Queen Christina of Sweden (1626-1689) in Rome
possibly Michael Dahl (Stockholm 1659 - London 1743)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1668 - 1687 - 1688
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1270 x 1016 mm (50 x 40 in)
Place of origin
Rome
Order this imageCollection
Attingham Park, Shropshire
NT 609025
Caption
Michael Dahl, a fellow Swede, painted Queen Christina several times, after her abdication and conversion to Catholicism in 1654, whilst they were both in Rome between 1685/87. The original version of this portrait alluding to her hero Alexander the Great is generally supposed be the one in the collection formerly of the Earl of Ancaster at Grimsthorpe. The presence of the globe in this portrait and the Latin motto around it, meaning: 'Neither do I need it, nor is it enough for me' recalls the legend, related in Juvenal, of Alexander weeping that there were no more worlds for him to conquer. Christina's unfinished autobiography addressed to God, which she began in 1681, echoes a similar sentiment: 'You have made me so great that, if you could give me the Empire of the entire world, I would not be satisfied' .
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Queen Christina, Queen of Sweden (1626-1689) in Rome, possibly by Michael Dahl (Stockholm 1656/9 – London 1743), 1685/87. A three-quarter-length portrait of the Queen of Sweden, after her abdication, seated to right, her head turned three-quarters to the left, gazing to left of spectator, wearing a grey and blue satin dress, trimmed with ermine, her left arm resting on a globe which is encircled by a scroll inscribed: NE MI BISOGNA NE MI BASTA [Neither do I need it; nor is it enough for me] expressing her renunciation of wordly things. In the background is a view of St Peter’s, Rome.
Provenance
A letter from Messrs. J. & R. McCracken, dated 19 October 1838 refers to an offer to Lord Berwick of ‘2 celebrated and beautiful Portraits of the Queens (?of – paper torn) England’ from Signor Grossi. The intermediary in the sale is Carlo Trebbi, whose name appears elsewhere in this capacity in the Attingham correspondence. It is possible that this portrait is one of these pictures [dubious, since not in the Descriptive Catalogue of c.1861, so probably one of the ‘replacements’ acquired by the 6th Lord Berwick]; possibly bought by 3rd Lord Berwick; 1913 Inventory p.63; bequeathed to the National Trust with the estate, house and contents of Attingham by Thomas Henry Noel-Hill, 8th Baron Berwick (1877-1947) on 15th May 1953.
Credit line
Attingham Park, The Berwick Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
On stretcher (bottom): ATT/P/089 On stretcher (right): 11 On reverse of frame (top): 34 11 On reverse of frame (bottom): ATT/P/089
Makers and roles
possibly Michael Dahl (Stockholm 1659 - London 1743), artist previously catalogued as attributed to Sir Godfrey Kneller (Lübeck 1646 - London 1723), artist
References
Nisser 1927 Wilhelm Nisser, Michael Dahl and the Contemporary Swedish School of Painting in England, Uppsala, 1927