As a result of their popularity in the late 15th and the beginning of the 16th century, Netherlandish carved altarpieces were exported abroad to Rhineland and Westphalia, France, the Baltic Coast (especially Poland), the Iberian Peninsula, and Scandinavia. There still exist approximately 400 Netherlandish carved altarpieces today. This round table, which is organized by LECTIO (Leuven Centre for the Study of the Transmission of Texts and Ideas) and Illuminare – Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Art (KU Leuven), will focus on Netherlandish carved altarpieces in the Nordic region.
Denmark nowadays preserves four Antwerp retables and three groups of retable fragments; Finland one Brussels and one Antwerp exemplar; Iceland a group of retable-fragments; and Norway one altarpiece from Antwerp. Sweden possesses thirty-eight Netherlandish carved altarpieces, around ten retable-fragments, and at least two poupées de Malines (wooden statuettes of Mechelen). These remnants are probably only a fraction of the number that originally decorated the Nordic churches.
This LECTIO round table will address the export and the transport of the altarpieces to the North; the use of this artworks in liturgical rituals; the import and interaction between other imported or local sculptures; and the contemporaneous reception of the artworks in the North.
Confirmed speakers: Ragnhild M. Bø (University of Oslo – Courtauld Institute of Art London), Hannah De Moor (KU Leuven), Kristin Kausland (Norwegian Institute of Cultural Heritage – Hamilton Kerr Institute Cambridge), Filip Vermeylen (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
Organizing committee: Hannah De Moor, Wim François, Erika Gielen, Céline Szecel (KU Leuven)
Date: Tuesday 17 September 2019
Venue: Romerozaal, COVE 02.10, Sint-Michielsstraat 2-4, 3000 Leuven
Participation is free, but registration is required via Lectio. Extended registration date: 12 September 2019.