Middle Age Saint Statues in Finland

Summary

This is an abstract from the "POSTER Session 3: Material Culture and Site Studies" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Lately Finnish people have been very interested about middle age and how people lived then. Church was very important in middle age. 

In medieval sculpture, the human figure was central. Sculpture and saint statues are not really church art, but their size and shape varied according to purpose.

Usually the statues were also painted in different colors. Especially red color was popular. 

The medieval stone churches have been forgotten in the past, and they were not mentioned until the 19th century. And there are not many studies concerning the medieval saint statues.

In Finland, the statues of saints are still in medieval churches, for example in the Old Church of Keminmaa. These statues in the Church of Keminmaa are the only survivors of the medieval religious and artistic work of Lapland.

There are six saint statues in the Church of Keminmaa, some of which date back to the 16th century. 

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2019   •
• POSTER Session 3: Material Culture and Site Studies

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 352