Helgonskåp. Medieval Tabernacle Shrines in Sweden and Europe

Abstract

Helgonskåp. Medieval Tabernacle Shrines in Sweden and Europe highlights the tabernacle shrines as a significant group of devotional objects that survived from the Middle Ages. These works are often overlooked in art historical writing, which instead focuses on either large altarpieces or singular wood sculptures. In this book, art historians Justin Kroesen and Peter Tångebeg outline the emergence and development of this object type, and also determine and classify its different subgroups and variations. Moreover, they give an insight into how these objects had an important impact on the experience of space and the rituals performed in the medieval church (8). Their bountiful publication is presented in four parts: the first part is the actual survey, the second discusses the tabernacle shrines as objects, the third focuses on church spaces, and the fourth gives a glimpse of the afterlife of tabernacle shrines. A tabernacle shrine, as defined by the authors, is a “more or less architecturally shaped enclosure with a minimum height of 50 cm equipped with two, four or more wings that contains a single saint’s effigy” (10). The conceptualization is important, because, as Kroesen and Tångeberg rightly attest, one problem in the coherent study of these objects has been the varying and uneven terminology within different languages. The geographical and temporal span of the material in the book is very broad: it reaches from Spain to Finland, and from the 12th to the 16th century. The authors aim to cover all of Europe, but their focus is clearly on Sweden. This is understandable, as this is where their main expertise lies. It is noteworthy that the book includes a number of understudied objects which are clearly worthy of scholarly attention. The first and major part of the publication – seven chapters in total – is dedicated to defining and presenting different types, or groups, of tabernacle shrines. These types are classified according to their formal qualities, an approach which underlines the typological aim of the research. The types are named after the geographical location of the object that is presented to the reader as ‘the best example’; such as “The Kil Type” or “The Väte Type” etc. All these locations are in modern-day Sweden. This approach poses a problem: although this might not be intentional, it does give an impression of Sweden as the center of the described development, and implicitly assumes that the ‘true prototypes’ have indeed survived. However, many of the examples were once imported to medieval Sweden from elsewhere – mainly the Northern parts of today’s Germany or Poland. The title of the book, containing the Swedish name of tabernacle shrines, Helgonskåp (“Saint’s cupboard”), stresses this undertone. However, it is clear that Sweden has, as the authors clearly underline, the best surviving collection of the tabernacle shrines in Europe. It is, therefore, reasonable to believe that this material indeed mirrors the variety and general development of these objects elsewhere in the Latin West, that is, in the traditional area of the Roman Catholic Church. The authors shed light on the challenges of interpreting the fragmented, altered, and, for the most part, now-lost devotional objects. They also problematize their own chosen categories. Especially in the ninth chapter, the authors provide detailed contemporary descriptions and visual sources for these devotional objects. They discuss purchase, use and reception, giving future scholars of this material a lot to work with. The tenth chapter focuses on church spaces by showing the multiple ways in which the shrines were placed. We learn that they were viewed and experienced not only placed on altars, but also, for instance, on the top of large altarpieces. Some were simply standing on pedestals. Kroesen and Tångeberg convincingly discuss the devotional potential of tabernacle shrines, including those that do not have a connection to altars. They lead the reader to realize the variety of wingless shrines, too. The variation bears an interesting linkage to iconography: while Marian shrines were hardly ever without wings, the sculptures depicting the Man of Sorrows motif were often lacking them. In general, however, iconographical analysis of these works of art is given only limited space. Illustrations are of excellent quality and diversity, and the photos taken by the authors themselves successfully communicate the variety of the constellations and the present day spatial contexts. The shrines are photographed from the Material Religion volume 18, issue 3, pp. 387–388 © 2022 Elina Räsänen and Katri Vuola Reviewed by Elina Räsänen and Katri Vuola University of Helsinki, Finland