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112-644: The origin of the museum is the collections of art and historical objects gathered by Swedish monarchs since the 16th century. It has a number of permanent exhibitions and annually hosts special exhibitions tied to current events. The History Museum is part of a central museum agency called the Statens historiska museer (SHM) ("National Historical Museums"). Other museums under the aegis of this agency are The Royal Armouries , The Economy Museum , Skokloster Castle , The Hallwyl Museum , The Tumba Papermill Museum and The Swedish Holocaust Museum. The foundation for what

224-677: A bridal crown . Another tapestry is the Grödinge tapestry . The first comprehensive exhibition in the museum opened on 17   April 1943. It was called Ten thousand years in Sweden and comprised exhibitions from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages. The museum has since altered and remade the permanent exhibitions a number of times as well as hosted several new special exhibitions on an annual basis. These are often related to some topic that

336-402: A Pompeian-inspired central figure. Empire fabrics are damasks with a blue or brown background, satins with a green, pink or purple background, velvets of the same colors, brooches broached with gold or silver, and cotton fabrics. All of these were used in interiors for curtains, for covering certain furniture, for cushions or upholstery (leather was also used for upholstery). All Empire ornament

448-523: A dangerous territory of the Ottoman Empire , Neoclassicists' appreciation of Greek architecture was predominantly mediated through drawings and engravings which were subtly smoothed and regularized, "corrected" and "restored" monuments of Greece, not always consciously. The Empire style , a second phase of Neoclassicism in architecture and the decorative arts , had its cultural centre in Paris in

560-534: A direct parallel with the Augustan style of landscape design. The links are clearly seen in the work of Alexander Pope . The best surviving examples of Neoclassical English gardens are Chiswick House , Stowe House and Stourhead . In fashion, Neoclassicism influenced the much greater simplicity of women's dresses, and the long-lasting fashion for white, from well before the French Revolution, but it

672-603: A fresh influx of Greek architectural examples, seen through the medium of etchings and engravings, gave a new impetus to Neoclassicism, the Greek Revival . At the same time the Empire style was a more grandiose wave of Neoclassicism in architecture and the decorative arts. Mainly based on Imperial Roman styles, it originated in, and took its name from, the rule of Napoleon in the First French Empire, where it

784-426: A lack of ancient models, Neoclassical sculpture tended to suffer from an excess of them. Although examples of actual Greek sculpture of the " Classical Period " beginning in about 500 BC were then very few; the most highly regarded works were mostly Roman copies. The leading Neoclassical sculptors enjoyed huge reputations in their own day, but are now less regarded, with the exception of Jean-Antoine Houdon , whose work

896-558: A lightness and grace, where Thorvaldsen is more severe; the difference is exemplified in their respective groups of the Three Graces . All these, and Flaxman, were still active in the 1820s, and Romanticism was slow to impact sculpture, where versions of Neoclassicism remained the dominant style for most of the 19th century. An early Neoclassicist in sculpture was the Swede Johan Tobias Sergel . John Flaxman

1008-460: A lock plate, etc. Like Louis XIV , Napoleon had a set of emblems unmistakably associated with his rule, most notably the eagle, the bee, stars, and the initials I (for Imperator ) and N (for Napoleon ), which were usually inscribed within an imperial laurel crown. Motifs used include: figures of Victory bearing palm branches, Greek dancers, nude and draped women, figures of antique chariots, winged putti , mascarons of Apollo , Hermes and

1120-399: A long time, until the 20th century, although it coexisted in some short periods with other styles. Foreign architects and engineers were invited here since the first decade of the 19th century. Most of the architects that built during the beginning of the century were foreigners because Romanians did not have yet the instruction needed for designing buildings that were very different compared to

1232-592: A mature style that has an equivocal relationship with the main current of Neoclassicism, and many later diversions into Orientalism and the Troubadour style that are hard to distinguish from those of his unabashedly Romantic contemporaries, except by the primacy his works always give to drawing. He exhibited at the Salon for over 60 years, from 1802 into the beginnings of Impressionism , but his style, once formed, changed little. If Neoclassical painting suffered from

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1344-573: A new French "national costume" at the request of the government during the height of the Revolutionary enthusiasm for changing everything in 1792, it included fairly tight leggings under a coat that stopped above the knee. A high proportion of well-to-do young men spent much of the key period in military service because of the French Revolutionary Wars , and military uniform, which began to emphasize jackets that were short at

1456-622: A number of venues in Europe and North America. Government agencies in Sweden The government agencies in Sweden are state-controlled organizations that act independently to carry out the policies of the Government of Sweden . The ministries are relatively small and merely policy-making organizations, allowed to monitor the agencies and preparing decision and policy papers for

1568-463: A similar structure to Louis XVI furniture . Besides the Adam style, when it comes to decorative arts, England is also known for the ceramic manufacturer Josiah Wedgwood (1730–1795), who established a pottery called Etruria. Wedgwood ware is made of a material called jasperware , a hard and fine-grained type of stoneware . Wedgwood vases are usually decorated with reliefs in two colours, in most cases

1680-450: A specifically Neoclassical approach, spelt out in his preface to the published score of Alceste (1769), which aimed to reform opera by removing ornamentation , increasing the role of the chorus in line with Greek tragedy , and using simpler unadorned melodic lines. The term "Neoclassical" was not invented until the mid-19th century, and at the time the style was described by such terms as "the true style", "reformed" and "revival"; what

