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417

(1904) Author: Gustav Sundbärg
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Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - First part - IV. Education and Mental Culture - 9. The Fine Arts - Sculpture, by Prof. C. R. Nyblom, Ph. D., Stockholm

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SCULPTURE.

417

settled in Sweden (died 1730) and whose work chiefly consisted in decoration of
rooms, e. g. the famous bedchamber of the Queen at Drottningholm, but also in
altars and church pulpits — the most excellent is the pulpit of Uppsala Cathedral
’(1707, from a design by Nik. Tessin, Jun.) — all in flourishing baroque.

By and by this style is superseded by the French fancy-style — the rococo

— which, having been introduced from France together with French taste and
French literature under the influence of Queen Lovisa Ulrika, predominated for
some time, to be replaced, about 1770, by the modern antique style, which then
subsisted till about the end of the century. This period, too, is with us ushered
in by foreigners but this time exclusively by Frenchmen, two of whom have got
their names connected with Swedish history of art. One is J. P. Bouchardon,
who settled here in 1741, and died here in 1753; he stands foremost of the two,
he made a bronze bust of Charles XII — the first plastic effigy of the warrior
King — and several bronze decorations for the royal palace of Stockholm, e. g.,
the »putti» supporting the lanterns of the great entrance. The other one was
P. L? Archeveque, who lived here 1755/77 and, besides decorative works in the
royal palace, made the statues of Gustavus Vasa and Gustavus Adolphus in
Stockholm, of which, however, neither proved a great success; he was the first
director at the Academy of Arts, reorganized by Adelcrantz, but his greatest
merit by far is to have given Sergei his first training.

Johan Tobias Sergel {1740/1814)
became namely »the foremost artistical
genius of Sweden». He was a
Stockholm child but born of German
parents. At an early age he was
apprenticed to L’Archeveque, whom he
assisted in his work at the chapel royal
and the statues above mentioned, all
while studying at the Academy. At
last, he managed to go to Italy, where
he was staying in Rome during 1767/78
and made acquaintance with the
Antiquity. Though he could not get to
study what according to modern opinion
are the best samples of antique sculpture

— the productions from the golden
days of art — he, however, was most
deeply impressed with the best that
was then offered to him. He now made
it a rule, to which he kept all his life,
»to render Nature according to the
principle of the ancients». But how strongly, in spite of this, he insisted on
immediate life, is evident by his splendid Faun (1770) as also by the Diomedes,
Mars and Venus, and Amor and Psyche, which were achieved in Rome, as well
as by the Otryades (in Paris 1778). — When he returned to Stockholm, called
home by Gustavus III, there was put an end to his creating of statues; all his
time was now taken up with making busts and medaillons of the members of
the royal family and a number of distinguished men in Sweden. But also on
this field he has achieved a grand deed, for which posterity owes him gratitude,
inasmuch as by his art productions — noble also in this department — we now
know almost the whole circle of those people of note — in state affairs, in
literature, and in art — who surrounded King Gustavus HI. However, he received
some charges of a more general and free kind, viz., the large group of Axel
Oxenstierna and History (in the royal palace) — the first successful attempt at

Sweden. 27

Johan Tobias Sergei.

Self-portrait.

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