DOI issue:
Nr. 221 (August 1911)
DOI article:Bröchner, Georg: Old danish carved furniture
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20973#0218
Old Danish Carved Furniture
Denmark had been imported from abroad ready Jutland. Or rather, it is not a question of one
made, but this, in reality, is not so. It has workshop, but of a whole cluster which have
recently been shown by the eminent authority in worked in a similar style, the work of the one
this interesting field, Mr. Chr. A. Jensen, M.A., that being akin to that of the others. Not only have
most of the church fitments and furniture from the skilled artisans of the town imitated each other,
this period were made in Denmark, occasionally, but in the villages around Ribe, partly in the
no doubt, by foreign craftsmen, who had come to south-western districts of Jutland and partly in the
Denmark from Germany or the Netherlands, but adjoining portion of the Duchy of Sleswick, there
frequently, too, by the Danes themselves. A care- were a number of small masters and peasant-
ful and comprehensive investigation of the work craftsmen who had very evidently learnt what they
still preserved has made it manifest that in a knew in Ribe, and whose names have in many cases
number of Danish towns there were flourishing and been preserved.
often important workshops, each with its own The oldest work of this West Jutland cluster 01
peculiar stamp. craftsmen is Gothic, or rather, perhaps, belated
One of the oldest workshops, about which Gothic. The artisans used the well-known folded
sufficient is known to form a definite idea of its or parchment ornamentation, with its folded pleats
productions, was domiciled in the small town of and indented edges, but the motif was, here treated
Ribe, a picturesque old cathedral town in West in a very peculiar manner (Fig. i). The folds were
made much closer, the one on
^_ _ the top of the other, as will
appear from the heart-shaped
notches and the indented edges
at the top and bottom of the
acanthus-shaped laps.
This, tendency to make the
ornamentation richer and closer
becomes still more manifest in
work that has been, to a higher
degree influenced by the Re-,
naissance acanthus motif. The-
West Jutland craftsmen treated
the refined Italian ornament in
their own way. They modified
it in accordance with the re-
quirements of the hard oak
and the nature of their tools.
It was not plastically and ele-
gantly moulded, not carved in
high relief, but done in a more
shallow and less dominant
manner, such as they • could
accomplish with their extremely
simple tools, but the result was
a flat ornamentation of marked
decorative effect.
In the same way it is in-
teresting to note how the arched
mussel motif of the Italian
Renaissance was transformed
into a demi-rosette in the same
■Hi plane and that geometrical pat-
j^HHK. ilnN terns (chequer-work—see Fig. 4)
were often used. In the best
FIG. I. CARVED CUPBOARD FROM WESTERN JUTLAND. DATE ABOUT 1575 claSS of WOrk frOOl this grOUp
197
Denmark had been imported from abroad ready Jutland. Or rather, it is not a question of one
made, but this, in reality, is not so. It has workshop, but of a whole cluster which have
recently been shown by the eminent authority in worked in a similar style, the work of the one
this interesting field, Mr. Chr. A. Jensen, M.A., that being akin to that of the others. Not only have
most of the church fitments and furniture from the skilled artisans of the town imitated each other,
this period were made in Denmark, occasionally, but in the villages around Ribe, partly in the
no doubt, by foreign craftsmen, who had come to south-western districts of Jutland and partly in the
Denmark from Germany or the Netherlands, but adjoining portion of the Duchy of Sleswick, there
frequently, too, by the Danes themselves. A care- were a number of small masters and peasant-
ful and comprehensive investigation of the work craftsmen who had very evidently learnt what they
still preserved has made it manifest that in a knew in Ribe, and whose names have in many cases
number of Danish towns there were flourishing and been preserved.
often important workshops, each with its own The oldest work of this West Jutland cluster 01
peculiar stamp. craftsmen is Gothic, or rather, perhaps, belated
One of the oldest workshops, about which Gothic. The artisans used the well-known folded
sufficient is known to form a definite idea of its or parchment ornamentation, with its folded pleats
productions, was domiciled in the small town of and indented edges, but the motif was, here treated
Ribe, a picturesque old cathedral town in West in a very peculiar manner (Fig. i). The folds were
made much closer, the one on
^_ _ the top of the other, as will
appear from the heart-shaped
notches and the indented edges
at the top and bottom of the
acanthus-shaped laps.
This, tendency to make the
ornamentation richer and closer
becomes still more manifest in
work that has been, to a higher
degree influenced by the Re-,
naissance acanthus motif. The-
West Jutland craftsmen treated
the refined Italian ornament in
their own way. They modified
it in accordance with the re-
quirements of the hard oak
and the nature of their tools.
It was not plastically and ele-
gantly moulded, not carved in
high relief, but done in a more
shallow and less dominant
manner, such as they • could
accomplish with their extremely
simple tools, but the result was
a flat ornamentation of marked
decorative effect.
In the same way it is in-
teresting to note how the arched
mussel motif of the Italian
Renaissance was transformed
into a demi-rosette in the same
■Hi plane and that geometrical pat-
j^HHK. ilnN terns (chequer-work—see Fig. 4)
were often used. In the best
FIG. I. CARVED CUPBOARD FROM WESTERN JUTLAND. DATE ABOUT 1575 claSS of WOrk frOOl this grOUp
197