Hunting the Classical in Stockholm. James Heath
Upon learning last year that I was invited to a wedding of a family friend in Sweden this July, and knowing that I’d have to spend some time in Stockholm, I had immediately taken a look for traces of the Classics. My search returned the information that there was a Mediterranean Museum (Medelhavsmuseet) as well as some pieces existing within the Royal Palace’s collection at Gustav III’s Antikmuseum. Having been north of Uppsala for the Thursday to Sunday morning part of our trip, it meant having to leave my partner in our Stockholm hotel’s spa (something she was not bothered by at all) and head into Stockholm that afternoon to view the collection of the Medelhavsmuseet, as it was going to be closed on the Monday and we were flying back to the UK on Tuesday morning. Meanwhile we were planning on visiting the Royal Palace on the Monday anyway, so I would see those pieces in good time anyway.
Figure 1: Interior of the Museum
Having figured out the Stockholm metro system, made the roughly 7 minute walk from T-Centralen station to the Medelhavsmuseet, and paid the entry fee (as a head’s up, Stockholm is predominantly cash-free city), I entered into the museum. Set into a what I believe is a 17th century palace, the central court of the museum is strikingly modern, all angles and glass (see Fig.1).
Figure 2: The Lion and Bull Decoration
In all these central glass cabinets are the Cypriot collection. Annoyingly hard to photograph because of said glass. They were mainly finds from temples in Cyprus, with one of my highlights being an attachment with relief decoration of two antithetic lions attacking a bull (Fig.2). It dates to the 5th century BC and comes from Vouni. The largest glass case was reserved for the finds from the open air sanctuary at Ayia Irini (Fig.3). The excavations in 1929 by Erik Sjöqvist unearthed nearly 2000 terracotta figures, half of which are on display in the museum, the other half are in the Cyprus Museum in Nicosia. All the figures were discovered facing an altar and cultic stone. Having worked my way round to the Gold room I popped my head in to see the range of jewellery from Anatolia,
Figure 3: The Case of Finds from Ayia Irini
Figure 4: The Cameo Rings
Mesopotamia, Syria, Egypt, Greece, Cyprus, Italy, and Byzantium. Mainly focusing on the Roman pieces, because I’m me. These included cameo rings with depictions of Hermes and a man thought to be Alexander the Great (Fig.4).
Next time period was the small Greek and Etruscan section. This part of the collection was predominantly vases and other pottery (Fig.5), though did have one Etruscan cinerary urn (Fig.6), one urn lid, a mosaic from Roman Syria, and a fresco fragment from Pompeii (Fig.7). There were also a bust of Dionysus and a statue of Artemis, but these were both Roman period.
Figure 5: One of the Pottery Pieces
Figure 6: Etruscan Urn
Figure 7: Fresco Fragment from Pompeii
This brings us nicely into the also fairly small (though larger than the Greek and Etruscan) Roman collection. Made up of a combination of busts/portraits, reliefs, and some inscriptions on altars/grave markers, the collection does have some nice variety to it. The highlight was probably the funerary relief of Titus Aelius Evangelus (Fig.8), probably from Ostia. Followed by two dedications to Hadrian, the bust of emperor Titus (Fig.9), and an inscription fragment dedicated to Herodes Atticus.
Figure 8: The Funerary Relief
Figure 9: The Bust of Titus
There were plenty of other portraits, a few other funerary and dedicatory inscriptions, and a nice relief of upper-class ladies entering a city. The Roman collection also includes a sarcophagus, the previously mentioned statue of Artemis and bust of Dionysus, and a head of Vitellius in the Grimani style, but not thought to be the emperor.
The largest part of the museum, next to the Cypriot section, was their Egyptian collection. Starting out with a piece on the stone age settlements, dating back to 5000 BC, there was pottery and stone tool-heads on display from places like Faiyum and Mostagedda. This section culminated with a tomb from the First Dynasty period. Then it moves forward in a linear style covering lots of aspects of Daily Life, as well as key topics, themes and figures. There are sections on the gods (Fig.10), Sketches from the Valley of the Kings. Cabinets hold pieces to do with craftsmanship, women’s work, men’s work, the Role of the King, Baskets and Brooms, piety in Deir el-Medina, the Amarna period, and the cultural encounters brought on by the Ptolemaic dynasty.
Figure 10: Statuettes of the Egyptian Gods
Lots of the stele, and hieroglyphic inscriptions featuring deities and pharaohs still retained some of their polychromatic features. Several of the pharaohs are represented in physical form, like Hatshepsut and Thutmosis I. The Egyptian period ended with a descent to the basement level to see items connected to burial; Faiyum Portraits (Fig.11), mummified animals, and grave goods from Egyptian Tombs.
Figure 11: Faiyum Portraits and other Masks
Figure 12: Oil-Lamps from Various Periods
The last section of the museum was upstairs where there were several glass cabinets, with pieces from throughout the ancient world on display in glass cabinets. Each cabinet had a different theme: The Image of Man, The World of the Gods, Lust and Beauty, Bread and Circuses, The World of Animals, and Enlightenment – Light & Writing (Fig.12). The pieces in these cases weren’t identified by any labels, and were not grouped by location or period, so it was a hectic mix, but well collected and tied together by their themes. The case shown in Fig.14 is full of oil-lamps from various periods.
Moving on to the visit the Gustav III’s Antikmuseum on the Monday, the collection was brought back to Sweden by the King during his Grand Tour, or purchased for him by the first museum curator. Several pieces aren’t ancient, there’s a pastiche apparently given by Piranesi, and while some of the imperial busts are named, they naming isn’t accurate. The guidebook explains all this, but it isn’t in English, and my Swedish is non-existent. This means that working out the details of each piece is slow and time-consuming.
Figure 13: The Melpomene Statue
However, on to the pieces themselves! The Greater Stone Gallery is filled mostly with full sized statues of the Muses (one of Melpomene, Fig.13), as well as a Priestess and an Athena. It is highly likely that restorations and later additions have taken place to ensure these statues are the Muses. The prize piece is the Endymion statue at the far end of the gallery (Fig.14) and then you have the pastiches behind with a combination of pieces – in the centre is an urn made up of ancient and 18th century pieces, then to the right is a cornucopia consisting of the same mix, as does the decorative composition on the left.
Figure 14: The Endymion and Pastiches
The Lesser Stone Gallery features all the imperial busts, and smaller statuary that the Greater Stone Gallery, hence the name, I guess. Aside from the erroneously named imperial busts and heads, the other highlights of this room are a cinerary urn (Fig.15), and a family urn converted into a fountain.
Figure 15: The Cinerary Urn
In terms of the erroneously named imperial busts, see the table below. All photos will then follow (Figs.16-44).
So as you can see, there was definitely some issues with identification, not to be entirely unexpected from a country far-removed from the Mediterranean in the early days of Classical sculpture collecting. It is interesting, however, that Piranesi was brought in and gifted pieces to the collection. He was also one of those who identified the Caesar copy as a Trajan, along with the first curator.
To summarise, there is an interesting collection of Classical sculpture and artefacts in the Swedish capital, more than perhaps one was expecting to find. If you are a Classicist and you find yourself in Stockholm, it’s definitely worth going and checking out the Medelhavsmuseet and the Gustav III’s Antikmuseum in the Royal Palace. Despite them not yet being labelled, all the photos from the Mediterranean Museum can be found at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mumblerjamie/albums/72177720309839021, and all the photos from the Antikmuseum can be seen here – https://www.flickr.com/photos/mumblerjamie/albums/72177720309839021