1905] The Legendary Eepresentations on the Frontal from Kaupanger. 9 



by Magnus Petersen in his descriptioii of the mural paintings 

 of Aal. 



It is only on the north wall of the church that the mural 

 paintings are yet preserved. On the south wall there probably 

 have been representations, now however effaced, where the saint in 

 all likelihood would have appeared as helper of the distressed at 

 sea. St. Nicholas was specially honoured as the seafaring men's 

 patron. Scenes in which he appears in this character are found in 

 other places, e. g. in Vigersted church (Ringsted herred) where 

 mural paintings of younger date than those at Aal represent a ship 

 in distress, with the mast broken, and the seamen invoking St. Ni- 

 cholas. The legend of the three youths is also depicted in this 

 church. 



In connection with the Scandinavian representations of the 

 legends of St. Nicholas, I may refer to a paper by the Swedish 

 archæologist Mr. Otto Janse on the primitive reliefs of the bap- 

 tismal font from Od church (Vestergotland) which, he finds, con- 

 tains two scenes from the legends of our saint. Mr. Janse points 

 out several similarities between these primitive reliefs, and the 

 iinished work on the remarkable font in Winchester Cathedral. This 

 latter font belongs to a large group of baptismal fonts, which are 

 spread over a great part of Northern France, Flanders, Hainault, 

 and occasionally are found in England. They are supposed to have 

 originated at Tournai, and to belong to the latter part of the 12th 

 Century.^) The representations of St. Nicholas on the Winchester 

 font appear also on the font of Zedelghem, and are considered to 

 be somewhat older than the mural paintings of Aal and the Frontal 

 of Kaupanger, whereas the church and font of Od seem to be 

 of about the same date as the Tournai-group. The Od font 

 probably shows the most ancient Scandinavian representation of St. 

 Nicholas. It is therefore of interest to note that the two motives 

 occurring on this Swedish font seem to be connccted with St. Ni- 



^) P. Saintenoy: Prolégoménes a rétude de la filiation des formes des 

 fonis baptism.iux. Bruxelles 1892. Cf. Annales de la Société d'Archéologie de 

 Bruxelles, vol. V. 1891. Comparative studies on the fonts Avill be found in an 

 essay by L. Cloquet : „Fonts de baptéuie de Tournai"', published in the Eevue 

 de Part chrétien 4 Ser. Tome VI. 189.5. The English fonts belonging to the 

 Tournai group are given by Philip W. Sergeant : The Cathedral Church of 

 Winchester" (Bell's Cathedral Series) London 1899, p. 45, who enumerates seven 

 fonts, viz. four in Hampshire, at East Meon, St. Michaers (Southampton), St. 

 Mary Bourne, and Winchester; two in Lincohishire, in the cathedral, and at 

 Thornton Curtis, and one at St. Peter's, Ipswich. 



