Valdemar Atterdag holding Visby to ransom, 1361
Valdemar Atterdag holding Visby to ransom, 1361 is a historical painting (oil on canvas, signed in 1882) made by the Swedish historical painter Carl Gustaf Hellqvist (1851 – 1890).
This painting depicts how the Danish king Valdemar IV (a.k.a. Valdemar Atterdag) collects treasures from the people in the Gotlandic medieval town of Visby in the summer of 1361 AD. If the town's people do not fill the three big beer vats with gold, silver and other riches, Valdemar will see to that the whole town is burned to the ground. In Swedish this action is called "brandskattning", but in English there is, as far as I have read, no corresponding word—the nearest translation would be "pillage" or "extortion".
In this great oil painting, king Valdemar Atterdag sits to the right, on a red podium in front of the large St. Catherine's church, and observes the town dwellers as they run to fill the vats. At the centre of the painting, the "main characters" are seen—the mayor and his family. The mayor clenches his fist in wrath and looks at the Danish king, as his wife looks up to the sky, to God. The wife plays the role of Virgin Mary, and she even got a tear drop in the corner of her eye—the whole setting is rather theatrical and very much romanticized as it was made in a period where national romanticism was very popular in northern Europe.
The painting was made in Munich in the 1880s, about half a millennium after the actual event of 1361, hence there are some incorrect details in the painting—though Carl Gustaf Hellqvist was very ambitious when making pictures that were true to the period—for instance the dachshund that is seen at the very left beer vat and the medieval houses in the background: The first dachshund was breeded in the 16th century, not in the 14th century, thus an anachronism, and the houses that are seen in the background did Hellqvist see when he was travelling around in northern Germany, but in Visby, there have never been houses like those, ever.
"Valdemar Atterdag holding Visby to ransom, 1361" or "Valdemar Atterdag imposes a levy on Visby, 1361" was awarded a gold medal in Vienna, Austria, in 1882 and is now a part of the collections of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Stockholm, Sweden.
The original Swedish title for this painting is "Valdemar Atterdag brandskattar Visby den 27 juli 1361" and its demensions are 201 cm × 327 cm (79.2″ × 128.8″).
Please visit the Swedish Wikipedia for a picture of the painting.
References
Rudnert, Sune. I historiemålarens verkstad: Carl Gustaf Hellqvist liv och verk. 1991. ISBN 91–7966–162–9.
Rudnert, Sune. Carl Gustaf Hellqvist och hans historiemålning Valdemar Atterdag brandskattar Visby den 27 juli 1361. 1989.