THE KALANTI ALTARPIECE: ITS POTENTIAL ROUTES and PROMINENT Contexts in MEDIEVAL FINLAND
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THE KALANTI ALTARPIECE: ITS POTENTIAL ROUTES AND PROMINENT CONTExTS IN MEDIEVAL FINLAND ELINA RÄSÄNEN , M ARKUS HIEKKANEN Ever since the Kalanti Altarpiece by Meister Francke came medieval period in Scandinavia and Finland, and this de - to be known in art historical discussions, its provenance has velopment has also influenced the research of certain ob - been an open question. It was first documented and de - jects, such as the Kalanti Altarpiece. It is therefore now cru - scribed in the church of Kalanti (Sw. Nykyrko, literal trans - cial to regard earlier interpretations and conclusions anew lation: New Church) by the members of the Finnish Anti - in the light of the reshaped contexts around the objects un - quarian Society on their expedition to Southwest Finland der scrutiny. The historiography of the altarpiece in question in 1874. 1 As is typical for medieval Northern Europe, no is, then, full of gaps and obscured by a certain ‘blindness’: documents survive of the acquisition or transport of the al - early scholars in Finland were less familiar with all the rel - tarpiece. 2 Likewise common, the early church inventories evant comparative material in Central Europe, and the Ger - of the Lutheran era generally neglected to mention the ‘old’ man scholars, in turn, were understandably interested in Catholic objects. Hence, it is no surprise that the first Meister Francke, but had very limited knowledge of local known inventory of the possessions of the Kalanti congre - history and could not read the written sources nor the earlier gation in 1644 contains no mention of an altarpiece. 3 studies. Therefore, the questions why, when and how the altarpiece In this essay, we aim to clarify some of the previous concep - came to Kalanti are hard to tackle. Many ideas have been tions and correct the misunderstandings that were largely presented, one of them being that it was war booty from based on frail contextualization. On the basis of the latest the Thirty years’ War and thus brought to Finland in the dating of the Kalanti church – to which we will return to –, 1630s or 1640s, or another that it came to Finland in the the altarpiece itself and the detailed scrutiny of both the cul - nineteenth century from Hamburg. 4 Although an in-depth tural and economic conditions around Kalanti and, finally, debate with these hypotheses goes beyond the scope of this of the church structure of the Medieval Diocese of Turku as contribution, we do seek to offer some clarifying perspec - a totality, we propose that the altarpiece was most likely ac - tives to the questions of the provenance and itinerary of the quired by the wealthy local nobility and the leading eccle - altarpiece. siastical persons of the diocese. We begin by presenting some The research on the cultural, geographical and ecclesiastical background information about medieval Finland and the circumstances of Northern Europe in the Middle Ages has area of Kalanti. Then we will take a close look at the actual been mostly carried out and published in Finnish or in church edifice of Kalanti, offering arguments for its dating Scandinavian languages, and thus it has remained somewhat to the c. 1430s, and illuminating the role of the remarkable inaccessible to scholars from elsewhere. Furthermore, recent patronage in the church. The third part will highlight the decades have seen a wealth of activity in the study of the church interior including the choir space and the surviving Left side: Interior of the Kalanti church; see Fig. 6 wooden sculptures. The discussion will then move to Bishop Magnus Tavast and the Turku (Sw. åbo) cathedral; we shall clarify the proposed relations between the cathedral and the altarpiece and present the manifold role of the Bishop not only in decorating the cathedral, but also in taking pride in the splendour of his whole bishopric. In the essay, we shall, for the sake of clarity and practicality, use the name ‘Kalanti’ to refer to the church and the con - gregation and call the Barbara-Altar the Kalanti or Barbara Altarpiece . We will use the Finnish place names while also providing the Swedish name when first mentioned, and eventually use an English form if one exists. MEDIEVAL FINLAND – THE EASTERN PART OF THE KINGDOM OF SWEDEN To start with, it is reasonable to present some historical back - ground concerning medieval and Early Modern Finland. Situated on the northern fringe of Europe, Finland was reached quite late by the Catholic Church and European medieval culture. The Scandinavian Iron Age chronology largely applies in Finland in its later stages, the Vendel/ Merovingian Period and the Viking Age, which cover a time span of some 400 years between c. 600 and 1000/1050 AD. While in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the transition from the Iron Age to the medieval period occurred in the eleventh century, one more prehistoric period, the so-called Crusade Period (between c. 1025 and 1200) is added to t his chronological frame in Finland. 