FFF #4 – The Icelandic Book of Drawings at Gerðarsafn and Cafe Dix

Gerðarsafn in Kópavogur is one of those buildings I’ve biked past a thousand times, but never actually entered. Well, finally the time had come!

It sits on the main ‘hill’ of the oldest part of Kópavogur, next to the very unique Kópavogur church.

Looking south (left from the church) at the old-ish houses, neighboring Garðabær, and towards the mountains.

The main entrance. Time to go inside!!

It’s a good thing I’m an introvert by nature, because for the most part I was the only visitor there! The only other person in the house was the woman sitting at the information/admissions desk.

I forgot to ask which of the two rooms to start in, so I of course picked the ‘wrong’ one so to speak. The book has drawings from four artists, A-D, and this room had C and D’s works.

About the book. Curiously, all the text on the walls was in Icelandic only. The other shows I’ve been to recently have all been bilingual. This text basically tells us the book is unique, and shows the Christian mindset of the middle ages as well as the artistic trends of the era.

All art museums should have arty looking windows!

The view out said arty looking window. This is the main Kópavogur library, and its natural history museum, all rolled into one.

There were a lot of images to investigate.

But first, I had to get myself to the proper starting point. These cute ‘tunnel-doors’ were irresistible!

Modernish-glass window thingy. There seems to be a cafe downstairs, but I don’t know when it’s operational.

Ok, the beginning of the show, proper.

The Icelandic Drawing Book is one very few ‘template’ books preserved from the Eurpoean middle ages. It’s small and in pretty bad shape. It was created in in fits and starts, between 1330 and 1500. It was still being used shortly before 1700, when Árni Magnússon, the great manuscript collector, acquired it. When it was moved from Copenhagen in 1991, they bought a seat for it on the plane so it would have a smooth passage.

Artist A had a whole sequence devoted to the life and times of Jesus Christ. Starting with this face image derived from a cloth image. It probably operated as the cover image for the book. 

Mary being told the good news by the angel Gabriel. Meanwhile, Artist C used the empty space to draw in a Scandinavian king.

This is Mary sitting with the baby Jesus and surrounded by lots of iconic things. Funnily enough, the text next to the image indicates that the face of Jesus has been drawn over and changed into a girl, so that this could also be a template for baby Mary and her mom!

The only other visitor to wander through the halls at the same time as me. She went a lot faster though.

These skin replicas were pretty cool. Amazing how much better the blown up images look compared to the originals.

Another arty window. The closest image has Jesus as an adult along with Mary. Their connection in the middle ages seems rather convoluted and weird.

The other tables in the show had paper copies of the manuscript, and examples of manuscripts where the images from the book had been as templates. The smaller images on the walls were more comparisons, and some vector graphics extractions.

The photocopies. It must be terribly hard to have to accept all these white spaces.

Having gone through the whole shebang of the judgement, crucifixion, and uprising, Artist A ends with Mary and Jesus sitting holy authority like with crowns and all. Mary defers to Jesus though with her hand posture.

Cool comparisons.

All of Artist A’s drawings, simplified (computerized as vector graphics really) and aligned to tell a story. They think it may have served as a template for some altar-decorations.

The continuation.

The manuscript is in four parts. I liked this guessing game as to what belonged to which artists.

Artist C was really prolific!

D makes an appearance.

Sigh. So much lost to the teeth of time.

Artist B didn’t have a lot to say, but apparently had a habit of having people bend their elbows and wrists! Oh, drawing fashions!

Having finished the first room, I went back over the bridge to the other room. Down below I noticed a kiddie section, which I would visit later.

The works of Artist C are the most numerous in the book.

God creating the world in seven days, although day two is skipped, and day six is split in two (animals vs. Adam and Eve. And yes, Eve arises from Adam’s side. Yay.).

Medieval boobies! Well, a breastfeeding Mary, anyway. Also, a king with one empty hand, where an artist was free to insert an icon of his or her choice!

Artist D like dark outlines, contrasted with more delicate facial features. This page shows St. Christopher drawn by both Artists D and C.  Apparently, medieval folks were terrified of dying a sudden death, and thus not be able to confess their sins before dying.  Praying to St. Christopher was supposed to ward off sudden deaths, so he was a really popular guy.

The same page also has this rather fantastic example of the difference between a practiced artist (C I think) and a copy-cat. Yes, my dragon would look like the lower one too!

After walking about for an hour and a half (!!!) I was back at the beginning, where there’s a gift shop, of course. On display was the book about the book.

A fitting first page, me thinks.

The book has quite a few sections, and uses red ink for the most part.

Later on each page is given a thorough analysis.

Having had my fill of medieval icons, I ventured downstairs to the ‘museum education’ section.

Huh, not a bad looking cafe at all! Must see when it’s open.

A fairly standard display on how books were made in the ye olden times.

A dragon on the floor? There’s lots of activity going on there, but I won’t bore you with it.

A very neat display on how handwriting has evolved over the centuries.

So pretty!!

Ok class, time to learn your runes!

Writing was apparently performed standing up? Also, there were manuscript scans on the walls detailing how bored the writers were, and how much writing strained the body. I wonder what they would have thought if they could have seen into the future…?

Back at the kiddie section I saw all these cool drawing assignments, using the book as a template.

… and introduced me to a website where these drawing assignments and many more are housed. Kveikjan.is people. Go there!

Also on the wall: Examples from a recent workshop for kids.  It looked like they’d folded paper into three parts and done a ‘complete-the-monster’ assignment.  I should probably sign up for their mailing list or something!

And that was it! Almost two hours and two hundred pictures later, I was back at the admissions desk – except the lady had understandably snuck off to a small side-room to eat her lunch. I was really glad nobody else was there because my camera is super loud!!

The view from the museum steps. Not the most thrilling, I know.

I was getting terribly hungry and running a wee bit late, so I went to the nearby Cafe Dix, previously proven to be quite good.

Ordered a sandwich from the cooler and for the first time ever ever ever, the owner insisted on exchanging out the cold bread for some non-cooled bread, because “the cold bread gets all hard and unappetizing”. I kid you not. And yes, I kind of had to agree that the non-cooled bread was excellent. The hot chocolate got a 4 out of 5.

I totally forgot to take a selfie at the museum, so this one is looking over our still iced and very bumpy street will have to do! Until next time!!