1792-540: A substitute model, as Winckelmann recommended. The work of other artists, who could not easily be described as insipid, combined aspects of Romanticism with a generally Neoclassical style, and form part of the history of both movements. The German-Danish painter Asmus Jacob Carstens finished very few of the large mythological works that he planned, leaving mostly drawings and colour studies which often succeed in approaching Winckelmann's prescription of "noble simplicity and calm grandeur". Unlike Carstens' unrealized schemes,

1904-467: A trajectory from growth to maturity and then imitation or decadence that continues to have influence to the present day. Winckelmann believed that art should aim at "noble simplicity and calm grandeur", and praised the idealism of Greek art, in which he said we find "not only nature at its most beautiful but also something beyond nature, namely certain ideal forms of its beauty, which, as an ancient interpreter of Plato teaches us, come from images created by

2016-417: A variety of neo-Renaissance, Palladian and modernized, yet recognizably classical schools. They were led by architects born in the 1870s, who reached creative peak before World War I, like Ivan Fomin , Vladimir Shchuko and Ivan Zholtovsky . When the economy recovered in the 1920s, these architects and their followers continued working in primarily modernist environment; some (Zholtovsky) strictly followed

2128-414: A white background or a coloured one). Motifs were placed geometrically. The walls were covered in stuccos , wallpaper fabrics. Fireplace mantels were made of white marble, having caryatids at their corners, or other elements: obelisks , sphinxes , winged lions, and so on. Bronze objects were placed on their tops, including mantel clocks . The doors consisted of simple rectangular panels, decorated with

2240-467: Is based on the principles of simplicity and symmetry, which were seen as virtues of the arts of Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece , and drawn directly from 16th-century Renaissance Classicism . Each "neo"-classicism movement selects some models among the range of possible classics that are available to it, and ignores others. Between 1765 and 1830, Neoclassical proponents—writers, speakers, patrons, collectors, artists and sculptors—paid homage to an idea of

2352-475: Is called Augustan literature . This, which had been dominant for several decades, was beginning to decline by the time Neoclassicism in the visual arts became fashionable. Though terms differ, the situation in French literature was similar. In music, the period saw the rise of classical music , and "Neoclassicism" is used of 20th-century developments . However, the operas of Christoph Willibald Gluck represented

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2464-597: Is constantly expanded and updated. The Vikings collection comprise objects from around 800–1050, including weapons, the Söderala vane , the Mästermyr chest , archaeological finds from the Viking Age trading centre, Birka , a UNESCO World Heritage Site on Björkö , religious items from the era, foreign objects brought home from travels and raids in other parts of the world as well as thousands of finds related to

2576-611: Is currently under debate or otherwise current. Some of the special exhibitions were: In 2010, a new permanent exhibition called Sweden's History opened. It highlights personal items connected with milestones and turning points in Swedish history during the last 1000 years. In 2011, the museum created its first turnkey exhibition We call them Vikings in cooperation with Austrian MuseumsPartner and Studio Exhibit. The two-parts exhibition showcase other aspects of Viking life than that of stereotype barbarian raiders. As of 2015, it has toured

2688-495: Is governed by a rigorous spirit of symmetry reminiscent of the Louis XIV style . Generally, the motifs on a piece's right and left sides correspond to one another in every detail; when they do not, the individual motifs themselves are entirely symmetrical in composition: antique heads with identical tresses falling onto each shoulder, frontal figures of Victory with symmetrically arrayed tunics, identical rosettes or swans flanking

2800-576: Is more classicizing in subject matter than in anything else. A fierce, but often very badly informed, dispute raged for decades over the relative merits of Greek and Roman art, with Winckelmann and his fellow Hellenists generally being on the winning side. It is hard to recapture the radical and exciting nature of early Neoclassical painting for contemporary audiences; it now strikes even those writers favourably inclined to it as "insipid" and "almost entirely uninteresting to us"—some of Kenneth Clark 's comments on Anton Raphael Mengs ' ambitious Parnassus at

2912-616: Is one of the largest museums in Sweden with more than 10 million artefacts, registered under around 34,000 inventory numbers, and one of the largest collections of antiquities in Europe. About 6,200 of the objects are on display. In 2011, information about 480,000 of the objects in the museum were accessible through an online database. 65,000 of these entries were illustrated with drawings or photos. The database also contained information about 55,900 places in Sweden where archaeological finds had been made and approximately 267,300 bone finds (total weight about 111 tonnes (245,000 lb)). The database

3024-432: Is the Știrbei Palace on Calea Victoriei ( Bucharest ), built around the year 1835, after the plans of French architect Michel Sanjouand . It received a new level in 1882, designed by Austrian architect Joseph Hartmann In 1905–1914 Russian architecture passed through a brief but influential period of Neoclassical revival ; the trend began with recreation of Empire style of Alexandrine period and quickly expanded into

3136-732: The Goût grec ("Greek style"), not a court style; when Louis XVI acceded to the throne in 1774, Marie Antoinette , his fashion-loving Queen, brought the Louis XVI style to court. However, there was no real attempt to employ the basic forms of Roman furniture until around the turn of the century, and furniture-makers were more likely to borrow from ancient architecture, just as silversmiths were more likely to take from ancient pottery and stone-carving than metalwork: "Designers and craftsmen ... seem to have taken an almost perverse pleasure in transferring motifs from one medium to another". From about 1800

