The lives of everyday people in the 15th and 16th centuries were very plain and dull compared to our lives in the 21st-century.That said, people in pre-Reformation Scotland still experienced extraordinary things which inspired, uplifted and emotionally affected them.The main place where people encountered such wonders was in their local church.
It can be difficult to imagine what medieval Scottish churches looked like, because so many works of art were destroyed during the waves of popular iconoclasm which swept the country during the Reformation around 1560. This is especially true for easilybreakable things like stained glass, delicate ivories, wooden sculptures and items which included precious metals and gems (they could be easily melted down or repurposed). In 1559, John Knox wrote about watching the faces of doctors at the University of St Andrews as he burned their paintings in front of them.There is also a powerful day-by-day account of townsfolk trying to protect St Nicholas’ church in Aberdeen, hiding ornaments like chalices and reliquaries until the ‘uproar and tumult was put to tranquillity by the ancient and wise counsel of the realm’.These items were never recovered.
This lack of evidence for brilliant church interiors has been misinterpreted by some scholars who have suggested that Scotland just did not have the same sort of art and furnishings that you can see in places like England or Belgium.There have also been many arguments in Scottish history about whether churches before the Reformation were even that popular or cared-for.These two things are linked, because if we do not have much evidence for fancy churches, then it is easier to imagine them as dull and unloved. However, we have some amazing surviving works of art from pre-Reformation Scotland and documents describing the sorts of things we have lost. Using this evidence of Scottish art, we can begin to paint quite a different
