| Abstrakt: |
Stockholm's Royal Palace has long occupied a central position in Swedish architectural studies, culminating in the monumental Stockholms slotts historia (History of the Stockholm Royal Palace), edited by Martin Olsson, with important contributions among others by Ragnar Josephson and Tord O:son Nordberg. Obviously all the details of the construction of a palace such as this, in its day the most comprehensive undertaking in Sweden, can not be given detailed consideration even in such a thorough study as this three volume work. The author of the above article presents here a detailed discussion of the so‐called North vault (Sw. Norra valvet) that is, the monumental passageway in Roman motif through the north wing (Fig. 4 and 5), remodelled during the 1690s. This passage had earlier been considered to have been designed in all essential respects by the architect Nicodemus Tessin junior (1654–1728) in connection with the old medieval castle's transformation to a palace in Italian style after the great fire of 1697. By means of both unpublished and previously published architect's drawings, the author attempts to carry the idea for this portico back to the architects Jean de la Vallée (1620–1696) and Nicodemus Tessin senior (1615–1681), particularly the latter who was the father of Nicodemus Tessin junior and also his immediate predecessor as royal architect. By the year 1665 the senior Tessin had worked out a comprehensive proposal for modernizing the medival castle, and his proposal included a passageway of this type (Fig. 1 and 3). The similarity of this portico to that of the Palazzo Farnese (Fig. 2 and 6), previously pointed out by other scholars, is here given an essentially altered and more thorough interpretation through a comparison of the sketches of the Palazzo Farnese made by Tessin father and son and through pointing out that this master work of Antonio da Sangallo the Younger (1485–1546) bears a close resemblance to the studies of Vitruvius done by Sangallo's almost completely unknown brother Giovanni Batlista (1496 ‐1552). This connection has been treated in some detail by the present author in a study to be published this year in the Italian journal “Palladio”. The Palazzo Farnese portico is here interpreted as a “reconstruction” of an old Roman atrium in all its splendour based on the High Renaissance conception of antiquity. In this connection it is noted that the Swedish architects did not choose to use, or perhaps did not understand, the ancient symbol value but copied with some fantasy Sangallo's treatment of space and classical form, giving the atrium a character of a ceremonial passage with an essentially diverging character. While the younger Tessin in his plan for a law court building in immediate connection with the palace complex copied the Palazzo Farnese atrium in direct agreement with his own new measurements (Fig. 9 and 10), in the North vault he used these only to adjust some of the details; in other respects however he maintained his father's independent understanding of the motif. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER] |