3248-656: The Gorgon , swans, lions, the heads of oxen, horses and wild beasts, butterflies, claws, winged chimeras , sphinxes , bucrania , sea horses, oak wreaths knotted by thin trailing ribbons, climbing grape vines, poppy rinceaux , rosettes , palm branches, and laurel. There's a lot of Greco-Roman ones: stiff and flat acanthus leaves, palmettes , cornucopias , beads, amphoras , tripods, imbricated disks, caduceuses of Mercury , vases, helmets, burning torches, winged trumpet players, and ancient musical instruments (tubas, rattles and especially lyres ). Despite their antique derivation,

3360-632: The Macchiaioli represented a break with the classical school, which came to an end as Italy unified (see Italian modern and contemporary art). Neoclassicism was the last Italian-born style, after the Renaissance and Baroque, to spread to all Western Art. During the 19th century, the predominant style in Wallachia and Moldavia , later the Kingdom of Romania , was Classicism which lasted for

3472-540: The Napoleonic era . Especially in architecture, but also in other fields, Neoclassicism remained a force long after the early 19th century, with periodic waves of revivalism into the 20th and even the 21st centuries, especially in the United States and Russia. Neoclassicism is a revival of the many styles and spirit of classic antiquity inspired directly from the classical period, which coincided and reflected

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3584-653: The Reliquary of St. Elizabeth and the Viklau Madonna , one of the most well-preserved wooden sculptures from 12th-century Europe. Textile works from the Middle Ages are kept in the Textile Chamber. The objects are mostly textiles used in churches or by priests and bishops. The oldest and most noted object is a 13th-century tapestry from Skog Church, the Skog tapestry . It was found in 1912, wrapped around

3696-539: The Swedish National Heritage Board on 3   July 1923. He moved the issue forward to a more concrete and permanent solution. The main objective for a new and sufficiently large building for the museum was to bring order to the collections, commonly called "The Chaos" while the unpublished research papers were referred to as "the corf ". In 1929, the Swedish government suggested that the former military barracks and stables at Storgatan in

3808-494: The Villa Albani , by the artist whom his friend Winckelmann described as "the greatest artist of his own, and perhaps of later times". The drawings, subsequently turned into prints , of John Flaxman used very simple line drawing (thought to be the purest classical medium ) and figures mostly in profile to depict The Odyssey and other subjects, and once "fired the artistic youth of Europe" but are now "neglected", while

3920-729: The etchings of Giovanni Battista Piranesi were numerous and profitable, and taken back by those making the Grand Tour to all parts of Europe. His main subject matter was the buildings and ruins of Rome, and he was more stimulated by the ancient than the modern. The somewhat disquieting atmosphere of many of his Vedute (views) becomes dominant in his series of 16 prints of Carceri d'invenzione ("Imaginary Prisons") whose "oppressive cyclopean architecture" conveys "dreams of fear and frustration". The Swiss-born Henry Fuseli spent most of his career in England, and while his fundamental style

4032-489: The fluting and triglyphs so prevalent under Louis XVI are abandoned. Egyptian Revival motifs are especially common at the beginning of the period: scarabs , lotus capitals , winged disks, obelisks, pyramids , figures wearing nemeses , caryatids en gaine supported by bare feet and with women Egyptian headdresses. Neoclassical architecture became widespread as a symbol of wealth and power in Germany, mostly in what

4144-463: The history paintings of Angelica Kauffman , mainly a portraitist, are described as having "an unctuous softness and tediousness" by Fritz Novotny . Rococo frivolity and Baroque movement had been stripped away but many artists struggled to put anything in their place, and in the absence of ancient examples for history painting, other than the Greek vases used by Flaxman, Raphael tended to be used as

4256-490: The 17th century, stating that all such finds that were 100 years or older and with no owner, were to be redeemed by the government and sent to the History museum. The law is still in effect. The museum's collection of Swedish ecclesiastical art is extensive, and its origins span from the 12th century to the post- Reformation period. It contains objects such as wooden sculptures, altarpieces and crucifixes . Among these are

4368-435: The 18th-century Age of Enlightenment , and continued into the early 19th century, eventually competing with Romanticism . In architecture, the style endured throughout the 19th, 20th, and into the 21st century. European Neoclassicism in the visual arts began c.  1760 in opposition to the then-dominant Rococo style. Rococo architecture emphasizes grace, ornamentation and asymmetry; Neoclassical architecture

4480-595: The 19th century, contrasted Neoclassicism. Whilst Neoclassicism was characterized by Greek and Roman-influenced styles, geometric lines and order, Gothic revival architecture placed an emphasis on medieval-looking buildings, often made to have a rustic, "romantic" appearance. It marks the transition from Rococo to Classicism. Unlike the Classicism of Louis XIV , which transformed ornaments into symbols, Louis XVI style represents them as realistic and natural as possible, i.e. laurel branches really are laurel branches, roses

4592-615: The Empire marks its rapid decline and transformation back once more into a mere antique revival, drained of all the high-minded ideas and force of conviction that had inspired its masterpieces". An earlier phase of the style was called the Adam style in Great Britain. Neoclassicism continued to be a major force in academic art through the 19th century and beyond—a constant antithesis to Romanticism or Gothic revivals —, although from

