Sverrir’s struggle with the Church is set forth in a
document he himself commissioned. From his Oratio
contra clerum Norvegiae (“Speech Against the Nor-
wegian Clergy”), as well as the contemporary Sverris
saga, we learn about his political ideology, drawn partly
from Old Testament values. At the same time that he
carried out his controversies with the international
Church, Sverrir introduced those theocratic traits into
his dynastic policy that are so extraordinary for the
13th-century Norwegian monarchy. During his reign,
Sverrir strengthened the centralization of the king’s
administration, and the fi nances of the Crown were
improved by a new system of taxation.
After the Reformation, Sverrir was celebrated as the
king who had the courage to speak against the author-
ity of Rome. In the 19th-century Norwegian struggle
for national independence, Sverrir became a symbolic
fi gure for the national identity. Present-day interest in
the development of the state as an institution has made
Sverrir and his royal descendants much valued as the
creators of a strong and highly centralized state as early
as the 13th century.
Further Reading
Literature
Cederschiöld, Gustaf. Konung Sverre. Lund: Gleerup, 1901.
Paasche, Frederik Kong Sverre. Oslo: Aschehoug, 1920.
Koht, Halvdan. Kong Sverre. Oslo: Aschehoug, 1952.
Gathome-Hardy, Geoffrey M. A Royal Impostor: King Sverre
of Norway. Oslo: Aschehoug London: Oxford University
Press, 1956.
Holm-Olsen, Ludvig. “Kong Sverre i sökelyset.” Nordisk tidskrift
34 (1958), 167–81.
Helle, Knut. Norge blir en stat, 1130–1319. Handbok i Norges
historie, 3. 2nd ed. Bergen, Oslo, and Tromsø: Universitets-
forlaget, 1974.
Gunnes, Erik. Kongens ære: Kongemagt og kirke i “En tale mot
biskopene.” Oslo: Gyldendal, 1971.
Lunden, Kåre. Norge under Sverreætten 1177–1319. Oslo: Cap-
pelen, 1976.
Ólafi a Einarsdóttir. “Sverrir—præst og konge.” In Middelalder,
Methode og Medier. Festskrift til N. Skyum-Niehen. Ed.
Karsten Fledelius et al. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum,
1981, pp. 67–93; rpt. in Norske Historikere i Utvalg VI. Oslo:
Universitetsforlaget, 1983, pp. 126–41, 336–8.
Ólafía Einarsdóttir
SYRLIN, JÖRG THE ELDER
(1420/1430–1491)
AND JÖRG THE YOUNGER (1455–1523)
Father and son were highly successful joiners and ma-
sons. Based in Ulm (Baden-Württemberg), they supplied
furniture, altars, fountains, and other carvings for towns
throughout Swabia and southern Germany. Yet were they
also sculptors? The answer to this question ultimately
determines the level of their fame. Recent scholarship
suggests that most carvings attributed to the pair are by
other Ulm sculptors with whom they collaborated. The
careers of the Syrlins are relatively well documented.
Jörg the Elder signed and dated (1458) an oak lectern
with sculpted evangelist symbols now in the Ulmer
Museum. More important, his signatures appear on the
sedilia (chancel seats, 1468) and elaborate choir stalls
(1469–1474) in the Minister cathedral in Ulm. This
is the fi nest extant late Gothic cycle in Germany. It
includes ninety nine exquisite oak busts and reliefs of
philosophers and sibyls, each distinguished by fi ne facial
characterizations and varied natural poses. Traditionally,
scholars ascribed the sculpture and the carpentry to Jörg
the Elder, though already in 1910 Georg Dehio chal-
lenged this view by arguing that Jörg’s signatures and
monograms pertain only to his production as a joiner.
The sculpture of these and other carvings ascribed to
Jörg are quite varied in their styles rather than the work
of a single hand. In later-fi fteenth-century Ulm, it was
common for a single master to receive a commission
for a complex altarpiece. This artist then engaged a
collaborative team of sculptors, joiners, and painters.
Between 1474 and 1481, Jörg and his colleagues created
the Münster’s monumental high altar. Although the altar
was destroyed on July 20, 1531, during the Protestants’
iconoclastic cleansing of the church, Jörg the Elder’s
intricate presentation drawing (81 × 231 cm; Stuttgart,
Württembergisches Landesmuseum) displays his talents
as a designer, notably his adept mastery of architectural
ornament. The sculptor of the altar is unknown, though
Michel Erhart of Ulm has been suggested.
Jörg the Younger trained with and assisted his rather
before assuming control of the workshop in early 1482.
Under his direction the atelier’s production seems to
have expanded, though again his role as sculptor is
doubtful. Inscriptions and other documentation link him
with projects at the Benedictine abbeys of Ochsenhau-
sen, Zweifalten, and Blaubeuren. For Zwiefalten Jörg
prepared choir stalls, a sacrament house, and seven altars
between 1509 and the dedication of the choir in 1517.
He was aided by Christoph Langeisen, an Ulm sculptor.
Langeisen was likely just one of several participating
sculptors. Little survived the rebuilding of the church
in the mid-eighteenth century. Passion reliefs from
one of these altars, today in the Württembergisches
Landesmuseum in Stuttgart, are attributed to Nikolaus
Weckmann (active 1481–1526), another Ulm sculptor to
whom the majority of carvings once ascribed to Jörg the
Younger are now credited. It appears that the son too was
primarily a joiner and contractor. In 1493 his workshop
created the elaborate choir stalls at Blaubeuren, which
while loosely patterned on those in the Ulm Münster
include far fewer sculpted busts.
Jörg the Younger, like his father, excelled as a de-
signer. In 1482 one of the Syrlins completed and signedSYRLIN, JÖRG THE ELDER AND JÖRG THE YOUNGER