On Tuesday 17 September 2019  Illuminare – Centre for the Study of Medieval Art and LECTIO (Leuven Centre for the Study of the Transmission of Texts and Ideas) will organize a workshop on Netherlandish carved altarpieces in the Nordic regions.

As a result of their popularity in the late 15th and the beginning of the 16th century, Netherlandish carved altarpieces were exported abroad to Rhineland and Westphalia, France, the Baltic Coast (especially Poland), the Iberian Peninsula, England and Scandinavia. There still exist approximately 400 Netherlandish carved altarpieces today. This round table will focus on Netherlandish carved altarpieces in the Nordic region.

Denmark nowadays preserves four Antwerp retables and three groups of retable fragments; Finland one Brussels and one Antwerp exemplar; Iceland a group of retable-fragments; and Norway one altarpiece from Antwerp. Sweden possesses thirty-eight Netherlandish carved altarpieces, around ten retable-fragments, and at least two poupées de Malines (wooden statuettes of Mechelen). These remnants are probably only a fraction of the number that originally decorated the Nordic churches.

This round table will address the export and the transport of the altarpieces to the North; the use of this artworks in liturgical rituals; the import and interaction between other imported or local sculptures; and the contemporaneous reception of the artworks in the North.

Please find the full program and abstracts of the lectures here. Participation is free, but registration is required via lectio@kuleuven.be before 8 September 2019.