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4704-790: The Federal style, has developed completely in the 18th and early 19th centuries, which has flourished being influenced by Britannic taste. Under the impulse of Neoclassicism, architecture, interiors, and furniture have been created. The style, although it has numerous characteristics which differ from state to state, is unitary. The structures of architecture, interiors, and furniture are Classicist, and incorporate Baroque and Rococo influences. The shapes used include rectangles, ovals, and crescents. Stucco or wooden panels on walls and ceilings reproduce Classicist motifs. Furniture tend to be decorated with floral marquetry and bronze or brass inlays (sometimes gilded ). In England, Augustan literature had

4816-455: The Great 's lover, Count Grigory Orlov , designed by an Italian architect with a team of Italian stuccadori : only the isolated oval medallions like cameos and the bas-relief overdoors hint of Neoclassicism; the furnishings are fully Italian Rococo. A second Neoclassic wave, more severe, more studied (through the medium of engravings ) and more consciously archaeological, is associated with

4928-701: The Herman Bergman foundry and then chased by Marklund. Through a series of ten fields, the doors depict the history of Sweden from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages . The left door represents the Pagan era with Odin as a central figure, while the right door depicts Ansgar and the Christian era. A noted deviation from the historical theme, is the depiction of a standard, 1950s pilsner bottle on

5040-856: The Louis XIV style, and nature. Characteristic elements of the style: a torch crossed with a sheath with arrows, imbricated disks, guilloché , double bow-knots, smoking braziers, linear repetitions of small motifs ( rosettes , beads, oves), trophy or floral medallions hanging from a knotted ribbon, acanthus leaves, gadrooning , interlace, meanders , cornucopias , mascarons , Ancient urns, tripods, perfume burners, dolphins, ram and lion heads, chimeras , and gryphons . Greco-Roman architectural motifs are also heavily used: flutings , pilasters (fluted and unfluted), fluted balusters (twisted and straight), columns ( engaged and unengaged, sometimes replaced by caryathids ), volute corbels , triglyphs with guttae (in relief and trompe-l'œil ). Neoclassicism

5152-577: The Revolution, the court portraitist Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun had held a Greek supper where the ladies wore plain white Grecian tunics. Shorter classical hairstyles, where possible with curls, were less controversial and very widely adopted, and hair was now uncovered even outdoors; except for evening dress, bonnets or other coverings had typically been worn even indoors before. Thin Greek-style ribbons or fillets were used to tie or decorate

5264-448: The Revolutionary period, and perhaps, like other exotic styles, as undress at home. But the styles worn in portraits by Juliette Récamier , Joséphine de Beauharnais , Thérésa Tallien and other Parisian trend-setters were for going-out in public as well. Seeing Mme Tallien at the opera, Talleyrand quipped that: " Il n'est pas possible de s'exposer plus somptueusement! " ("One could not be more sumptuously undressed"). In 1788, just before

5376-595: The Romanian tradition. Usually using Classicism, they started building together with Romanian artisans, usually prepared in foreign schools or academies. Romanian architects studied in Western European schools as well. One example is Alexandru Orăscu , one of the representatives of Neoclassicism in Romania. Classicism manifested both in religious and secular architecture. A good example of secular architecture

5488-896: The Ruins of Palmyra (1758) by Gavin Hamilton , the two gentleman antiquaries are shown in toga -like Arab robes. In Watson and the Shark (1778) by John Singleton Copley , the main figure could plausibly be shown nude, and the composition is such that of the eight other men shown, only one shows a single breeched leg prominently. However the Americans Copley and Benjamin West led the artists who successfully showed that trousers could be used in heroic scenes, with works like West's The Death of General Wolfe (1770) and Copley's The Death of Major Peirson, 6 January 1781 (1783), although

5600-540: The United States did not have a sculpture tradition of its own, save in the areas of tombstones, weathervanes and ship figureheads, the European Neoclassical manner was adopted there, and it was to hold sway for decades and is exemplified in the sculptures of Horatio Greenough , Harriet Hosmer , Hiram Powers , Randolph Rogers and William Henry Rinehart . Neoclassical art was traditional and new, historical and modern, conservative and progressive all at

5712-466: The advent of the Grand Tour , a fad of collecting antiquities began that laid the foundations of many great collections spreading a Neoclassical revival throughout Europe. "Neoclassicism" in each art implies a particular canon of a "classical" model. In English, the term "Neoclassicism" is used primarily of the visual arts; the similar movement in English literature , which began considerably earlier,

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5824-558: The art and culture of classical antiquity . Neoclassicism was born in Rome , largely due to the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann during the rediscovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum . Its popularity expanded throughout Europe as a generation of European art students finished their Grand Tour and returned from Italy to their home countries with newly rediscovered Greco-Roman ideals. The main Neoclassical movement coincided with

5936-472: The artistic generation associated with Phidias , but sculpture examples they actually embraced were more likely to be Roman copies of Hellenistic sculptures. They ignored both Archaic Greek art and the works of late antiquity . The discovery of ancient Palmyra 's "Rococo" art through engravings in Robert Wood 's The Ruins of Palmyra came as a revelation. With Greece largely unexplored and considered

6048-507: The bedrock beneath the central courtyard is the 700 m (7,500 sq ft) concrete vault known as the Gold Room, where a large number of gold and silver objects are on display. It was built in 1994 and paid for by a donation from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation . Designed by architect Leif Blomberg, it resembles a mystic cult place with a representation of Mímir's Well in

