AN UNUSUAL WALL PAINTING

IN THE
SCANDINAVIAN CENTER

A large, cloth print hangs in the Scandinavian Center. Donated by Dr. Carl
Swanson, Professor of Organ, Emeritus, of California Lutheran University, it is a copy of
a type of wall paintings once common in Nordic countries. In it, a family gazes from the
porch of their imposing, three-story home in astonishment at three, elegantly uniformed
horsemen who ride toward them. The first two horses prance proudly, while the last
gallops to catch up, all four hooves off the ground. The riders wear eighteenth century
style trousers that button up the sides of the legs, and the coats have belts, sashes and
epaulets of gold. Their high, red collars are embroidered with gold thread. Their cheeks
are marked by large, red, round dots, and they wear three-cornered hats decorated with
feather plumes. The spectators consist of a man, woman and bundled child, less
elegantly costumed than the riders, but still prosperous. The father wears a white,
possibly silk, coat with open lapels and high, red collar, and a powered, white wig covers
his head. The wife has a red skirt, a vest over a white blouse decorated with gold
brocade, and a close-fitting cap. The baby is wrapped in a blue blanket around a red
gown.

But, this is hardly a Swedish domestic scene. Written in Fraktur, a medieval

script, is the legend in archaic Swedish: De tre wisa mån som komma af österlander fir
den nyfödda Juda Konungen. Matth 2. (The three wise men come from the Orient for the
newborn Jewish king). This is none other than the depiction of a Biblical scene, the visit
of the Wise Men to Bethlehem, as described in the second chapter of the book of
Matthew. This is confirmed by the names in Swedish written above the family
identifying them as Joseph, Mary and Jesus. The name of God is written in Hebrew on
the pediment above the porch, and, high above all, a “sun” encloses the “Eye of God.”

But, why this very odd depiction of the well-known Christmas/Epiphany story?
The key is the signature in the upper right hand corner, “M. P. Stadig, 1826,” identifying
the artist as Mats Persson Stadig, one of the best-known Dala painters of Bjursås,
Dalerna, Sweden. Born in 1786 and living until 1862, he was one of the most acclaimed
of the peasant painters. Self-taught, his work is colorful, naïve and distinctive. Working
in a tradition that extended back to Viking days when textiles covered not only the walls
but the ceilings of peasant homes, Stadig would take up residence in the houses to be
decorated until the work was done, helping choose the subjects and painting directly on
the white walls of the house. (Later in the nineteenth century, painters would paint on
paper that could be hung in the homes.) The predominant colors were gray, red, yellow
blue and black on white. He would have to find the mineral ingredients, and grind and
combine them in recipes that were passed down in secret from painter to apprentice.
Boiled horse hooves, bone and curd were probably used, but not egg yokes. As Bengt
Engman, a contemporary Dalmålning painter commented: “Maybe those who painted in
the castles and the manor houses used egg in the tempera, but the poor artists in western
Dalarna probably stuffed the eggs in their mouths instead.”
 As the Dala painters were unacquainted with the clothing and architecture of
ancient Palestine, they drew the biblical women and men from the buildings and people
that they knew. Some models were the homes of the Scandinavian nobility. Peasant
houses would often copy luxury items in lesser materials, and when fashion books
became available in the early nineteenth century, peasant artists were quick not only to
make their settings contemporary, but their figures stylish. Models for the paintings were
also the walls and ceilings of churches. Since the arrival of Christianity into Scandinavia,
these had been adorned with biblical figures for the instruction of congregations. The
introduction of illustrated Bibles shortly after the Lutheran Reformation was also a
stimulus for the artists. These “picture” Bibles presented lavish woodcuts of the stories
of the Old Testament, the Apocrypha and the New Testament as if they had taken place
in the villages and homes of Europe. Typical of folk traditions, the lines were simplified,
the colors became more brilliant, and the moderation of the sophisticated homes gave
way to bold, lively representations.

The results were quite curious: King Solomon wears tights, a short coat and a
feathered hat, and holds a parasol over what looks like an eighteenth century lady of the
Swedish court, his future queen. The Children of Israel appear as peasants of Småland or
Dalarna, and David and Goliath wear top hats. Herod and his court are represented like
the Royal family in Stockholm, and Jesus is dressed as a Scandinavian clergyman!

There is another astonishing element in the painting in the Scandinavian Center.

Behind the horsemen, a gigantic flower bouquet leaps out of a vase to curl over the scene,
filling almost all of the sky. In Norway, this type of flower painting is called rosemåling.
But, no Swede would paint just one flower, so, about 1780, this evolved further into a
style called Dalmåling, after the province, in which fanciful blossoms grow into luxuriant
bouquets, filling the paintings with color. Called kurbits, after the “gourd” plant that
grew over Jonah after his journey in the belly of the “sea monster” (it’s a “whale” only in
English), it fills the sky in Stadig’s painting, almost touching the tree (a palm tree,
painted by a Scandinavian who had never seen this exotic plant). Another kirbit extends
all the way across the space under the ground upon which the horses tread.

By the end of the nineteenth century, these paintings were considered obsolete
reminders of an unrefined village life, and as new products flowed into the nation from
the Continent to decorate homes, the old paintings were covered over or taken down and
torn up to be used as insulation or thrown into garbage pits. A few, however, were rolled
up and placed in chests. In the 1930’s, people in both America and Sweden began to
reconsider these paintings, and to collect and exhibit them. Today they are admired as
tokens of a time long past, in which life was simple, spirited and spiritual, when flowers
decorated the sky and Bethlehem was in Scandinavia.

Ernst F. Tonsing, Ph.D.

Thousand Oaks, California