ABOUT THE STATUE:
The bronze equestrian statue of King Gustav II Adolf depicts him in full military regalia, including a sword on his left side, as well as a sash across his chest and a laurel crown. His right arm is raised at a 90-degree angle to his body, and he holds a baton or staff outstretched in his left hand. His right arm is bent at the elbow and is at a 90-degree angle to his body, and he holds the horses reins in his right hand. The statue stands atop a granite plinth. On the front of the plinth is Swedish statesman Axel Oxenstierna dictating to the muse Clio who is holding an opened scroll of paper. On the back of the plinth is Roman armor. On the sides of the plinth are four medallions (two per side) of Gustav Adolf's four commanders of the Thirty Years War: Lennart Torstenson, Carl Gustaf Wrangel, Johan Banér and Hans Christopher von Königsmarck.
The following is an English translation of information about the statue in the Swedish Wikipedia (
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Gustav II Adolf statue in Stockholm is an equestrian statue created by Pierre Hubert L'Archevêque and Johan Tobias Sergel, which stands at Gustav Adolfs Torg in Stockholm. The statue was inaugurated in 1796 while the plinth sculptures were finished in 1906.
History
The statue was commissioned by the Royal Academy. Majesty following approval of the privy committee for the creation of signboards to be carried out by the French sculptor Pierre Hubert L'Archevêque, who was active in Sweden. It was designed to be the first royal statue outdoors in Sweden. Contracts with the sculptor concluded in 1758. The proposal originally came in a letter of Governor John Christopher Düring. The sculpture was paid for with public funds and partly by revenue from a special lottery.
The final model was approved in 1763 and was for another year cast in plaster in full scale. Thereafter, the pace of work slowed down since l'Archeveque suffered illness and periodically resided for long periods in his country home. He died in 1778, while the molds were completed. The first casting in June 1779 failed, and only after several years of further work could the statue be shipped in May 1791 to the site of the former Norrmalmstorg on his first pedestal of kolmårdsmarble.
After its completion, the statue was inaugurated on 18 November 1796, a few years after the inauguration of L'Archevêques, the other royal statue of King Gustav Vasa outside the nobility. The Gustav II Adolf statue became the country's first equestrian statue.
For the pedestal, L'Archevêques had student Johan Tobias Sergel create four portrait medallions which represent Gustavus Adolphus' four commanders of the Thirty Years War, Lennart Torstenson, Carl Gustaf Wrangel, Johan Banér and Hans Christopher von Königsmarck.
Sergel created the base groups, whose completion were delayed until 1906. The group on the base's south side depicts Axel Oxenstierna dictating Gustavus Adolphus feats of history's muse Clio. On the north side depicted a Roman armor. Gustavus III had ordered them in 1781 and full-scale models were finished in 1789. The process stalled and was not taken up again until 1901 in the Stockholm City Council. During the years 1904-06 a project was carried out to create a new pedestal of granite, a minor relocation of the statue and casting after Sergel's model of base groups on Meyer's art foundry.
Disagreement on the selection of items for the royal statue
Although the privy committee had approved the project for the Gustav II Adolf statue, noble class representatives preferred not to erect a statue of a hereditary king. The nobility therefore took the initiative to another statue, that of Gustav Vasa, who was born a nobleman and later elected to be king. The assignment was given in this case to Pierre Hubert L'Archevêque, who in 1761 was requested to prepare a proposal as quickly as possible. Rural Marshal Axel von Fersen also tried to persuade the Estates to unravel the earlier decision approving the model for the Gustav II Adolf statue, which delayed the work.
ABOUT THE MAN:
"Gustav II Adolf (9 December 1594 – 6 November 1632, O.S.); widely known in English by his Latinised name Gustavus Adolphus or as Gustav II Adolph, or as Gustavus Adolphus the Great (Swedish: Gustav Adolf den store, Latin: Gustavus Adolphus Magnus, a formal posthumous distinction passed by the Riksdag of the Estates in 1634); was the King of Sweden from 1611 to 1632 and is credited as the founder of Sweden as a Great Power (Swedish: Stormaktstiden). He led Sweden to military supremacy during the Thirty Years War, helping to determine the political as well as the religious balance of power in Europe.
He is often regarded as one of the greatest military commanders of all time, with innovative use of combined arms. His most notable military victory was the Battle of Breitenfeld. With a superb military machine with good weapons, excellent training, and effective field artillery, backed by an efficient government which could provide necessary funds, Gustavus Adolphus was poised to make himself a major European leader, but he was killed at the Battle of Lützen in 1632. He was ably assisted in his efforts by Count Axel Oxenstierna, the Lord High Chancellor of Sweden, who also acted as regent after his death.
In an era characterized by almost endless warfare, he led his armies as king from 1611 (at age 16) until his death in battle in 1632 while leading a charge—as Sweden rose from the status of a mere regional power to one of the great powers of Europe and a model of early modern era government. Within only a few years of his accession, Sweden had become the largest nation in Europe after Russia and Spain. Some have called him the "father of modern warfare", or the first great modern general. Under his tutelage, Sweden and the Protestant cause developed a number of excellent commanders, such as Lennart Torstensson, who would go on to defeat Sweden's enemies and expand the boundaries and the power of the empire long after Gustavus Adolphus' death in battle.
He was known by the epithets "The Golden King" and "The Lion of the North" by neighboring sovereigns. Gustavus Adolphus is commemorated today with city squares in major Swedish cities like Stockholm, Gothenburg and Helsingborg. Gustavus Adolphus College, a Lutheran college in St. Peter, Minnesota, is also named for the Swedish King."
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