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48(5
iv. education and mental culture.
the antique, the Renaissance. In its first German-Dutch phase it is in Sweden
called the Vasa style (1520—1650). Though we look upon it as a sort of
renaissance, there are, however, only few antique elements to be seen about it,
if we except the structure of the architectural framework, which constitutes a
support for the plastic, generally realistic, figures. But the works of art were
chiefly sepulchral monuments, above all those of kings and queens. This
sculptural art flourished first and finest in the reign of John III, the great lover
of art.
As early as in the lifetime of Gustavus Vasa, the monument to his first wife,
in the cathedral of Uppsala, was no doubt ordered from the studio of Michel
Golomb at Tours (France), though it was never set up and has since been
forgotten. It exhibits the finest real renaissance ornamentation to be found in the
country. But John III ordered Willem Boy, a Dutchman, to make the beautiful
memorial of Queen Catherine Jagellonica; and the magnificient monument in
the same church to King Gustavus Vasa and his two later consorts is by the
same master. Besides, there is another work by the same artist in the cathedral
of Strängnäs: the touching monument to John’s little daugther, Isabella. At
Uppsala there are one or two other memorials from King John’s time, namely
the gilt silver-shrine of King Erie the Saint, which he caused a Danish
goldsmith, Hans Rosenfeldt, to work out in renaissance style, since the old mediaeval
shrine had disappeared; and the sepulchral monument of John himself, made
at Danzig (1604).
As specimens of private individuals’ sepulchral monuments from the Vasa
period may be remembered that of Gustaf Banér and his wife, at Uppsala
(signed Aris Claesson Haarlemensis, 1625); that of Erik Soop and his wife, at
Skara (1637, by Peter Keyser of Amsterdam); and that of Gabriel Oxenstierna
and his second wife, in the church of Tyresö (later than 1640). At the very
end of the period (1650), the south portal of the church of St. James in
Stockholm was executed, embellished with images of Moses and St. James the Greater
— one of the most sumptuously decorated portals in Sweden.
After the middle of the 17th century, follows the time we call the Caroline
Period, and the style then making its appearance (1650—1720) is the Baroque,
which in the department of sculpture, just as in that of architecture, left its
special mark. It is distinguished by a passionate taste for movement, displaying
itself in wavy lines, flowing draperies, and exaggerated attitudes, which is all
due to Michael Angelo and the sovereign influence of painting upon the other
arts. Our victors, returning from the Thirty Years’ war, brought this change
of style home with them from the continent. They built palaces in the baroque
style and provided them with hangings and furniture, pictures and statues, which
were partly the spoils of victory, and partly executed after foreign models. In
all this, sculpture had the smallest share, to be sure; but mighty sepulchral
monuments were continually being erected — now in baroque — and busts
sculptured in Sweden are met with. But erections which also promoted sculpture
were the large royal palaces, foremost that of Drottningholm, next that of
Stockholm. A couple of stately baroque monuments are to be seen in the
cathedral of Uppsala, viz. that of Count Dohna (signed Verbruggen, Antwerp
1674) and that of Bengt Oxenstierna (from a design by Nik. Tessin, the younger
about 1690). A portrait artist in marble was K. Schroder, a German by birth,
who in 1695 modelled and carved a bust of Charles XI (at the University of
Uppsala). Amongst those who created plastic decorations for the palaces may
he mentioned the Frenchman, R. Chauveau, who worked in Sweden 1692—1700,
and B. Precht, a German, who settled in Sweden (1672, died 1730), and whose
work chiefly consisted in the decoration of rooms, e. g. the splendid bedchamber
of the Queen at Drottningholm, but also in altars and church pulpits •— the
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