6160-499: The building From the second half of the 18th century through the 19th century, Italy went through a great deal of socio-economic changes, several foreign invasions and the turbulent Risorgimento, which resulted in Italian unification in 1861. Thus, Italian art went through a series of minor and major changes in style. Italian Neoclassicism was the earliest manifestation of the general period known as Neoclassicism and lasted more than

6272-470: The city block known as the Krubban ("the crib"), could be allocated to the museum. An architectural competition was held in 1930, for the proposed conversion of the block into suitable accommodation for the museum. No winner was declared, instead it was elements from the runner-up suggestion, made by architects Bengt Romare and George Scherman with engineer Gösta Nilsson, that became the starting point for

6384-612: The classical canon, others (Fomin, Schuko, Ilya Golosov ) developed their own modernized styles. With the crackdown on architect's independence and official denial of modernism (1932), demonstrated by the international contest for the Palace of Soviets , Neoclassicism was instantly promoted as one of the choices in Stalinist architecture , although not the only choice. It coexisted with moderately modernist architecture of Boris Iofan , bordering with contemporary Art Deco (Schuko); again,

6496-400: The classical models. Neoclassicism and neo-Renaissance persisted in less demanding residential and office projects until 1955, when Nikita Khrushchev put an end to expensive Stalinist architecture. The Adam style was created by two brothers, Adam and James , who published in 1777 a volume of etchings with interior ornamentation. In the interior decoration made after Robert Adam's drawings,

6608-451: The country and devoted himself to the highly distinctive "character heads" of bald figures pulling extreme facial expressions. Like Piranesi's Carceri , these enjoyed a great revival of interest during the age of psychoanalysis in the early 20th century. The Dutch Neoclassical sculptor Mathieu Kessels studied with Thorvaldsen and worked almost exclusively in Rome. Since prior to the 1830s

6720-607: The courtyard by a pool is a sculpture called Näcken ( The Neck ) by Carl Frisendahl. Most of the decorations of the museum were selected through a series of competitions. In 1938, Marklund won the competition for creating the main entrance to the museum. The doors, called The Gates of History ( Historiens Portar ), took him thirteen years to make. They were finished and inaugurated in 1952. The doors were financed by philanthropist Eva Bonnier 's foundation. The doors are 4.5 m (15 ft) high and weighs about 1 t (2,200 lb) each. Made of bronze , they were first cast at

6832-869: The decorative arts, Neoclassicism is exemplified in Empire furniture made in Paris, London, New York, Berlin; in Biedermeier furniture made in Austria; in Karl Friedrich Schinkel 's museums in Berlin, Sir John Soane 's Bank of England in London and the newly built " United States Capitol " in Washington, D.C.; and in Josiah Wedgwood 's bas reliefs and "black basaltes" vases . The style

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6944-545: The designs of Zholtovsky, Fomin and other old masters were easily replicated in remote towns under strict material rationing . Improvement of construction technology after World War II permitted Stalinist architects to venture into skyscraper construction, although stylistically these skyscrapers (including "exported" architecture of Palace of Culture and Science , Warsaw and the Shanghai International Convention Centre) share little with

7056-547: The developments in philosophy and other areas of the Age of Enlightenment, and was initially a reaction against the excesses of the preceding Rococo style. While the movement is often described as the opposed counterpart of Romanticism , this is a great over-simplification that tends not to be sustainable when specific artists or works are considered. The case of the supposed main champion of late Neoclassicism, Ingres , demonstrates this especially well. The revival can be traced to

7168-531: The disapproval of critics. Neoclassicism was strongest in architecture , sculpture and the decorative arts , where classical models in the same medium were relatively numerous and accessible; examples from ancient painting that demonstrated the qualities that Winckelmann's writing found in sculpture were and are lacking. Winckelmann was involved in the dissemination of knowledge of the first large Roman paintings to be discovered, at Pompeii and Herculaneum and, like most contemporaries except for Gavin Hamilton ,

7280-619: The establishment of formal archaeology . The writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann were important in shaping this movement in both architecture and the visual arts. His books Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture (1750) and Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums ("History of Ancient Art", 1764) were the first to distinguish sharply between Ancient Greek and Roman art, and define periods within Greek art, tracing

7392-403: The everyday life during that period. The most noted objects in the Gold Room collection are the collars dating from around 350–500, made of gold from Roman coins. The room also contains Viking silver jewelry, bejeweled reliquaries from the Middle Ages, coins, ceremonial swords and spoils of war. The large number of preserved objects made from precious metals, is due to a law that was issued in

7504-421: The far right side of the right-hand door. A common item with the workers who cast the doors and built the museum. The bottle was chased by Marklund and it is the only part of the bronze surface that has been polished to a shine by people touching it. The interior of the museum is spacious with room for both permanent and special exhibitions. The permanent displays are arranged in chronological order in rooms facing

7616-577: The figures being white and the background blue. On the American continent , architecture and interior decoration have been highly influenced by the styles developed in Europe. The French taste has highly marked its presence in the southern states (after the French Revolution some emigrants have moved here, and in Canada a big part of the population has French origins). The practical spirit and

7728-479: The front, giving a full view of tight-fitting trousers, was often worn when not on duty, and influenced civilian male styles. The trouser-problem had been recognised by artists as a barrier to creating contemporary history paintings ; like other elements of contemporary dress they were seen as irredeemably ugly and unheroic by many artists and critics. Various stratagems were used to avoid depicting them in modern scenes. In James Dawkins and Robert Wood Discovering

