður Þorsteinsson gave two altars with fitments along with
other objects to the church (22). But earlier in the inventory of 1394
it says that the church owns six antipendia but all of them wom. The
St. Martin antipendium in Paris is well preserved; so it had not been
in the church at Grenjaðarstaður in 1394. The author supposes that the
antipendia of St. Martin and St. Mary have been parts of the fitments
donated by Steinmóður Þorsteinsson to the church at Grenjaðarstaður
after 1394, but that the St. Mary antipendium later came to the neigh-
boring church at Reykjahlíð. Steinmóður Þorsteinsson gave the abbess
at Reynistaður a farm with some livestock in the year 1395 (29), so it
may be supposed that he was paying for some work that had been done
for him in the convent. The author also suggests that Steinmóður has
likewise given to the cathedral at Hólar an antipendium (fig. 7) depict-
ing the three Icelandic saints, never actually canonized, two of whom
had been bishops at Hólar. Steinmóður Þorsteinsson was in the 1390’s
factor to that see and, later, officialis to the holy cathedral at Hólar. He
died in 1403 (30).
The auhtor’s conclusion is that the above mentioned six antipendia
in “refilsaumur” were all made in the convent at Reynistaður in the
years between ca. 1390—1403 and that the models for them were taken
from Icelandic illuminated manuscripts and that the work was sponsored
by powerful and wealthy families in North Iceland, notably the daughters
of Eirikur Magnússon and their husbands.