Ärkeängeln Mikael: En historiografisk undersökning av svensk medeltida träskulptur

Abstract

This essay is an investigation of medieval woodsculptures picturing S.t Michael from 1200-1275, today preserved in Swedish churches and museums. No uniform research have been made of solely the archangel Michael as a medieval cultimage before. The backgrounds of early medieval christian beliefs and practical use of the cultimage and how the Michael-cult spread from Byzantium through England to Scandinavia frame a context. Furthermore the research contains an analysis of how earlier Swedish arthistorians examined and categorized the sculptures. Their results still remain as descriptions of medieval woodsculpture at Statens historiska museum. The questions of improbable dating as well as origin of the sculptures set in the early twentieth century, becomes visible. The study applies a historiographic theory and method together with iconographic and style analysis, which consequently illustrate the problematic conditions that occur when history is not challenged and inaccuracies are repeated as if they were truths.