Jesu födelse i ord och bild

The present paper is a comparative study, concerning the birth of Christ as described in pictorial and verbal narrative. These are represented by Scandinavian wall-paintings on the one hand and the Legenda Aurea (LA) c. 1264, Meditationes Vitae Christi (MVChr) c 1300, and the Revelations of S Bridget (RSB) c 1370, on the other.It takes its departure in the Romanesque picture of the Christchild in the manger and Mary watching over her child, showing the event after the fact.
LA and MvChr are the examined in relation to the pictorial tradition. Whereas LA shows a very slight correspondence to this (if any), MVChr seems to a certain extent to interact with it in iconographical detail, while in aim and mentality it corresponds e g to the remarkably everyday scenes of Brönnestad (Scania, c 1440).
In the RSB different phases of the events of the birth of Christ are described, while the pictures of the 15th century move their scope closer to a description of the dramatic moment, while retaining and expressing meaning on different levels. The paintings of Undløse (Sealand c 1426) and Husby-Sjutolft (Uppland c 1480) show the moments after the birth as seen through the eyes of S Bridget.
Through the manger/altar of Elmelunde (Mön c 1500) and the church in the birth-scene of Skivholme (Jutland, shortly after 1500) the pictures are invested with eucharistic implications, and the kneeling Mary becomes an example to Man in her veneration of Christ. Through juxtaposing the birth of Christ with Mary as Mater Dolorosa, the picture in Skivholme also implies a later train of events in Mary's life as the Mother of Christ.