Papers by Ragnhild M . Bø
Kunst og kultur, Dec 8, 2022
Aller mest kjent er han for kunstnerbiografiene i Le vite de' più eccelenti pittori, scultori e a... more Aller mest kjent er han for kunstnerbiografiene i Le vite de' più eccelenti pittori, scultori e architettori. Boken-oftest referert til som Le vite-ble først utgitt i Firenze i 1550 av Laurentius Torrentinius, Cosimo I de' Medicis egen typograf. En utvidet utgave ble trykket av forlagshuset Giunti i samme by i 1568. Det er den andre utgaven som ligger til grunn for de fleste oversettelsene som er kommet siden, også den som nå foreligger på norsk med tittelen Kunstnernes liv. Om livene til de største malerne, billedhuggerne og arkitektene. Boken er oversatt av Margareth Hagen, professor i italiensk litteratur ved Universitetet i Bergen. Hagen har også skrevet et forord som gir opplysninger om Vasaris metode, kunstsyn, forskjellene mellom 1550-og 1568-utgaven og hvordan verket med sin blanding av historie, biografi og laereboksjanger evner å vise fram kunstnerens brede samfunnsrolle. Det er også en liten merknad fra oversetteren om overveielser som er gjort i forbindelse med oversettelsen av teksten og litt om hvilken informasjon som er lagt inn i notene. Kunsthistoriker Anna Malmanger har bidratt med et essay som utdyper flere av aspektene som omtales i forordet, samtidig som hun gir en bredere gjennomgang av kunsthistorie som en historie om framgang og disegno som estetisk ideal. Til sammen utgjør forordet og essayet en fin introduksjon og kontekstualisering av Vasaris omfangsrike opus. Le vite er delt i tre med en første del som handler om kunsten på 1300-tallet, en andre del om kunsten på 1400-tallet og en tredje del om kunsten fra 1500-tallets begynnelse og fram til Vasaris egen tid. Le vite skal ha blitt til etter en utfordring fra historikeren og biografen
Årbok - Foreningen til norske fortidsminnesmerkers bevaring, 2020
Medieval Texts and Cultures of Northern Europe
ICO - Nordic Review of Iconography, 2020
The Lamoignon Hours was illuminated in Paris by the Bedford Master for the French princess Jeanne... more The Lamoignon Hours was illuminated in Paris by the Bedford Master for the French princess Jeanne de France around 1415. Whereas the manuscript matches similar luxury books of hours from the Valois court in size, materials and execution, it also contains miniatures and marginal images which have no parallels in contemporary French illumination. In this article, I analyse two of these unparalleled image cycles-the marginal roundels with scenes from the Marian miracles known in contemporary miracle collections as the Empress of Rome (fol. 185v) and the Jewish Boy of Bourges (fol. 202v) as situated imagery, arguing they may have been motivated by incidents associated with Jeanne de France's parents, the infamous King Charles VI and the equally infamous Queen Isabeau. In as much as Jeanne's book of hours contains images fashioned to support her in her roles as princess, duchess, wife and mother as well as her role as devotee, careful readings of the book's uncommon iconography allow for a deeper understanding of how the Bedford Master catered to the unknown commissioner(s) and/or Jeanne's own desire for the book to combine politics and piety.
Konsthistorisk Tidsskrift/Journal of Art History, 2020
Linked to the thirteenth century devotional text Meditationes Vitae Christi, visual representatio... more Linked to the thirteenth century devotional text Meditationes Vitae Christi, visual representations of the Resurrected Christ Appearing to His Mother appear in Italian manuscripts, either of the Meditationes itself or in other devotional treatises around 1300. The epitome of the motif, however, is probably the depiction in the right panel of the Miraflores Triptych, painted by Rogier van der Weyden in Bruges in the 1440s. Previously virtually unnoticed in art historical scholarship, the motif re-appears in
Netherlandish carved altarpieces made c.1480-1560. The earliest occurrence seems to be in the form of a minor sculpted scene in the Brussels altarpieces now known as Strängnäs I, yet its more common inclusion is as a painted scene on the inside of the small upper wing to
the viewer’s right. Without dismissing the effects of patronage, commissions and the circulation of models, I will argue for the inclusion as partly resulting from artists’ increased partaking in religious reading due to
the dissemination of Vita Christi literature in the Netherlands. As it were, however, the motif appears proportionally more frequent in the altarpieces imported to Scandinavia than elsewhere, allowing for discussions about the iconographical program in altarpieces made for export and the possibility of the appreciation of the scene in the north is to be traced not to Vita Christi-literature in general, but to the encounter between mother and son as referenced in the visions of St Birgitta.
