Illustration: Stitched wall hanging from Skog, Sweden, 12th century.
Much of Sweden, as with the rest of Scandinavia, has a history of living within traditional rural based communities, rather than urban centres. This tradition has lasted largely intact up until the present day. In many parts of Europe this traditional way of life was broken up and destroyed, largely as a result of the introduction of the industrial based heartlands. Many traditional rural communities took part in a wholesale movement to large urban areas, where many of the craft traditions built up over countless generations were abandoned as useless, the need for cheap labour as a human resource was considered paramount. This has meant that Sweden, in some respects, has been luckier than other European cultures in being able to maintain, and in some cases to even strengthen the traditional craft skills that had been so much a part of the general European culture for centuries.
Sweden itself, and its immediately neighbouring countries that make up the area of Scandinavia, have had historically mutually shifting borders and so most share some form of common culture and therefore a sharing of common traditional crafts as well. However, although there is a case for seeing 'Scandinavian' as a style, there are many local and regional variations within that style, which makes the region much more of a subtle patchwork of differing design and decorative techniques and displays within that overall style.
The example shown above is from the twelfth century. This early wall hanging has been produced on a natural linen background, linen itself being a common woven cloth produced in Sweden for centuries. All the thread used for the colour work at this period would have been produced using natural dyes, which is why the colour tones appear grouped in a much closer harmony than with that of the later artificial dyes that often shared very little common ground with each other and had no localised regional base. Because most of the coloured dyes during this early period were produced locally, as was the background linen fabric, all tie into that local natural setting, weaving themselves together into one local piece with natural roots set in that region.
The decoration seems typical of much of the representational work produced in wood, stone and textile, throughout Scandinavia and much further afield, particularly where Scandinavian influence, both political and cultural, was at its strongest. Therefore, this type of work can be found as far west as Britain and Ireland, and as far east as northern Russia.
The theme itself is Christian based, although the actual compositional story is unclear and could in fact be relatively ambiguous, as the love of both decoration and the use of animal figures as an integral part of that decoration, had been a mainstay of Swedish decorative work long before the Christian era. It is interesting to note how Christianity often had to, initially at least, accommodate local cultural traditions and would therefore become the latest layer of that long tradition. That accommodation would also have had to have been incorporated into the craft mediums, and therefore Christian themes often played a part in local decoration, but not always initially at least, a large part.
This type of Swedish decoration became very popular within the Swedish Arts & Crafts movement of the nineteenth century and was particularly popular amongst the revitalised weaving and embroidery traditions, whereby contemporary decorative work played on the themes from the twelfth century and earlier, trying to tie their work to that of the cultural traditions of the earliest Swedish craft era.
Further reading links:
Embroidery: Traditional Designs, Techniques, and Patterns from All over the World
By Special Request Swedish Weaving/Huck Embroidery Book III
Swedish Weaving/Huck Embroidery Designs Book 2
Huck Weaving (Swedish Embroidery) (Huck stitche designs includes: Crib Cover, Baby Set, Carriage cover, Bibs, Cafe curtain, Valance, Tea towels, Skirt, Coctail apron, Shamrock apron, Guest towel, Tea set, Baby cover-all, C.B. No. 25)
The How to Book of Swedish Weaving and Huck Embroidery (Avery Hill's)
Swedish Tvistsom Embroidery: Technique and 46 Charted Designs (Dover Needlework)
Swedish Weaving: Embroidery on Huck Fabric
Simply Swedish Weaving/Huck Embroidery, Book 4
The ABC of Embroidery: Creative Stitchery, Swedish Weaving & Crewel Stiches. (Star Book, No. 22
SWEDISH TEXTILE ART: Traditional Marriage Weavings from Scania (The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Swedish Textile Art)