7840-420: The government as a collective body to decide upon. A Cabinet Minister is explicitly prohibited from interfering with the day-to-day operation in an agency or the outcome in individual cases. The cardinal rule is that Ministers are not allowed to issue orders to agencies in their portfolio personally (with only a few exceptions) as the government agencies are subject to decisions made by the government, although

7952-568: The government cannot even directly overrule an agency in the handling of an individual case. Other than the executive branch, the Riksdag also has a number of independent agencies. Some historic government agencies have been merged with other agencies or simply closed down. Neoclassicism Neoclassicism , also spelled Neo-classicism , emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts , literature , theatre , music , and architecture that drew inspiration from

8064-485: The hair instead. Very light and loose dresses, usually white and often with shockingly bare arms, rose sheer from the ankle to just below the bodice, where there was a strongly emphasized thin hem or tie round the body, often in a different colour. The shape is now often known as the Empire silhouette although it predates the First French Empire of Napoleon, but his first Empress Joséphine de Beauharnais

8176-596: The height of the Napoleonic Empire . In France, the first phase of Neoclassicism was expressed in the " Louis XVI style ", and the second in the styles called " Directoire " and Empire . The Rococo style remained popular in Italy until the Napoleonic regimes brought the new archaeological classicism, which was embraced as a political statement by young, progressive, urban Italians with republican leanings. In

8288-434: The inner courtyard, with the pre-Christian collections on the ground floor and the collections from around 800 onwards upstairs. The halls are constantly updated with adaption to new technology and to accommodate new exhibitions. The entrance hall was refurbished in 1994 to give a modern impression of a Medieval knight's hall. The floor was laid with stone and the exposed beams in the ceiling were made of concrete. Blasted into

8400-475: The late 19th century on it had often been considered anti-modern, or even reactionary, in influential critical circles. The centres of several European cities, notably Saint Petersburg and Munich , came to look much like museums of Neoclassical architecture. Gothic revival architecture (often linked with the Romantic cultural movement), a style originating in the 18th century which grew in popularity throughout

8512-570: The leader of French art, and after the French Revolution became a politician with control of much government patronage in art. He managed to retain his influence in the Napoleonic period, turning to frankly propagandistic works, but had to leave France for exile in Brussels at the Bourbon Restoration . David's many students included Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres , who saw himself as a classicist throughout his long career, despite

8624-614: The main figures of the period include Vittorio Alfieri , Giuseppe Parini , Vincenzo Monti and Ugo Foscolo , Giacomo Leopardi and Alessandro Manzoni (nephew of Cesare Beccaria ), who were also influenced by the French Enlightenment and German Romanticism. The virtuoso violinist Paganini and the operas of Rossini , Donnizetti , Bellini and, later, Verdi dominated the scene in Italian classical and romantic music. The art of Francesco Hayez and especially that of

8736-716: The material situation of the Americans at that time gave the interiors a typic atmosphere. All the American furniture, carpets, tableware, ceramic, and silverware, with all the European influences, and sometimes Islamic , Turkish or Asian , were made in conformity with the American norms, taste, and functional requirements. There have existed in the US a period of the Queen Anne style , and an Chippendale one. A style of its own,

8848-399: The middle of the exhibition room. The floor and pillars in the room are made of limestone and diabase , and the décor is made from wrought iron . It is accessed through an underground passage from the entrance hall. The room contains about 3000 objects made from a total of 52 kg (115 lb) gold and more than 200 kg (440 lb) silver. It was only with the heightened security

8960-481: The mind alone". The theory was very far from new in Western art, but his emphasis on close copying of Greek models was: "The only way for us to become great or if this be possible, inimitable, is to imitate the ancients". The Industrial Revolution saw global transition of human economy towards more efficient and stable manufacturing processes. There was tremendous material advancement and increased prosperity. With

9072-496: The most classicizing interiors of the Baroque , or the most "Roman" rooms of William Kent were based on basilica and temple exterior architecture turned outside in, hence their often bombastic appearance to modern eyes: pedimented window frames turned into gilded mirrors, fireplaces topped with temple fronts. The new interiors sought to recreate an authentically Roman and genuinely interior vocabulary. Techniques employed in

9184-535: The move to Nationalmuseum. Swedish archaeologist Stig Welinder argues that the History Museum was in fact founded with its establishment in the Ridderstolpe House in 1847. The present-day museum was founded in 1866 by Bror Emil Hildebrand , who had been director of its predecessor both at Stockholm Palace and Ridderstolpe House. The collections of the museum were exhibited on the ground floor of

9296-652: The notable figures of the Enlightenment, and travelled to America to produce a statue of George Washington , as well as busts of Thomas Jefferson , Benjamin Franklin and other founders of the new republic. Antonio Canova and the Dane Bertel Thorvaldsen were both based in Rome, and as well as portraits produced many ambitious life-size figures and groups; both represented the strongly idealizing tendency in Neoclassical sculpture. Canova has

9408-453: The occasional half circle or oval. Interior decor also honored this taste for rigor, with the result that flat surfaces and right angles returned to fashion. Ornament was used to mediate this severity, but it never interfered with basic lines and always was disposed symmetrically around a central axis. Even so, ébénistes often canted fore-angles to avoid excessive rigidity. The decorative motifs of Louis XVI style were inspired by antiquity ,