Religions, 2019
Eagerly venerated and able to perform miracles, medieval relics and religious artefacts in the La... more Eagerly venerated and able to perform miracles, medieval relics and religious artefacts in the Latin West would occasionally also be subject to sensorial and tactile devotional practices. Evidenced by various reports, artefacts were grasped and stroked, kissed and tasted, carried and pulled. For medieval Norway, however, there is very little documentary and/or physical evidence of such sensorial engagements with religious artefacts. Nevertheless, two church inventories for the parish churches in Hålandsdalen (1306) and Ylmheim (1321/1323) offer a small glimpse of what may have been a semi-domestic devotional practice related to sculpture, namely the embellishing of wooden sculptures in parish churches with silver bracelets and silver brooches. According to wills from England and the continent, jewellery was a common material gift donated to parishes by women. Such a practice is likely to have been taking place in Norway, too, yet the lack of coherent source material complicate the matter. Nonetheless, using a few preserved objects and archaeological finds as well as medieval sermons, homiletic texts and events recorded in Old Norse sagas, this article teases out more of the significances of the silver items mentioned in the two inventories by exploring the interfaces between devotional acts, decorative needs, and possibly gendered experiences, as well as object itineraries between the domestic and the religious space.
Kunst og kultur, 2019
An altarpiece now in Vestfossen church is absent from most scholarship on sixteenth century art i... more An altarpiece now in Vestfossen church is absent from most scholarship on sixteenth century art in Norway. Made of alabaster, marble and oak, the altarpiece was produced in Mechelen around 1550, probably by a sculptor from the circle of Jean Mone. Comparing the now partial piece in Vestfossen with a contemporary relief in Washington allows for a better understanding of the former’s iconography and material matters. The article also attempts to trace the commissioners and the object biography of the altarpiece.
Konsthistorisk Tidsskrift/ Journal of Art History, 2017
The article explores different manifestations of saints’ presence in people’s lives before and af... more The article explores different manifestations of saints’ presence in people’s lives before and after the Reformation. Rather than approaching their engagements with saints as a traditionally upheld dichotomy between a medieval presence and an early modern absence, the engagements are analysed through discussions of indifference, as preferring one material register over another, and of propinquity, as accentuating degrees of nearness. The first part of the article presents some examples of how such indifferences and accentuating degrees may manifest themselves in material presences of saints, such as in the preservation, relocation and/or disempowerment of late medieval sculptures and images. The second part looks at how devotional practices including tactile piety and bodily movements described in late medieval books of hours transforms into vernacular story-telling narratives and ballads featuring parts of saints’ vitae from the early modern era. This transformation evidences a vocalized (immaterial) counterpart to the re-use of medieval sculptures and paintings (material) of saints in altarpieces in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: Saints were not absent after the Reformation, but their presence was felt differently
De fleste manuskriptene som ble brukt i Norge i middelalderen har blitt kuttet opp og befinner se... more De fleste manuskriptene som ble brukt i Norge i middelalderen har blitt kuttet opp og befinner seg i fragmentarisk tilstand som forsterkninger på ryggen av regnskapsdokumenter fra 1500-og 1600-tallet. Dette gjelder alle typer manuskripter, men kanskje i størst grad de som går under samlebetegnelsen liturgiske bøker. Disse ble teologisk sett overflødige etter Reformasjonen og materielt sett overflødige ved utbredelsen av trykkekunsten. En av de mange ulike typene litur giske manuskripter som ble produsert gjennom middelalderen var psalteret. Den eldste norskproduserte boken vi har bevart er et psalter, nemlig det såkalte Kvikne-psalteret fra begynnelsen av 1200-tallet. To andre bøker vi vet befant seg i Norge i middelalderen selv om de ikke ble laget her, er to psaltere med kongelige eiere: Det ene skal ha tilhørt Margrete Skulesdatter (d.1270), Håkon Håkonssons 275 274 dronningen i vikingtid og middelalder Margrete Skulesdatters og Kristina Håkonsdatters psaltere Anmeldereks dronning. Dette ble antagelig laget i England omkring 1210-1220 og er i dag i Berlins Kupfterstichkabinett (MS A 78). Det andre psalteret tilhørte Margretes datter, Kristina Håkonsdatter (d.1262). Dette ble tilvirket i Frankrike rundt 1230, og er i dag i Det kongelige bibliotek i København (under manuskriptkoden MS GKS 1606 4°). Sammen vitner disse to psalterne om en kulturell innflytelse på det norske samfunn og monarki både fra England og Frankrike gjennom dronninger og prinsesser. I dette kapittelet vil jeg se naermere på billedprogrammet i disse to psalterne og undersøke på hvilke måter disse psalterne øvet innflytelse på fromhetsutøvelsen til dronninger ved det norske hoff. I tillegg vil jeg diskutere om psalterne også kunne styrke dronningenes selvbilde gjennom billedprogram (materielle verdier) og innhold (religiøse verdier).
