Fragile Fragments - a New Provenance for the Late Medieval Triptych in Kinn Church, Norway

Abstract

The 12th-century church on the island of Kinn, off the west coast of Norway, still houses parts of a late-medieval triptych. The central section of the triptych was later built into an altarpiece from 1644, and three female sculptures from the triptych are still kept in the church. Since 1936 it has been suggested that the Kinn triptych belonged to a group of late-medieval triptychs kept in various churches along the coast and named the Leka group. The aim of the work presented in this paper is to re-examine that suggestion and the provenance of the triptych. A detailed study of the three sculptures and the remains of the central section has allowed a new assessment of the work. A dendrochronological examination of parts of the central section and one sculpture has been of vital importance for the study. Olstad’s suggestion, supported by Leeuwenberg, that the Kinn triptych differs from the rest of the Leka group is confirmed by the dendrochronological analysis. We propose that the provenance of the triptych should be revised. It seems more likely that this work did not originate in the northern Netherlands, but rather came from a northern-German workshop. Through a reassessment of all the dendrochronological data from the socalled Leka group, including data collected in 2015 from the triptychs in Leka, Røst, Ørsta og Hadsel churches, the origin of the oak for these works is also now clearer.

Fragile Fragments - a New Provenance for the Late Medieval Triptych in Kinn Church, Norway