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48(5
iv. education and mental culture.
10. FINE ARTS.
A national conception of Architecture and Industrial art early began to
show itself in Sweden, but is was not until the 18th century that Sculpture
and, more markedly, Painting began to shake off the bonds of the
prevailing foreign influence. It is from this time that purely Swedish art
derives its impulse. The originality of Swedish Music is. in some
departments. incontestable, and vocal music has attained a high degree of
perfection.
Archit ecture.
The Uppsala tumuli, those mighty mounds of earth and stone covering the
tombs of Swedish forebears, speak at once of heathen forms and heathen giant
strength. Beside them existed even in the 11th century, untouched and in
regular use the great idol-temple of Sweden, "built of solid graystone but plated
inside with gold". At the same time as Catholic churches were being erected in
various districts in Sweden, Västergötland, Mälardalen, and Gottland, sacrifices
were being offered to the old idols in the heathen temple on the plain of
Uppsala. These churches — like the Uppsala temple — were built in natural stone,
a material which was as yet comparatively rarely used, and this is reasonable
enough at a date when huge forests admitted of the most substantial buildings
in timber, and farmhouses and manors alike were generally constructed of rough
wood. Nevertheless, on Gottland, which possessed abundant supplies of limestone
and sandstone, the art of building in stone arose fairly early; this was the case
even for secular purposes, and farmhouses still survive there which testify to a
primitive method of building with a straw roofing and thatch ("ag").
Primitive architecture received a powerful impulse through the erection of
monasteries by the Cistercian order in various parts of the country. The church
of Varnhem in Västergötland — preserved from one of those foundations — is
one of the most beautiful architectural relics in the country. The chief
memorial of Romanesque art in Sweden is the originally magnificent cathedral in
Lund, a construction from the twelfth century, comparable to the Rhenish cathedrals,
which displays in its ornamentation considerable influence from Northern Italy.
However, the creations of Swedish mediaeval art are most plentifully to be
found in Gottland. A complete monument of this art is the whole city of Visby,
with its mighty town-wall — still in existence — its streets, its houses, and
its many churches, which latter, with one exception, are certainly fallen into
ruin but yet are sufficiently preserved to indicate what they were once. These
churches, belonging to the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and representing all
the phases of mediaeval architecture, except the låte Gothic style, are each of
interest for their original composition and excellent treatment of the material
taken from the abundant resources of the island. The most beautiful specimen
is considered to be St. Catherine’s (vide illustr.), in the early Gothic style.
In its rural districts, Gottland possesses quite a store of churches, in perfect
preservation, from the same periods. Unpretentious in size, they excite surprise
by their unique construction, their well calculated proportions, and their wealth
of characteristic detail. The types are independent varieties of the Romanesque
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