Kiste måla i 1834 av Bjørn Bjaalid

Kiste måla i 1834 av Bjørn Bjaalid

Kiste måla i 1834 av Bjørn Bjaalid, ein av dei mest elegante telemarksmålarane, (Nils Georg Brekke)

Vernacular arts and crafts

“Stay in the Peace of the Lord

from the evil Eye of Envy

as the Envied Earth

will not let itself be ploughed.

Here I eat my bread

here I fear my God

Bless each and every one

who goes in and out”

This blessing for the house is inscribed over a living room door at Rogdo in Ullensvang.  The painter is Thomas Luraas from Tinn in Telemark County, and he was here in the 1850s, on one of his many painting trips to Hardanger. The inscription is well known and is to be found in several variants -  an example of the cultural contacts between rural districts. Between Telemark and Hardanger influences have certainly gone in both directions.  Many a west Norwegian dance tune has come back from Telemark in a new form, embellished with curls and decorations just like a blooming Telemark rose. In the west of Norway the elegant masters of the Rococo from Telemark encountered a local style influenced by the traditional motifs from Baroque and Renaissance times, presented by the early painters in Upper Hallingdal around the middle of the 18th century and by the model of the city painters of the 17th century.

See also