Danish Art - Medieval Church Frescos

Medieval Church Frescos

Church wall paintings (Danish: kalkmalerier) are to be found in some 600 churches across Denmark, no doubt representing the highest concentration of surviving church murals anywhere in the world. Most of them date back to the Middle Ages. They lay hidden for centuries as after the reformation, they were covered with limewash (Danish: kalk) only to be revealed and restored during the course of the 19th and 20th centuries. Of most interest to Danish art are the Gothic paintings from the 15th and 16th centuries as they were painted in a style typical of native Danish painters. Adopting the Biblia pauperum approach, they present many of the most popular stories from the Old and New Testaments in typological juxtapositions.

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