Danish art is the visual arts produced in Denmark or by Danish artists. It goes back thousands of years with significant artifacts from the 2nd millennium BC, such as the Trundholm sun chariot. For many early periods, it is usually considered as part of the wider Nordic art of Scandinavia. Art from what is today Denmark forms part of the art of the Nordic Bronze Age, and then Norse and Viking art. Danish medieval painting is almost entirely known from church frescos such as those from the 16th-century artist known as the Elmelunde Master.
The Reformation greatly disrupted Danish artistic traditions, and left the existing body of painters and sculptors without large markets. The requirements of the court and aristocracy were mainly for portraits, usually by imported artists, and it was not until the 18th century that large numbers of Danes were trained in contemporary styles. For an extended period of time thereafter art in Denmark either was imported from Germany and the Netherlands or Danish artists studied abroad and produced work that was seldom inspired by Denmark itself. From the late 18th century on, the situation changed radically. Beginning with the Danish Golden Age, a distinct tradition of Danish art began and has continued to flourish until today. Due to generous art subsidies, contemporary Danish art has a big production per capita.
Though usually not especially a major centre for art production or exporter of art, Denmark has been relatively successful in keeping its art; in particular, the relatively mild nature of the Danish Reformation, and the lack of subsequent extensive rebuilding and redecoration of churches, has meant that with other Scandinavian countries, Denmark has unusually rich survivals of medieval church paintings and fittings. One period when Nordic art exerted a strong influence over the rest of northern Europe was in Viking art, and there are many survivals, both in stone monuments left untouched around the countryside, and objects excavated in modern times.
Nordic Bronze Age
Lurs are a distinctive type of giant curving Bronze Age horn, of which 35 of the 53 known examples have been found in bogs in Denmark, very often in pairs. They are normally made of bronze, and often decorated.
A possibly alien find in Denmark is the Gundestrup cauldron, a richly decorated silver vessel, thought to date to the 1st century BC.Encyclopædia Britannica It was found in 1891 in a peat bog near the hamlet of Gundestrup in north-eastern Jutland. The silversmithing of the plates is very skilled. Now in the National Museum of Denmark, it is the largest known example of European silver work from the period. The style and workmanship suggest Thracian origin, while the imagery seems Celtic, so it may not reflect local styles.
Norse art The Germanic Iron Age period of about 400-800 AD is represented by the Golden Horns of Gallehus, now known only from drawings since they were stolen and melted down in 1802, and significant deposits from weapons sacrifice such as that at Illerup Ådal, where 15,000 items were found, deposited during the period 200–500.
Danish sites have given their names to two of the six main styles of Viking or Norse art, Jelling style (10th century) and its successor Mammen style (10-11th centuries), though the other styles are also represented in Denmark. Only one Danish ship burial is known, from Ladbyskibet. The images on the runestones at Jelling are probably the best known Danish works of the period. Although little of their original paint remains today, copies of the largest stone in the National Museum of Denmark and in the museum at Jelling have been redecorated in vivid colours based on the fragments of paint which remained on the original.Jellingstenen - en del af historiekanonen. From EMU.dk. In Danish. Retrieved 26 October 2009.
Medieval church frescos
Church wall paintings (Danish: kalkmalerier) are to be found in some 600 churches across Denmark, probably representing the highest concentration of surviving church murals anywhere in the world.Kalkmalerier i de danske landsbykirker from VisitDenmark . In Danish. Retrieved 15 August 2009. Most of them date back to the Middle Ages. They lay hidden for centuries as after the Reformation in Denmark, 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.Wall Paintings in Danish Churches from Panoramas.dk . Retrieved 12 August 2009. Adopting the Biblia pauperum approach, they present many of the most popular stories from the Old and New Testaments in typological juxtapositions.
Renaissance to the 18th century
Danish panel painting and painted wood-carving of the late Middle Ages was mostly by, or heavily influenced by, the prevailing North German styles, especially those of Hamburg and other Hanseatic cities. At the Protestant Reformation religious painting virtually ceased, and for a long period the most notable portraits of the royal family were made by foreign artists, such as Hans Holbein the Younger's portrait of Christina of Denmark. Albrecht Dürer's portrait of her father Christian II of Denmark, painted in Brussels in 1521, has not survived, though portraits of him by other foreign artists have.
