Issue 29 March 2021The Bri t ish Tapestry Group «Lapestry

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L o o k Back in T ime , L o o k N o r t h :

A Focus on Norwegian TapestryR o b b i e L a F l e u r

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Norway?s rich t r a d i t i o n o f tapes t ry , or b i l l edvev( l i te ra l ly , ?picture weaving?) s t re t ches f r o m med ieva l

t i m e s t o t h e present .

Fragments o f pictorial weavings were found in theOseberg Viking ship bur ied over a thousand years ago,t hough they were woven in a complex weave Structureunlike plain weave tapestry. The oldest plain weavetapestry in Norway, and one that ranks as a Europeantreasure, is the Baldishol Tapestry from around 1180.Covered in dir ty clay soil, it was a remarkable discovery ina church at Baldishol in Hedmark, when the church wasdemol ished in 1879. Only a f ragment remains of the

original, with an image representing two months o f theyear, April and May. \ f you quizzed Norwegians on thestreet, many would recognize the horse and r ider o f May.

After the Baldishol, no record of tapestry in Norway existsuntil the mid-1550s, when Renaissance tapestries came toNorway with it inerant German and Flemish weavers. Theweavers produced tapestries for wealthy fa rm owners andtown-dwellers; Biblical themes having to do with weddingsand fertility were popular. Soon a golden age o f tapestryin Norway emerged in the 1600s and 1700s, primari ly inthe eastern valley of Gudbrandsdal.

Norway never developed a professional guild system oftrained tapestry weavers. Instead, Norwegian women o f

1 4 | Br i t ish Tapes t ry Group

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means learned the craft, and they wove in relative

isolation. As patterns were shared, copied, and revised, theimages became flat and without perspective, and emptyspaces were filled with o rnament and pattern. Yet theNorwegian billedvev designs held a charming freshnessand directness, in contrast to many European tapestr ies

that nearly resembled paintings.

The weavers in Norway were far from the centers of

tapestry weaving in the cities o f Europe. As they had littleknowledge o f urban settings, cityscapes and buildingsfractured into shapes. The foliage became abstracted andbackground spaces were fil led with centuries-old symbols

of protection or fertility. Many tapestries included horsesin improbable shades of blue, red, and green.

Tapestry techniques developed in Norway that di f feredfrom Continental techniques. Norwegian tapestry ischaracterized by areas of flat color with little hatching orblending. When a vertical line was needed, a Frenchweaver would leave a slit to be sewn up. In contrast, the

Norwegian weaver employed various types o f dovetailing,in which joining colors shared a warp thread. Norwegiantapestries were most of ten used as bed coverlets, of tengiven as bridal coverlets. That may explain the useo f j o i n srather than slits, to make a more durable text i le for

everyday use. The joins may also have been an extensionof tradit ional rutevev, or square-weave coverlets, in whichthe edges o f the squares were interlocked.

Norwegian tapestries used wool from indigenous Spcelsausheep. Spinners used the sheep's long guard hair to makestrong, smooth yarn that took dye exceptionally well. Thefinish on the tapestr ies is lustrous, with a f la t sheen. In

contrast, most Continental tapestries used a fuzzier yarnthat gives a softer?look. Also, in Norwegian billedvevtradit ion the ends on the back are woven in so the reverseis as beautiful as the front.

By 1800 tapestry weaving waned, but there was renewedinterest at the end o f the nineteenth century, dur ing theNational Romantic era. During this period (shortly beforethe count ry split off f rom Sweden), Norwegians were insearch of images and folk crafts that were emblematic o ftheir country.

The tapestry designs o f Gerhard Munthe became popularand were of ten reproduced. He was an artist, not a

weaver, and drew cartoons that were stylistically similar tothe old tapestries, with flat planes of color, extensivepatterning, and outlining. But the new patterns looked tofolk tale and folk music for inspiration, rather than thepredominant ly religious images f rom past centuries.

This article does not cover the two most famous

artist/weavers of twent ieth century Norway, Frida Hansenand Hannah Ryggen, nor many other innovative twentiethcentury artists. It doesn?t cover contemporary Norwegiantapestry artists, who are appreciated in their own countryand well represented in international tapestry exhibitions.

Watch f o r fu ture art ic les wi th a Norwegian focus in?Tapestry Weaver?.

How can you learn more about Norwegian tapestry? Yourabsolute f i rst stop should be www.abso lu te tapest ry .com;the site includes images f rom a wide range of artists andseveral background articles on Norwegian tapestry. TheNorwegian Digital Library (www.d ig i ta lmuseum.no) is anespecial ly rich reposi tory of historical and contemporaryNorweg ian tapest ry images because it includes national

and regional museums; you can search by an artist's nameor s imply enter the w o r d billedvev. To help o thers enjoyNorweg ian tapest ry as much as | do, and t o suppor tteaching about historical bil/edvev, | have begunal i s t ofsources in English, at:www.no rweg ian tex t i l e l e t te r . com/b i l l edvev .

Norwegians appreciate tapestries. They recognize old ones- the Baldishol Tapestry image is iconic, as are the rows o fWise and Foolish Virgins of Renaissance times. Norwegianspay for new ones, too, Norway has a well funded public artprogram, KORO, and texti les are wel l represented.(Enter bil ledvev in the search box at:

w w w . p u b l i c a r t n o r w a y . o r g for examples.)

When the new National Museum in Oslo opens in 2022,

it wi l l be the largest ar t m u s e u m in Scandinavia. Themuseum owns over 300 tapestries, inc luding 17 pieces

by Hannah Ryggen and 20 objects by Frida Hansen.(Enter bil ledvev in the search box at:

? w w w . n a s j o n a l m u s e e t . n o / s a m l i n g e n / s o k / )

We should ail! begin planning a post -pandemic tapestrytr ip t o Norway now.

T h e Five Wise a n d Five Foo l i sh V i rg ins . W o v e n b e t w e e n 1 7 0 0 a n d

1760. 194 x 2 0 0 c m l inen a n d wool. P h o t o g r a p h © Anne-L i se Reinfeit ,

N o r s k F o l k e m u s e u m . N a s j o n a l m u s e e t : O K - 1 9 7 2 - 0 0 1 3 . (On t h e West

Coast o f Norway, t h e f i g u r e s b e c a m e espec ia l l y a b s t r a c t e d . P e r h a p s

Edva rd M u n c h saw th is t apes t r y before p a i n t i n g The Scream? (see a lso

N o r w e g i a n Textiles news le t te r j u l y 9, 2073) .

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ae w e oi > ~ .

eb yt : a ewh ? e y ;

W i .

T h e Su i t o r s . G e r h a r d M u n t h e c a r t o o n des ign 1897, W o v e n in 1903.

N a s j o n a l m u s e e t : OA- 1996-0006 . P h o t o g r a p h © F r o d e Larson.

Sources on Historical and Contemporary Nonvegtan Biledvey(Tapestry) in English compiled by Robbie LaFleur.

w w w . n o r w e g i a n t e x t i l e l e t t e r . c o m / b i l l e d v e v

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