Över gränsen. liminalitetsaspekter på två senmedeltida skånska kalkmålningssviter

Abstract

Across the border. Aspects of liminality in the mural paintings of two Scanian churches
By Cecilia Hildeman Sjölin

The present text is concerned with the crossing of borders of sacred space, through doorways in an actual sense and through fictional/representational space in the vaults, as acts of seeing, which is then regarded in the context of medieval optics, which argue that sight includes touch and communication in a physical sense. The key concepts are: action, border crossing and transformation. Through the crossing of borders in an action relating to images, a transformation of the individual is intended. The examples chosen are the late medieval mural decorations of Östra Herrestad and Brunnby. The images unite with the architectural space and the worshippers and their (ritual) actions in creating and defining consecrated, sacred space. Through the image of the Expulsion from Paradise immediately above the doorway in the western vault of the nave of Östra Herrestad church, the act of leaving this particular architectural space is given a particular meaning; leaving the sacred space, the medieval individual participates in the staging of the expulsion from the Garden of Eden into the living conditions of mortals, according to the medieval conception of the history of salvation. The crossing of borders of sacred space is further compared to that in Brunnby, where a series of imago representations, intended for worship in reciprocity, including the Man of Sorrows, is painted in the vaults of the nave. The images create presence which opens space to a different world, and thus, through the painted images, the vaults become borders across which a different space is visible, and into which the human eye can penetrate, according to medieval optics, to actually touch and actually communicate physically with Christ and the heavenly sphere, which creates a physical change in the spectator/worshipper.