Fragmented objects from a devotional past. Wooden polychrome sculptures in the diocese of Turku in the long fourteenth century
Lectio praecursoria
Keywords:
taidehistoria, veistokset, hartauselämäAbstract
This text is based on a lectio praecursoria I presented in my doctoral thesis Fragmented objects from a devotional past. Wooden polychrome sculptures in the diocese of Turku in the long fourteenth century. The dissertation addresses a particular gap in our knowledge of the oldest sacral sculptures in churches in mainland Finland. The research asks what kind of sculptures from the period under study have survived and how technical and scientific methods can benefit research on the origin, production, and devotional use of the sculptures. The study will also explore how and why these sculptures have fragmented and changed, and how this affects their interpretation. In addition to traditional art historical methods such as comparative stylistic analysis and iconographic interpretation of pictorial motifs, the multidisciplinary collaborative research will apply techniques such as microscopic examination of the wood, elemental analysis of colour pigments, computed tomography and AMS radiocarbon dating. As a result of this research, many of the perceptions about the origin, dating and devotional significance of the sculptures were refined and changed.
