Encounter: The Kirkekunstsamling at the University Museum of Bergen

n the early 2000s I took many trips across rural Europe with Regnerus Steensma, my colleague at the University of Groningen (Netherlands), in search of country churches rich in medieval furnishings. Our assumption that the Middle Ages are preserved most tangibly in the splendid isolation of remote parish churches was confirmed time and again. We were amazed by the interior ensembles on the island of Gotland, delighted by the the imposing chancel screens of Devon, impressed by the soaring altarpieces of southern Aragon, intrigued by the Romanesque pievi (rural baptismal churches) of Tuscany, and overwhelmed by the Gothic splendor of Middle Franconia. The density of wellpreserved examples varies greatly from country to country, and Norway was not on our list until relatively late in the project. In June 2007 we planned a visit to the wooden stave churches along the Sognefjord and the valleys of eastern Norway before heading south toward Oslo. We began the trip in Bergen, on the country’s west coast, where we visited the local universitymuseum before venturing into the hinterland. We knew that its collections included more than twenty rare painted altar frontals from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; they had been the subject of an exhaustive research project several years earlier. Because a general catalogue of the collections had not been published, however, and the Internet was not as developed as it is today, we had only a vague idea of what to expect. Stepping over the threshold into the half-dark exhibition rooms of the kirkekunstsamling—the church art collection—wewere instantly blown away (Fig. 1). To the left and right were Romanesque church furnishings of painted wood, a variety of object types we had hardly ever seen before. In addition to the colorful painted frontals, we saw a number of polychromed Virgin and