Dutch Images of Indigenous Sami Religion. Jan Luyken's Illustrations of Lapland
ABSTRACT In 1682, the Dutch artist Jan Luyken (1649 1712) made a novel set of copper engravings to illustrate the book Lapland (1682) The book was a Dutch translation of Lapponia (1673) the first scientific monograph about Sami culture and written by the Swedish German scholar Johannes Schefferus at the University of Uppsala in Sweden. Its original illustrations were woodcuts based on drawings by the author. According to the commission from the Swedish authorities, the book should enlighten Europeans about Sami culture by using unbiased information, and thus refute misunderstandings that had occurred among many Europeans labouring under the false belief that Swedish military success was due to Sami witchcraft. The illustrations in Lapland differ from those in Lapponia in several ways, for instance regarding composition, number of figures and choice of subject matter. Two illustrations of indigenous Sami religion in Lapland are focused on, and the discussion relates them to the accompanying text and to illustrations in Lapponia. The questions asked are to what extent the illustrations play a part in the construction of meaning in Lapland; to what extent do they contribute to othering processes; and what role do the background figures in the illustrations have, i.e. do they have important functions or are they purely decorative? The discussions reveal that the illustrations play a part in the construction of meaning in several ways, for instance by playing a role in the negotiation of meaning in a semantic space between word and image. They contribute to othering processes by implicit references to ideas of witchcraft and by displaying differences in gesture between Sami and Europeans. The background figures are more than purely decorative because they play a role in the narrative of the illustrations.