Alessandro Bausi (editor) - Canones: The Art of Harmony: The Canon Tables of the Four Gospels

The essay is on Carl Nordenfalk, Swedish art historian, medievalist and museologist. The objective is to present his internationally acknowledged professional life and elucidate the circumstances which led him to write his celebrated doctoral dissertation, Die sptantiken Kanontafeln. This pioneering work contributed immensely to scholarship on the history of the medieval book and is still recognised for its long-lasting scholarly value.

I am grateful to Dr. Robert Phoenix for linguistic revision of this text and to Ms Emilia Strm for providing me with access to the materials in the Stockholm NMs archives. I also acknowledge Weronika Witakowska for her patient assistance in the preparation of the illustrations and Mr Samuel Fogg for sharing with me the photographs from his collection.

In 1938 Carl Nordenfalk published his doctoral thesis on the Eusebian canon tables. This study marked the start of his long and successful academic career and also signalled his life-long interest in illuminated and decorated manuscripts. His dissertation came to be recognised as one of the most valuable contributions to medieval art history. Its impact is still felt today. This work established a solid foundation for scholarly investigation of the gospel books. It also opened up a new area of research which continues to benefit from further explorations. The collection of papers presented in this volume supplies fitting testimony to it.

International scholarship remembers Carl Nordenfalk primarily as an exceptionally competent authority on the art of the medieval book and the author of several comprehensive studies in this field. Less well known, particularly nowadays, is that he was also a museologist of excellent reputation, a prolific writer of scholarly and popular texts on a number of art historical topics and editor of numerous publications.

The contribution here derives much of its data from Nordenfalks memoirs, up to now only published in Swedish. In this book, unpretentiously titled Mest om konst (Mostly about art), Nordenfalk writes about his professional and academic life, his meetings, cooperation and friendship with famous scholars, museum experts, and patrons of the arts. Describing the various settings and environments in which he worked, the author elucidates the different cultural phenomena he had the opportunity to deal with, in conclusion analysing the aims and results of his research. Out of these fascinating narratives, composed throughout with literary skill, admirable objectivity, self-distance, and crisp humour, emerges the image of an ingenious personality and a scholar firmly convinced of the value of knowledge and art.

Fig. 1: Carl Nordenfalk, Stockholm 1966, photo H. Hammerskild. With permission of the Stockholm National Museums archives.

Fig. 2AB: Letters to Nordenfalk; A: from Adolph Goldschmidt, B: from Francis Wormald. With permission of the Stockholm National Museums archives.

Carl Nordenfalk was born in Stockholm on December 13th, 1907. In 1926 he first studied history, continuing with art history at the University of Uppsala, Stockholm University and finally at Gothenburg University. As early as 1927, he developed a sustained interest in art history while studying German in Bonn, where he participated in Paul Clemens seminars, a reputable specialist in Romanesque and Gothic church architecture of the Rhineland.

Upon his return to Sweden, Nordenfalk wrote his master thesis on the Echternach School of book painting, ).

In autumn 1935 Nordenfalk joined the staff of the Museum of Art in Gothenburg, where he combined research activities on various subjects concerning illuminated manuscripts with his duties as the museums assistant director. In 1938, at Gothenburg University, he defended his doctoral dissertation Die sptantiken Kanontafeln: kunstgeschichtliche Studien ber die eusebianische Evangelien-Konkordanz in den vier ersten Jahrhunderten ihrer Geschichte ).

Fig. 3AB: A: Letter from Nordenfalk to Erwin Panofsky and B: letter from Panofsky to Nordenfalk. With permission of the Stockholm National Museums archives.

Nordenfalk continued his museum career. From 1944 to 1958 he worked in the National Museum of Stockholm as head of the Department of Outgoing Activities, where he was responsible for permanent loans, travelling exhibitions and cultural education. His vast scholarly production was connected to the artefacts in the museum ).

In 1958 Nordenfalk was appointed the chief curator for the Department of Art and Sculpture in the Stockholm National Museum. Shortly thereafter, he became the museums director, a position which he held until his retirement in 1968.