5 The process of Christian - ization in Finland took a long time; in fact, it is said to K → have been initiated around 1000 and to have concluded ↑ in the late 1200s with the founding of the secular chapter T of the Diocese of Turku, the construction of the main roads and the town of Turku. 6 In the 13 th century, the rising cen - tral authority of what was becoming the Kingdom of Swe - Fig. 1. Map of Finland with medieval church places. Black dot = den began to take hold of South-West Finland, extending Medieval parish or chapel where a stone church project was started its grip over the following centuries to other parts of the before the 1550s. White dot = Medieval parish or chapel where a stone church project was not started before the 1550s. Turku area populated by Finnish-speaking inhabitants. Finland cathedral marked with the letter T and the Kalanti church with the was to be part of Sweden until 1809 when it was ceded to letter K. Imperial Russia. The country gained independence in 1917. Within the medieval administration of the church, the areas seven dioceses of the church province of Uppsala. The first that came to be called Finland formed a single diocese until wave of congregations in the Diocese of Turku, c. 40 in num - the 1550s, when it was divided into two, namely the Diocese ber, were planned and founded apparently between 1225 of Turku and the Diocese of Viipuri (Sw. Viborg). Thus, in and 1250. 7 Later in the Middle Ages the number of churches the medieval period, the Diocese of Turku was one of the and also that of the chapel congregations rose to c. 150– 64 | Elina Räsänen, Markus Hiekkanen 170. 8 During the first period of the congregational system, all church buildings were made of timber. In each congre - gation the length of the period of wooden churches, follow - ing each other, depended on the economic structure, sus - tainability, cultural dynamics and other features of the ‘unit’. Generally speaking, it endured for c. 200 years, and after this phase, a stone church was built. yet in many cases a stone church was not erected – especially concerning the congregations founded only in the 14 th or 15 th centuries – until the first half of the 16 th century. A project to build a church in stone was begun in 104 of the 150–170 congregations and chapel congregations, according to the most recent calculation. 9 Very often these construc - tions were left unfinished because of the breakdown of the economy of the congregation, at least partially caused by the Fig. 2. Kalanti church (then called Uusikirkko / Nykyrko) and the church yard in the beginning of the twentieth century, photogra - Reformation. In fact, many stone churches were unrealized phed from the North-West. Upper part of the tower renewed in the altogether, without ever reaching the initial building stage. 1880s. Thus, the map of the Finnish medieval landscape of churches looks strikingly different, and even somewhat peculiar, when dieval noble families had large landed properties there. The compared to those of Southern and Central Sweden, Estonia, number of medieval stone churches in the region surround - and Denmark as well as those of present-day Germany and ing the church of Kalanti is, in regional circumstances, note - the British Isles (Fig. 1). worthy. They testify to the wealth of the habitants and to a The medieval churches in Finland can be divided into three great amount of patronage, a topic to which we will later main groups according to their features. The first group, return. which is also the earliest and smallest, is composed of five to seven churches in the åland Islands (Fin. Ahvenanmaa, Sw. åland), the oldest of the edifices dating to the late 13 th THE CHURCH OF KALANTI: A PLACE century. The second group, c. 30 churches, consists of those OF THE CONGREGATION AND OF THE located in Finland Proper (Fin. Varsinais-Suomi; Sw. Egentli - MIGHTy ga Finland) and Uusimaa (Sw. Nyland), built between the 1420s and 1490s, among them the church of Kalanti. The The present stone church of Kalanti had at least one but third group of churches is the latest and the most numerous: probably two or three wooden predecessors between c. more than 50 churches started to be constructed between 1225/1250 and the beginning of the 15 th century. The latter the 1490s and the 1550s. yet, as indicated above, only a few time marks an era when plans for the construction of a stone of them reached completion, as in most cases the construc - church were made in the Diocese of Turku, presumably ac - tion project ended without e.g.