Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana. Supplementum - 01.08.1967, Page 147

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professionals, as well as the common people, had taken an interest in wood-carving, it now became largely
the concern of the latter.
Of the 151 objects, 87 have vines. In addition to the large and roughly executed vines there are many
examples of «copperplate» vines cut with the most minute care. The rococo vines seem to have disappeared,
while completely Romanesque types occur until after the middle of the century. We also encounter re-
minders of seventeenth century vines, some resembling very old forms and some apparently adopting
features of Guðmundur Guðmundsson’s work. Many of the vines from the second half of the century are
marked by unusual naturalism, but if we divide the vines on the dated objects into traditional and natural-
istic, we will find a vast majority of traditional ones.
The other plant motifs still contain the same elements as the vine and are usually symmetrical. Occasion-
ally much less attention is paid to making them look organic than to their merely decorative effect.
On the basis of the dated objects the author concludes that a number of undated ones belong to the
century under consideration (e. g. figs. 371-376, 378).
Some of the wood carvers whose names we know are the poet Hjálmar Jónsson («Bólu-Hjálmar»; 1796-
1875) who worked in Skagafjörður, Guðmundur Viborg (1850-1930) from ísafjörður and Filippus Bjarnason
(1822-1901) from Rangárvallasýsla. Notable work by Bólu-Hjálmar includes some bed boards (figs. 327
and 328) and two cupboards richly adorned with vines closely resembling the old northern decoration of
cupboard fronts (figs. 326 and 382). Guðmundur Viborg has left us numerous bed boards with vines
(e. g. figs. 350-353), some of them among the century’s most naturalistic. The very productive Filippus
Bjarnason belonged to a family in which the art of wood-carving had been handed down from generation
to generation. With great technical skill he carved very small ornaments which stand quite apart from all
other Icelandic woodwork (figs. 344 and 386-392).
Information about the origins of the dated objects shows that a surprising number stem from the north-
west, particularly from ísafjörður. Quite a number are from the south, fewer from the north (there are
none from Eyjafjarðarsýsla).
While traditional wood-carving was dying out, the interest in historical relics led to the foundation of the
Icelandic national museum, Þjóðminjasafn fslands (1863). Carved wooden artefacts had their obvious
place in its collections right from the start. Later a group of trained wood-carvers sought inspiration in
the study of the old woodwork, but this was merely a transitory effect of national romanticism.
In isolated Icelandic communities the odd wood-carver can still be found working in the oldstyle, but
it seems that it is mainly the decorative «höfðaletur» that has survived in this way.
IV. Retrospect.
The plant ornamentation in Icelandic woodwork shows no smooth or gradual development from Roman-
esque forms to the naturalism of the last century. The Romanesque style lived on side-by-side with newer
styles — a continuous undercurrent that often appeared on the surface. Pre-Romanesque styles were of no
such lasting significance. After a transitional period they must have been completely replaced by Romanesque.
The varied Romanesque plant forms from later periods suggest a rich variety in Icelandic plant orna-
mentation in the Romanesque period itself, but there is not sufficient material from the period to de-
monstrate this.
The vine must have been the principal ornament from quite an early stage, and it continued to be so.
It almost seems as if the remaining plant ornamentation was composed of forms borrowed from the vine.
Romanesque vines have been divided into four main categories (Roar Hauglid). It is doubtful whether the