Ikonreception i Sverige: Möten med och bruk av heliga bilder under det långa 1900-talet

Abstract

The aim of this study is to describe how icons – holy images from Eastern Europe and the orthodox churches, mostly from Russia and Greece – have been introduced and received as objects of interest, attention and sacred use in Sweden during the twentieth century. The liturgical use studied in this presentation is limited to the Church of Sweden, notwithstanding the fact that icons now are to be found in several other churches and church buildings in Sweden, especially, as one may expect, in those belonging to, and used by, Christian immigrants of Orthodox faith. The broader notion of icons in this respect amounts to images depicting saints or scenes from the Bible and legends, in sacred rooms and spaces, generally belonging to, or inspired by, the visual tradition of Early Christianity or Orthodoxy.

Although there are two known cases of Russian icons being brought to Sweden in late 16th and early 17th centuries, by members of the same noble family, De la Gardie, icons as concept, objects of art or sacred images seem to have been practically absent from liturgical life in the Church of Sweden until around 1900. During the 20th century, icons have been objects of what may be seen as at least four different kinds of reception. The first type deals with attention to, interest in, and experience of, sacred images in churches and monasteries by tourists or travelers sojourning abroad.

The second type is concerned with collecting icons, especially the grand and unique collecting activities and donations by Olof Aschberg, who brought about 300 Russian icons to Sweden and Nationalmuseum in Stockholm in 1933 and 1952. The icons were possible to purchase and collect because of the Soviet-era despoliation of sacred milieus. The third type of reception outlined entails scholarly research focusing on iconography, stylistic character, or proveniences of the icons, starting with the art historian Helge Kjellin, a friend and collaborator of Aschberg, around 1930. Icon research has been a growing field in the West during the 21th century.

The fourth kind of reception may be observed through mobile singular icons and wall paintings in the so called “icon movement”, when icons were appreciated, commissioned and received (often from Swedish artists) into church buildings as images of devotion and liturgical use. There were several professional Swedish artists who joined the icon movement and became active within this particular field, notably the landscape painter Sven-Bertil Svensson (b. 1937), whose visual representations now may be seen in a large number of churches in Sweden. There was moreover a Swedish “amateur icon movement”, in which individuals attended icon courses and practiced icon art themselves, for private devotional use, or for gifts to, for example, Swedish parish churches. During the second half of the 20th century icons gradually have become important and often indispensable elements in sacred spaces in Sweden.