Albertus Pictor (English, "Albert the Painter"; Immenhusen, c. 1440 – c. 1507), also called Albert Pictor, Albert Målare and Albrekt Pärlstickare (Swedish), is the most famous late medieval Swedish painter, known for his wallpaintings surviving in numerous churches in southern and central Sweden. Celebrations for the quincentenary of his death were arranged for 2009.

Career

Dancing peasants by Albertus Pictor 1480

Albertus was originally called ''Albertus Immenhusen'', after the German town of

Immenhausen Immenhausen () is a town in the district of Kassel, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 12 km north of Kassel on the German Timber-Frame Road. The town has 7,098 inhabitants as of July 2020, including the northern village of Mariendorf and east ...

Hessen Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Darms ...

of which he was a native. He occurs in Swedish historical sources from 1465, when he was admitted a burgher of

Arboga Arboga () is a locality and the seat of Arboga Municipality in Västmanland County, Sweden with 10,330 inhabitants in 2010. Overview The city of Arboga is known to have existed as a town since the 13th century but the area has been inhabited sinc ...

. Eight years later he moved to Stockholm, where, in accordance with current practice, he took over the workshop as well as the widow of a deceased painter. He was a versatile and prolific artist, known to his contemporaries not only for his church wallpaintings, but also as an organist and embroiderer (hence his nickname of ''Pärlstickare'', "Pearl-embroiderer"). More than thirty of his schemes, mostly in a secco technique, are extant, many in the Lake Mälaren region, about a third of which bear his signature. Notable examples include wallpaintings at Bromma kyrka, near Stockholm, Lid kyrka, in

Södermanland Södermanland ( or ), locally Sörmland, sometimes referred to under its Latin form ''Sudermannia'' or ''Sudermania'', is a historical province or ''landskap'' on the south eastern coast of Sweden. It borders Östergötland, Närke, Västman ...

and Täby Kyrkby kyrka in

Täby Täby () was previously a trimunicipal locality, with 66,292 inhabitants in 2013. However, as from 2016, Statistics Sweden has amalgamated this locality with the Stockholm urban area. It is the seat of Täby Municipality in Stockholm County, S ...

. Part of his life and work are depicted in the illustrated book, "''Albert målare och sommaren i Härkeberga''" ("Albert the Painter and the summer in Härkeberga"), which describes his painting of the small church of Härkeberga in

Uppland Uppland () is a historical province or ' on the eastern coast of Sweden, just north of Stockholm, the capital. It borders Södermanland, Västmanland and Gästrikland. It is also bounded by lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea. On the small uninhab ...

(see below).

Bergman inspiration

Albertus's illustration of

Death Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

playing

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

from Täby kyrka inspired the famous scene in Ingmar Bergman's 1957 film ''

The Seventh Seal ''The Seventh Seal'' ( sv, Det sjunde inseglet) is a 1957 Swedish historical fantasy film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. Set in Sweden during the Black Death, it tells of the journey of a medieval knight (Max von Sydow) and a game of ch ...

'' in which a knight (Antonius Block/

Max von Sydow Max von Sydow ( , ; born Carl Adolf von Sydow; 10 April 1929 – 8 March 2020) was a Swedish-French actor. He had a 70-year career in European and American cinema, television, and theatre, appearing in more than 150 films and several television ...

) plays chess with personified Death. Albertus Pictor himself appears as a character in the film (played by Gunnar Olsson), in a dialog with Jöns, Antonius Block's squire, while working on a church mural.

Churches with wall paintings by or attributed to Albertus Pictor

Albertus Pictor's paintings are considered preserved in 37 churches. Nine of the painting are either signed with some variant of Albertus name or the signing documented was destroyed. Other paintings ascribed to Albertus Pictor are based on attributes made by experts on the subject. Attenuation on stylistic grounds based on comparisons to those of the churches that have secure signings is difficult to determine especially when it concerns the making of the works. The ornamentation has traditionally been important for the attribution, it is, however, in greater part in the public domain and is more general in its expression and easier to copy than figure painting. A lot of them are also strong influenced by over-liming and production with subsequent restoration. Albertus Pictor's painting, however, differ so much from contemporary Swedish painters that they usually can not be attributed to the author. It is conceivable that in some cases they rather have strong influences. *

Almunge Almunge is a locality situated in Uppsala Municipality, Uppsala County, Sweden with 813 inhabitants in 2010. The narrow-gauge heritage railroad Upsala-Lenna Jernväg Upsala-Lenna Järnväg (ULJ) (literally: ''Upsala-Lenna Railway'', also nicknam ...