The establishment of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1754 followed the general European pattern, and was intended to develop a national school and reduce the need to import artists from other countries. After a period of development its pupils were indeed to lead the creation of a distinct Danish style. After an architect, the third and fifth Director was Johannes Wiedewelt (1772–1777) and from (1780-1789), a Neoclassical sculptor trained in Italy and France, who had followed his father as court sculptor, and is remembered for his memorials and garden decorations including the monument of King Frederick V in Roskilde Cathedral and the Naval Monument in Holmens Cemetery. The first painter to lead it was the Swedish-born Carl Gustaf Pilo (c. 1711 – 1793), a portraitist and history painter in the grand style, and the next Nikolaj Abraham Abildgaard (1743–1809), himself an ex-student, who developed a Neo-Classical style. Leading Danish artists teaching at the Academy included Christian August Lorentzen and Jens Juel, also later Director. Unlike in England, for example, most leading Danish artists for at least the next century trained at the Academy and often returned to teach there, and the tension between academic art and other styles is much less a feature of Danish art history than that of France, England or other countries.
A student of Abildgaard's period at the Academy was Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770–1844), by far the most famous Danish sculptor, who along with the Italian Canova was recognised across Europe as the leading Neoclassical sculptor. Among his works are the colossal series of statues of Christ and the twelve Apostles for the rebuilding of Vor Frue Kirke in Copenhagen. Motifs for his works (reliefs, statues, and busts) were drawn mostly from Greek mythology, but he also created portraits of important personalities, as in his tomb monument for Pope Pius VII in St Peter's Basilica, Rome. His works can be seen in many European countries, but there is a very large collection at the Thorvaldsen Museum in Copenhagen. He was based in Rome for many years, and played an important role in encouraging young Danish artists spending time in the city. Another important Neoclassicist produced by the Academy was the painter Asmus Jacob Carstens, whose later career was all spent in Italy or Germany.
The establishment in 1775 of the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Factory was another royal initiative, typical of monarchies in the period, though the business has outlasted the great majority of such factories, and survives today as part of a larger group, which also includes the Kosta Glasbruk glass company, founded in 1742 by two army officers, and the Orrefors Glasbruk (founded 1898), all known internationally.
The Golden Age
Around the beginning of the 19th century the Golden Age of Danish Painting emerged to form a distinct national style for the first time since the Middle Ages; the period lasted until the middle of the 19th century. It has a style drawing on Dutch Golden Age painting, especially its landscape painting,Dutch paintings, and landscapes, dominated in the 18th century Danish collections that we have records of. North, 308-9 and depicting northern light that is soft but allows strong contrasts of colour. The treatment of scenes is typically an idealized version of reality, but unpretentiously so, appearing more realist than is actually the case. Interior scenes, often small portrait groups, are also common, with a similar treatment of humble domestic objects and furniture, often of the artist's circle of friends. Little Danish art was seen outside the country (indeed it mostly remains there to this day) and the Danish-trained leader of German Romantic painting Caspar David Friedrich was important in spreading its influence in Germany.
A crucial figure was Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, who had studied in Paris with Jacques-Louis David and was further influenced towards Neo-Classicism by Thorwaldsen. Eckersberg taught at the Academy from 1818 to 1853, becoming director from 1827 to 1828, and was an important influence on the following generation, in which landscape painting came to the fore.Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg. From National Gallery of Art. Retrieved 3 November 2009.Boime, 504-5 He taught most of the leading artists of the period, including:Visual Arts from Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 3 November 2009.
Wilhelm Bendz (1804–1832), remembered for his many technically accomplished portraits of fellow artists such as Ditlev Blunck and Christen Christensen, a scene from the Academy's anatomy class, as well as the group portraits "A Tobacco Party" and "Artist in the Evening at Finck's Coffee House in Munich"; Constantin Hansen (1804–1880), deeply interested in literature and mythology, and inspired by Niels Laurits Høyen, he developed national historical painting based on Norse mythology and painted many portraits, including the historical The Constitutional Assembly (Den grundlovgivende Rigsforsamling); Christen Købke (1810–1848), influenced by Niels Laurits Høyen, an art historian who promoted a nationalistic approach calling for artists to search for subject matter in the folk life of their country instead of searching for themes in other countries such as Italy; Wilhelm Marstrand (1810–1873), a vastly productive artist who mastered a remarkable variety of genres, remembered especially for a number of his works which have become familiar signposts of Danish history and culture: scenes from the drawing-rooms and streets of Copenhagen during his younger days; the festivity and public life captured in Rome; the many representative portraits of citizens and innovators; even the monumentalist commissions for universities and the monarchy; Martinus Rørbye (1803–1848), remembered for his genre paintings of Copenhagen, for his landscapes and for his architectural paintings, as well as for the many sketches he made during his travels to countries rarely explored at the time. Among other artists, C.A. Jensen (1792–1870) specialized almost exclusively in portraits.
At the end of the period painting style, especially in landscape art, became caught up in the political issue of the Schleswig-Holstein Question, a vital matter for Danes, but notoriously impenetrable for most others in Europe.
Later 19th century
Danish painting continued many of the characteristics of the Golden Age, but gradually moved closer to styles of the rest of Europe, especially Germany. Artists include: