Lýsingar í íslenskum handritum á 15. öld

Illuminations in Icelandic manuscripts from the fifteenth century

Abstract

This article discusses illuminations in Icelandic manuscripts from the fifteenth century. No noteworthy illuminations have been found in the few extant Icelandic manuscripts that can be dated with certainty to the first half of the century. With the exception of the author’s work on the Icelandic Teiknibók (AM 673 a III 4to), little research on illuminations in manuscripts from the second half of the century has been conducted. The Teiknibók is a model-book by four artists, active in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In this paper, attention is directed at illustrations produced by the Teiknibók C-artist (who worked in the third quarter of the fifteenth century), and at illuminations in manuscripts and fragments which two brothers of the same name, Jón Þorláksson, produced around the same time. The scribal hands of the two Jóns have been identified in manuscripts and fragments, mainly from Catholic church books. On the basis of stylistic comparison, the decoration of the initials in manuscripts written by the two Jóns can be ascribed to two hands. The two brothers appear to have illuminated the manuscripts they produced themselves as the two different styles match the parts of the text they wrote. The brothers’ illuminations draw on those found in fourteenthcentury Icelandic manuscripts. There is hardly any new, foreign influence – a mark of the stagnation in manuscript production that prevailed in Iceland in the second half of the fifteenth century. 

The elder Jón Þorláksson wrote his name in a donation text on a single leaf from a gradual in 1473 (AM 80 b 2 8vo), and noted that Bjarni Ívarsson illuminated the gradual and presented it to the church at Munkaþverá for his soul. The one extant leaf from the gradual is not illustrated and Bjarniʾs illuminations are unknown. It is conjectured that the Teiknibók C-artist is to be identified as Bjarni Ívarsson. It is furthermore suggested that Bjarni Ívarsson – the Teiknibók C-artist – had Jón Þorláksson assist him in producing the Munkaþverá-gradual because he intended to give similar liturgical manuscripts to other churches. The C-artist sought inspiration in art from the fourteenth century at the beginning of his career but as time drew on, he imitated contemporary works with distinctive late medieval characteristics, and, to a certain degree, he adopted foreign innovations.