Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana. Supplementum - 01.06.2000, Page 64

SUMMARY CHAP. III
middle of the horn. Two are plain, but on the
third is carved the lion and axe of the
Norwegian national coat-of-arms. It has been
suggested that the horn was carved for Eric of
Pomerania while he was still only king of
Norway, and that the intention was to add the
Danish and Swedish coats-of-arms once the
union became a fact, which happened with the
Treaty of Kalmar in 1397. It is usually main-
tained that the horn is Norwegian work, but the
decoration on it makes one suspect that it may
have been carved by an Icelander. Particularly
striking is a beautiful Icelandic Style running
vine-scroll (fig 56). The central lobe of the trefoil
leaf is hollowed out, just as we have seen on the
St Nicholas Horn and as it appears on a number
of pages in the Sketch Book (see the drawings in
the margin pp. 42-43). The hunting horn also
has several narrow decorative bands which we
find again on the drinking horns, especially the
St Nicholas Horn (fig 4), the Trinity Horn and
the St Michael Horn (figs 19, 21, 23, 31). On the
whole the hunting horn seems to represent a
repertoire of decorative carving motifs which
the carvers of the Icelandic drinking horns con-
tinued to use.
In order to answer the question of the rela-
tionship between the motifs on the drinking
horns and in Icelandic illuminated manuscripts
a huge number of reproductions have been
studied. Most of them are found in Halldór
Hermannsson's great publication Icelandic
Illuminated Manuscripts of the Middle Ages from
1935. One gets the impression that some kind of
relationship exists between the illustrator's art
and horn carving, both in the depiction of fig-
ures and in the decoration, but in only a few
cases can it be shown that the horn carvers have
used the illuminated manuscripts directly as
models or have turned to the same original
model as the illustrators. Like the comparison
with the motifs in the Sketch Book, it is really
only small details that can be recognised.
The close relationship between the crucifix-
ion group on the Velken Horn (fig 34) and a
similar group in a 14th-century manuscript has
already been mentioned (see the summary of
chap. II), but the scene on the horn is a coarser
version of the subject-matter. On the whole the
carved figures tend to have a coarser appear-
ance than the drawn or painted ones, which
makes comparison difficult.
Nevertheless, a relationship can be shown
r- ^ both among the human figures and among the
OU animal figures. When he was carving the beast
with a man in its jaws (figs 26-27), the carver of
the Trinity Horn must have been thinking about
a terrifying dragon like the one in the Jónsbók
manuscript "Skarðsbók" (fig 60).
With regard to the decorative foliage, which
in the manuscripts is particularly associated
with the initial letters, it is obviously similar to
that on the horns. This is the Icelandic Style
vine-scroll. The spiral scroll is most noticeable,
but the simpler scroll also occurs. The common-
est leaf-form is the small trefoil leaf with a large
rounded central lobe and smaller pointed side
lobes. A manuscript from 1300-1325, the
"Postola sögur", has probably one of the oldest
surviving examples of a spiral scroll with this
type of leaf (e.g. fig 61). The terrifying dragon
just mentioned (fig 60) provides beautiful
examples of this leafwork coming out of its
mouth and as a termination of its tail.
This decoration must have flourished in the
14th century, but it continued for a long time
afterwards. A late example is seen in an initial F
in a Jónsbók manuscript from 1525-1550 (fig
62).
Vine-scroll stems with a double outline are
very common in carving, but are seldom found
in the illuminated manuscripts. The Skarðsbók
from 1363 contains an example of a double out-
line along one edge and an extra line formed by
leaf-stems lying close against the other edge. A
splendid curling vine-scroll forming the termi-
nation of an initial Þ is closely related to the one
on the St Michael Horn (figs 63, 32).
More obvious double outlines along both
sides of the stem are found by way of exception
in the canopy arches in a Jónsbók manuscript
from around 1550 (e.g. fig 59). The arches are
closely related to the canopy arches on the
Trinity Horn and on the St Michael Horn (figs
14, 21, 23, 29, 30).
Narrow bands of leaflets, seen on Eric of
Pomerania’s hunting horn, the St Nicholas
Horn, the Trinity Horn, and the St Michael
Horn, would seem to be specifically carver's
motifs, but surprisingly are also found in the
illuminated manuscripts (e.g. the column capi-
tals on the canopy, fig 59).
Ribbon decoration also occurs in the illumi-
nated manuscripts, but strangely enough only
rarely. Examples of the old-fashioned interlaced
motifs are few and late.
All in all, however, the parallels are so numer-
ous that a close relationship between the medi-
eval book-illuminator's art and that of the horn
carver would seem probable.