The surviving amount of medieval stained glass in Sweden is relatively small, compared to some other European countries. There are in total 165 medieval stained glass panes with figurative depictions surviving in 37 churches, constituting a total area of about 60 square metres (650 sq ft), a fraction of the original amount but still the largest amount found in any of the Nordic countries. Archaeological evidence and old drawings indicate that many more once existed. The majority of the surviving glass paintings date from between approximately 1225 and 1350 and can be found mainly on Gotland. These stained glass windows can be roughly divided into groups on stylistic grounds. The oldest surviving stained glass windows can be found in Dalhem Church, and show influences from Byzantine art, probably conveyed via Germany, while the most recent date from the 15th and 16th centuries and are found in mainland Sweden. As elsewhere in Catholic Europe throughout the Middle Ages, stained glass was used to convey Christian themes through images to the churchgoers. A serious study of the medieval stained glass of Sweden by art historians began in the 19th century. In 1964, a complete catalogue of all preserved medieval stained glass in Sweden was published.
History
Although the technique of making stained glass had been known since before the Middle Ages, the practice of decorating churches with stained glass windows became widespread in the territory of what is today Sweden first from the 1230s. On Gotland, where the vast majority of the remaining stained glass windows come from, stained glass windows were produced during a comparatively short time span of about a century and a half, from the second quarter of the 13th century to the end of the 14th century. This was a time of expansive church building and rebuilding on the island, which had grown rich from foreign trade. With the end of the 14th century, this period came to an end and church building, and with it the manufacturing of stained glass, ceased. Surviving stained glass windows from mainland Sweden date mainly from the 14th century and later, and there is no coherence in the body of surviving pieces comparable to that on Gotland. Furthermore, some of the medieval window panes today found on the mainland were originally from Gotland. Judging from both written sources and archaeological discoveries, it was common to decorate churches lying within the current borders of Sweden with stained glass during the entire Middle Ages. In general, churches were equipped with stained glass windows when they were built. It is known from at least one occasion that a stained glass window was donated to a church by a clergyman, but contemporary written evidence of window production or acquisition is generally scarce. In cases where no actual windows remain, knowledge about their existence has been deduced from other sources. Some are known through earlier depictions, like the drawings made by Johan Peringskiöld of the stained windows of the church in Gamla Uppsala. He and other 17th-century antiquarians were primarily interested in heraldic and other historical traces that could be linked to the Swedish nobility, which is why they occasionally made drawings of stained glass windows showing coats of arms, but not necessarily other stained glass windows. Later, during the 19th century and the early 20th century, cultural historian Pehr Arvid Säve and artist and teacher Gustava Meukow made more comprehensive copies of the church windows, some since lost and dispersed, on Gotland. In other cases fragments of coloured glass have been found in or near the church windows (e.g. at Jumkil Church). It may also be noted that between 1440 and 1540, at least eleven glaziers are known to have been active in Stockholm (at least one of them seems to originally have been German), but whether or not it can be assumed that it was part of their skill set to also produce decorated glass is a matter of differing opinions. Like in the rest of Catholic Europe, stained glass windows played a role in conveying Christian themes and stories to the congregation. Decorative glass windows are known almost exclusively from churches; there are in Sweden only a few known examples of profane stained glass painting from the time, of very simple, monochrome design (e.g. in Glimmingehus). Only a fragment of these windows have survived. The exposed position and brittle material of the glass windows meant that the majority were lost to storms, fires and violence during the subsequent centuries. Following the Reformation, no new decorative glass windows were made, and often old windows were replaced with clear glass, as a more rationalistic view of Christianity was propagated. During the second half of the 19th century, the churches of Gotland furthermore suffered when individual window panes were removed and sold or given to private collectors, including public figures like King Charles XV of Sweden and painter Anders Zorn. Only at the end of the 19th century did stained glass windows in some cases again come to be installed. The first recorded conscious effort to conserve and preserve medieval stained glass windows in situ dates from the middle of the 19th century, when the British chargé d'affaires, a certain Mr. Gordon, allocated money for the protection of the windows in Lye and Endre churches on Gotland with chicken wire.
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