9520-538: The other national variants of neoclassicism. It developed in opposition to the Baroque style around c.  1750 and lasted until c.  1850 . Neoclassicism began around the period of the rediscovery of Pompeii and spread all over Europe as a generation of art students returned to their countries from the Grand Tour in Italy with rediscovered Greco-Roman ideals. It first centred in Rome where artists such as Antonio Canova and Jacques-Louis David were active in

9632-428: The predominant modern style of the era and the historical context given not only by the context requirements, but also the 19th century barracks and stables south of the museum designed by Fredrik Blom and built in stages in 1805–1818, starting one year after the land had been appropriated by the government. The barracks are neoclassicist in style and the repetitive façades used to be exposed to Ladugårdslandsviken that

9744-514: The purest examples of the style were produced by Zholtovsky school that remained an isolated phenomena. The political intervention was a disaster for constructivist leaders yet was sincerely welcomed by architects of the classical schools. Neoclassicism was an easy choice for the Soviet Union since it did not rely on modern construction technologies ( steel frame or reinforced concrete ) and could be reproduced in traditional masonry . Thus

9856-402: The recently built Nationalmuseum. The premises soon became too small for both museums. When plans for the new Nordic Museum building were made in 1876, it was suggested that the building should also include the History Museum's collections. The debate about housing for the History Museum continued for decades until Sigurd Curman became Custodian of Ancient Monuments ( riksantikvarie ) and head of

9968-649: The remodeling of the area. They developed the design for the new museum in cooperation with Curman, the National Property Board and the National Heritage Board. In 1932, the Swedish government granted funds for construction of official buildings to create jobs during the depression . Some of these were used to build the museum in 1934–39. The plans for the museum were not finalized until 1936. The main building, designed by Romare and Scherman 1935–1940, reflects an ambivalence between

10080-464: The royal family and collected at Stockholm Palace . After the death of King Gustaf III in 1792, the collections were turned over to the Swedish government. That same year the Royal Museum ( Kongl. Museum ) opened in the palace. It was one of the first public museums in the world. In 1846–47, the museum moved from the palace to the Ridderstolpe House at Skeppsbron where it resided until 1865 and

10192-441: The royal government, which David insisted on painting in Rome. David managed to combine an idealist style with drama and forcefulness. The central perspective is perpendicular to the picture plane, made more emphatic by the dim arcade behind, against which the heroic figures are disposed as in a frieze , with a hint of the artificial lighting and staging of opera , and the classical colouring of Nicolas Poussin . David rapidly became

10304-473: The same source of inspiration, classical antiquity. The Adam style emphasizes refined rectangular mirrors, framed like paintings (in frames with stylised leafs), or with a pediment above them, supporting an urn or a medallion. Another design of Adam mirrors is shaped like a Venetian window , with a big central mirror between two other thinner and longer ones. Another type of mirrors are the oval ones, usually decorated with festoons. The furniture in this style has

10416-455: The same time. Neoclassicism first gained influence in Britain and France, through a generation of French art students trained in Rome and influenced by the writings of Winckelmann, and it was quickly adopted by progressive circles in other countries such as Sweden , Poland and Russia . At first, classicizing decor was grafted onto familiar European forms, as in the interiors for Catherine

10528-444: The same, and so on. One of the main decorative principles is symmetry. In interiors, the colours used are very bright, including white, light grey, bright blue, pink, yellow, very light lilac, and gold. Excesses of ornamentation are avoided. The return to antiquity is synonymous with above all with a return to the straight lines: strict verticals and horizontals were the order of the day. Serpentine ones were no longer tolerated, save for

10640-589: The second half of the 18th century, before moving to Paris. Painters of Vedute , like Canaletto and Giovanni Paolo Panini , also enjoyed a huge success during the Grand Tour. Neoclassical architecture was inspired by the Renaissance works of Andrea Palladio and saw in Luigi Vanvitelli the main interpreters of the style. Classicist literature had a great impact on the Risorgimento movement:

10752-555: The shorter styles that finally despatched the use of wigs, and then white hair-powder, for younger men. The trouser had been the symbol of the barbarian to the Greeks and Romans, but outside the painter's or, especially, the sculptor's studio, few men were prepared to abandon it. Indeed, the period saw the triumph of the pure trouser, or pantaloon , over the culotte or knee-breeches of the Ancien Régime . Even when David designed

10864-457: The style included flatter, lighter motifs, sculpted in low frieze -like relief or painted in monotones en camaïeu ("like cameos"), isolated medallions or vases or busts or bucrania or other motifs, suspended on swags of laurel or ribbon, with slender arabesques against backgrounds, perhaps, of "Pompeiian red" or pale tints, or stone colors. The style in France was initially a Parisian style,

10976-413: The vault provided, that most of the gold objects could be on display for the general public. When Curman originally designed how the collections were to be displayed, he borrowed ideas from contemporary exhibitions, industrial fairs and storefronts. The idea was to entice and educate visitors, something that was met with skepticism from scholars who regarded the museum mainly as a scientific institution. It

11088-543: The walls, ceilings, doors, and any other surface, are divided into big panels: rectangular, round, square, with stuccos and Greco-Roman motifs at the edges. Ornaments used include festoons , pearls, egg-and-dart bands, medallions , and any other motifs used during the Classical antiquity (especially the Etruscan ones). Decorative fittings such as urn-shaped stone vases, gilded silverware, lamps, and stauettes all have