In the history of Western art, one tends to see the renaissance as the time when portraiture star... more In the history of Western art, one tends to see the renaissance as the time when portraiture starts to denominate representations of particular individuals, one of many rebirths of the Roman Antiquity. However, in the mid-fourteenth century, veristic portraiture had already re-emerged to supplement symbolic representations of identity in representations of European rulers at the then most prominent European courts, i.e. in Paris, London, Vienna and Prague, as testified by the famous portrait of the French king, John the Good (d. 1364), now in the Louvre. In this article, I will concentrate on portraits of the Valois dukes of Burgundy, Philippe the Bold (d. 1404), John the Fearless (d. 1419), Phillippe the Good (d. 1467) and Charles the Bold (d. 1477). The portraits in question will be addressed in the light of the patrons' and the artists' awareness of the concept of 'likeness, ' looking at how this concept shines through as either a symbolic or a veristic identity in the representations of the dukes.
To cite this article: Ragnhild M. Bø (2005) Det gotiske ciboriet i Roma 1285-1370. Romersk tradis... more To cite this article: Ragnhild M. Bø (2005) Det gotiske ciboriet i Roma 1285-1370. Romersk tradisjon og fransk innflytelse, Konsthistorisk tidskrift/Journal of Art History, 74:1, 25-48,
Book Reviews by Ragnhild M . Bø
ICO - Nordic Review of Iconography, 2020
Books by Ragnhild M . Bø
My contribution:
Ragnhild M. Bø: Shining Pearls. Materialising Devotional
Teardrops in Late Medi... more My contribution:
Ragnhild M. Bø: Shining Pearls. Materialising Devotional
Teardrops in Late Medieval Northern Art
by Karoline Kjesrud, Nanna Løkka, Marina Prusac-Lindhagen, Unn Pedersen, Zanette Glørstad, Hanne Lovise Aannestad, Margrethe C. Stang, Ragnhild M . Bø, Bjørn Bandlien, Ingvil Brügger Budal, and Frode Iversen Dronningen i vikingtid i middelalder.
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Papers by Ragnhild M . Bø
Netherlandish carved altarpieces made c.1480-1560. The earliest occurrence seems to be in the form of a minor sculpted scene in the Brussels altarpieces now known as Strängnäs I, yet its more common inclusion is as a painted scene on the inside of the small upper wing to
the viewer’s right. Without dismissing the effects of patronage, commissions and the circulation of models, I will argue for the inclusion as partly resulting from artists’ increased partaking in religious reading due to
the dissemination of Vita Christi literature in the Netherlands. As it were, however, the motif appears proportionally more frequent in the altarpieces imported to Scandinavia than elsewhere, allowing for discussions about the iconographical program in altarpieces made for export and the possibility of the appreciation of the scene in the north is to be traced not to Vita Christi-literature in general, but to the encounter between mother and son as referenced in the visions of St Birgitta.
Book Reviews by Ragnhild M . Bø
Books by Ragnhild M . Bø
Ragnhild M. Bø: Shining Pearls. Materialising Devotional
Teardrops in Late Medieval Northern Art
Netherlandish carved altarpieces made c.1480-1560. The earliest occurrence seems to be in the form of a minor sculpted scene in the Brussels altarpieces now known as Strängnäs I, yet its more common inclusion is as a painted scene on the inside of the small upper wing to
the viewer’s right. Without dismissing the effects of patronage, commissions and the circulation of models, I will argue for the inclusion as partly resulting from artists’ increased partaking in religious reading due to
the dissemination of Vita Christi literature in the Netherlands. As it were, however, the motif appears proportionally more frequent in the altarpieces imported to Scandinavia than elsewhere, allowing for discussions about the iconographical program in altarpieces made for export and the possibility of the appreciation of the scene in the north is to be traced not to Vita Christi-literature in general, but to the encounter between mother and son as referenced in the visions of St Birgitta.
Ragnhild M. Bø: Shining Pearls. Materialising Devotional
Teardrops in Late Medieval Northern Art