Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - IV. Education and Mental Culture. Introd. by P. E. Lindström - 10. Fine Arts - Sculpture. By [C. R. Nyblom] Carl G. Laurin
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sculpt c re.
509
most excellent is the pulpit of Uppsala Cathedral (1707, from a design by Nik.
Tessin, the younger) and the baldachino, gilded sedilia in the Stockholm
Storkyrka — all in flourishing baroque.
By degrees this style is superseded by the French rococo — which, having
been introduced from France together with French taste and literature under
the influence of Queen Louisa Ulrica, predominated for some time, to be
replaced, about 1790, by the modern antique, which then survived till about
the end of the century. This period, too, is ushered into Sweden by foreigners,
but this time exclusively by Frenchmen, two of whom have acquired a fame
connected with the history of Swedish art. One is J. Ph. Bouchardon, who
settled in Sweden in 1741 and died in 1753, the 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
"cupids" supporting the lanterns of the grand entrance. The other one was
P. L’Archeveque, who lived in the -country 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 of the Academy of Arts, as reorganized by Adelcrantz,
but his greatest merit by’ far is that he gave Sergei his early training.
Johan Tobias Sergei.
Portrait of himself.
Johan Tobias Sergei (1740—1814) became pre-eminently "the foremost artistic
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 on the Chapel Royal and the statues above mentioned, all the while
studying at the Academy. After travelling for study in France, he managed to
go to Rome during 1767—78 and made the acquaintance of the Antique.
Though he could not make a study of the pieces dating from the golden age
of sculpture, which modern opinion claims as the best, yet the best of what he
did see made a deep impression on him. He now made it a rule, to which he
kept all his life, "to render Nature according to the principles of the ancients".
But how strongly, in spite of this, he took his stand by spontaneous life, is
shown by his splendid Faun (1770) as also by the Diomedes, Mars and Venus,
and Amor and Psyche, which were produced in Rome, as well as by the
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