Sammendrag
A relatively large group of gilded copper altar frontals and retables from the twelfth and early 13th century is preserved in Scandinavia, deriving from parish churches in Jutland and Scania. A characteristic feature of these altar decorations is the many Latin inscriptions integrated in the iconographic compositions. The aim of the article is to discuss the interplay between inscriptions and iconography in some of the Danish golden altars, and thereby contribute to the broader discussion of the relations between text and image in medieval culture. The inscriptions can be divided in two main categories: either short, descriptive tituli identifying figures or scenes, or longer, more sophisticated tituli commenting on the images’ theological content. Both categories are found on all altars. By examining variants of both categories, the author argues that many of the identifying tituli are almost dispensable. Their function is rather to strengthen the iconographic content than to add new meaning to it. This implies that literacy was not required to understand the images. Other identifying tituli, e.g. the Gospel quotations about the identity of Christ, are well-known, linguistically simple, and mnemonically attractive, and thus easy to read and recall, also for beholders with a limited ability to read. The theological tituli, commenting upon the allegorical meaning of the iconography, are not so accessible. They are linguistically more advanced and require a certain amount of learning to be understood and close access to the altar in order to be deciphered at all. Read and meditated upon, however, they reveal the allegorical potential of the iconography. In this way, the Danish golden altars exhibit a multitude of inscriptions requiring different levels of literacy and learning. The texts in the images operate simultaneously on different levels: they are aesthetic elements in the compositions; they are mnemonic markers, amplifiers of meaning, and mediators of allegorical exegesis. Inscriptions and iconography interplay in different ways that seem to reflect the hermeneutic model on which medieval theology is based: God’s revealed wisdom to man is one and the same, while the interpretative levels are manifold and in a varying degree accessible to the faithful.
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