International studio (44.1911)

Old Danish Carved Furniture


OLD DANISH CARVED FUR-
NITURE. BY GEORG
BROCHNER.
In the latter part of the Middle Ages the
North German Hansa cities, more especially
Lubeck, exercised a great influence upon the
culture of Denmark. Thus, to confine myself
to what bears upon the subject of this article,
large numbers of carved altar-pieces and figures
from their workshops were sent to Danish
churches, the Danish towns being too small
and insignificant to prevail in the competition
against their mighty and extremely enterprising
southern neighbours. Denmark, however, was
working ahead and by degrees the Danish
kings succeeded in crushing the power of the
Hansa cities, whereby room and opportunities
were afforded for the home crafts to develop
and flourish.
There is in Denmark a profusion of carved
work from the Renaissance period, both for
the adornment of churches, altar-pieces, pulpits
and pews, and for secular use, such as carved
furniture and articles of various kinds. The
introduction of Lutheranism, in the year 1536,
altered the nature of the old religious cere-
monies, so that almost every village church
had to provide new ecclesiastical fitments in
accordance with the spirit and the requirements
of Lutheranism. A series of happy and pros-
perous years, during the reign of Christian III.,
Frederick II., and the earlier portion of the

PORTRAIT OF THE SOLO DANCER, FRAULEIN MARIE KOHLER
BY HEINRICH RAUCHINGER

reign of Christian IV., enabled the people,
the nobility, the burghers, and the peasantry
alike, to appoint their homes with a luxury

features of the patriot are nobly rendered ;
F. Gornik Das Kreuz, symbolical of mankind,
four men striving with might and main to lift
the cross of life which all must bear; Arthur
Lowenthal a fine bust in bronze of the architect
Adolf Loos, a work of high merit. Karl Wollek
also contributed some good specimens of his art,
as did also Hans Scherpe, Hans Muller, Franz
Seifert, Edmund Klotz and other sculptors of the
Genossenschaft.

hitherto altogether unknown, and as an outcome
ot these two causes there are still found in
Denmark many memorials from the Renaissance
period, not only buildings, such as the famous
castles of Kronborg, Frederiksborg, and Rosen-
borg, but also manifold objects, furniture and
utensils, witnesses of the far advanced crafts of the
period.
The oldest furniture now found in Denmark is
in the Gothic style, and, as might be expected,
North German in its character. Also, when the

The Jubilee has brought in its train new lighting
arrangements and a new manner of hanging and
displaying the works exhibited. The authorities are
to be congratulated on the manner in which they
have carried out these innovations; they have
learned that they must in this as in other things
march with the times. A. S. Levetus.

Renaissance, simultaneously with the Reformation,
began to npake its influence felt, it found its way
into Denmark by way of North Germany, and it is
not always easy to discriminate between North
German and Danish work from that period. The
opinion was for a long time prevalent that a great
deal of the Renaissance carved work found in

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