11200-590: Was also, or mainly, a sculptor, mostly producing severely classical reliefs that are comparable in style to his prints; he also designed and modelled Neoclassical ceramics for Josiah Wedgwood for several years. Johann Gottfried Schadow and his son Rudolph , one of the few Neoclassical sculptors to die young, were the leading German artists, with Franz Anton von Zauner in Austria. The late Baroque Austrian sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt turned to Neoclassicism in mid-career, shortly before he appears to have suffered some kind of mental crisis, after which he retired to

11312-519: Was based on Neoclassical principles, his subjects and treatment more often reflected the "Gothic" strain of Romanticism , and sought to evoke drama and excitement. Neoclassicism in painting gained a new sense of direction with the sensational success of Jacques-Louis David 's Oath of the Horatii at the Paris Salon of 1785. Despite its evocation of republican virtues, this was a commission by

11424-505: Was influential in spreading it around Europe. A long rectangular shawl or wrap, very often plain red but with a decorated border in portraits, helped in colder weather, and was apparently laid around the midriff when seated—for which sprawling semi-recumbent postures were favoured. By the start of the 19th century, such styles had spread widely across Europe. Neoclassical fashion for men was far more problematic, and never really took off other than for hair, where it played an important role in

11536-633: Was intended to idealize Napoleon's leadership and the French state. The style corresponds to the more bourgeois Biedermeier style in the German-speaking lands, Federal style in the United States, the Regency style in Britain, and the Napoleon style in Sweden. According to the art historian Hugh Honour "so far from being, as is sometimes supposed, the culmination of the Neoclassical movement,

11648-684: Was international; Scots architect Charles Cameron created palatial Italianate interiors for the German-born Catherine the Great, in St. Petersburg, Russia. Indoors, Neoclassicism made a discovery of the genuine classic interior, inspired by the rediscoveries at Pompeii and Herculaneum . These had begun in the late 1740s, but only achieved a wide audience in the 1760s, with the first luxurious volumes of tightly controlled distribution of Le Antichità di Ercolano ( The Antiquities of Herculaneum ). The antiquities of Herculaneum showed that even

11760-401: Was mainly portraits, very often as busts, which do not sacrifice a strong impression of the sitter's personality to idealism. His style became more classical as his long career continued, and represents a rather smooth progression from Rococo charm to classical dignity. Unlike some Neoclassical sculptors he did not insist on his sitters wearing Roman dress, or being unclothed. He portrayed most of

11872-443: Was not until after it that thorough-going attempts to imitate ancient styles became fashionable in France, at least for women. Classical costumes had long been worn by fashionable ladies posing as some figure from Greek or Roman myth in a portrait (in particular there was a rash of such portraits of the young model Emma, Lady Hamilton from the 1780s), but such costumes were only worn for the portrait sitting and masquerade balls until

11984-459: Was part of Stockholm's main harbor up until the 19th century, while the main building forms a compact block taking a step backwards from the street to leave space for a forecourt. The museum consists of four two- and three-story block-like buildings surrounding an inner courtyard, giving it the appearance of a fortress. The façade is austere and decorated with sculptures made by Bror Marklund (added in 1959) and reliefs by artist Robert Nilsson. In

12096-540: Was regarded as being revived varying considerably. Ancient models were certainly very much involved, but the style could also be regarded as a revival of the Renaissance, and especially in France as a return to the more austere and noble Baroque of the age of Louis XIV , for which a considerable nostalgia had developed as France's dominant military and political position started a serious decline. Ingres 's coronation portrait of Napoleon even borrowed from Late Antique consular diptychs and their Carolingian revival, to

12208-518: Was representative for the new French society that exited the revolution , setting the tone in all life fields, including art. The Jacquard machine was invented during this period (which revolutionised the entire sewing system, manual until then). One of the dominant colours was red, decorated with gilt bronze . Bright colours were also used, including white, cream, violet, brown, blue, dark red, with little ornaments of gilt bronze. Interior architecture included wood panels decorated with gilt reliefs (on

12320-485: Was then Prussia . Karl Friedrich Schinkel built many prominent buildings in this style, including the Altes Museum in Berlin. While the city remained dominated by Baroque city planning, his architecture and functional style provided the city with a distinctly neoclassical center. His Bauakademie is considered one of the forerunners of modern architecture due to its hithertofore relatively streamlined façade of

12432-693: Was to become the Swedish History Museum and the Nationalmuseum , was King Gustav Vasa 's 16th century art collection at Gripsholm Castle . The collection grew through acquisitions, gifts and spoils of war during the time of the Swedish Empire . Some of the collections were lost during the fire in the Tre Kronor castle. During the later part of the 18th century, art and antiquities were bought by ambassadors and members of

12544-704: Was unimpressed by them, citing Pliny the Younger 's comments on the decline of painting in his period. As for painting, Greek painting was utterly lost: Neoclassicist painters imaginatively revived it, partly through bas-relief friezes , mosaics and pottery painting, and partly through the examples of painting and decoration of the High Renaissance of Raphael 's generation, frescos in Nero 's Domus Aurea , Pompeii and Herculaneum, and through renewed admiration of Nicolas Poussin . Much "Neoclassical" painting

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