Moving altarpieces: tracing the provenance of Netherlandish carved altarpieces in Sweden

Abstract

Modern-day Sweden houses 38 Netherlandish carved altarpieces, about ten retable fragments, and two poupées de Malines. Some Netherlandish carved altarpieces in Sweden are still preserved in their original location. The majority of these altarpieces, however, are no longer stored in their authentic environment, as many of them have moved from one location to another over the past centuries. Therefore, the aim of this article is to trace back as far as possible the provenance of Netherlandish carved altarpieces in Sweden. A first source that regularly reveals a retable’s provenance consists of archival documents. Secondly, antiquarians’ travel notes often either confirm an altarpiece has remained at its current location for several centuries, or unveil the artwork’s previous whereabouts. More frequently, however, no archival documents or antiquarians’ notes exist. In that case, the presence of these stunning works of art often awakened people’s fascination for their provenance and made them wonder how such high-quality Netherlandish altarpieces ended up in small Swedish churches. This fascination has given rise to multiple unfounded legends, asserting the altarpieces were incidental results of shipwrecks, carriage breakdowns or spoils of war, primarily from the Thirty Years’ War. In the course of the last five centuries, retables were taken out of their original context not only by moving from one church to another, but also because, from the nineteenth century onwards, they were included in museum collections. The present research thus reflects on the fact that most Netherlandish carved altarpieces in Sweden are decontextualised in their present-day environment.