(

) * Bromma ( Stockholm) * Bälinge (Uppland) * Danmark (Uppland) * Dingtuna (

Västmanland Västmanland ( or ), is a historical Swedish province, or ''landskap'', in middle Sweden. It borders Södermanland, Närke, Värmland, Dalarna and Uppland. Västmanland means "(The) Land of the Western Men", where the "western men" (''väst ...

) * Ed (Uppland) * Floda (

) * Gryta (

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Located north of the c ...

) * Helga Trefaldighet (Uppsala) * Husby-Sjutolft (Uppland) * Håbo-Tibble (Uppland) * Härkeberga (Uppland) * Härnevi (Uppland) * Kalmar (Uppland) * Kumla (Västmanland) * Lid (Sörmland) * Nederluleå (

Norrbotten Norrbotten (), known in English as North Bothnia, is a Swedish province (''landskap'') in northernmost Sweden. It borders south to Västerbotten, west to Swedish Lapland, and east to Finland. Administration The traditional provinces of Swe ...

) * Odensala (Uppland) * S Per (Uppsala) * Sala (Västmanland) * Sollentuna (Uppland) *

Solna Solna Municipality ( sv, Solna kommun or , ) is a municipality in Stockholm County in Sweden, located just north of Stockholm City Centre. Its seat is located in the town of Solna, which is a part of the Stockholm urban area. Solna is one of the ...

(Uppland) *

Storkyrkan Storkyrkan (, ), also called Stockholms domkyrka (Stockholm Cathedral) and Sankt Nikolai kyrka (Church of Saint Nicholas), is the oldest church in Stockholm. Storkyrkan lies in the centre of Stockholm in Gamla stan, between Stockholm Palace an ...

(Stockholm) *

Torshälla Torshälla () is a locality situated in Eskilstuna Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden with 7,612 inhabitants in 2010. It is mainly known for steel manufacturing, centered on the Nyby Bruk steel mill, and also for its historic old town cen ...

(

) *

(Uppland) *

Uppsala Cathedral Uppsala Cathedral ( sv, Uppsala domkyrka) is a cathedral located between the University Hall of Uppsala University and the Fyris river in the centre of Uppsala, Sweden. A church of the Church of Sweden, the national church, in the Lutheran t ...

(Uppland) * Vadsbro (Södermanland) *

Vaksala A hundred is a geographic division formerly used in northern Germanic countries and related colonies, which historically was used to divide a larger region into smaller administrative divisions. The equivalent term in Swedish is (in Uppland als ...

(Uppland) * Vansö (Sörmland) * Vittinge (Uppland) * Vårdinge (Södermanland) * Vänge (Uppland) *

Västerås Cathedral Västerås Cathedral (Swedish: ''Västerås domkyrka'') is the seat of the Diocese of Västerås in the Province of Västmanland, Sweden. The church building is a five-tiered cathedral, with copper-covered roof as well as a west tower with side ...

(Västmanland) * Yttergran (Uppland) * Ösmo (Sörmland) * Österunda (Uppland) * Övergran (Uppland)

References

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External links

*
Albertus Pictor
website {{DEFAULTSORT:Albertus Pictor 1440 births 1507 deaths People from Kassel (district) German emigrants to Sweden Swedish people of German descent Medieval Swedish painters Swedish male painters Artists from Stockholm Church frescos in Sweden 15th-century Swedish people 16th-century Swedish artists Swedish Roman Catholics Swedish embroiderers

Career

Bergman inspiration

Churches with wall paintings by or attributed to Albertus Pictor

See also

References

External links