ROME, NOV. 3, 2003 (Zenit.org).- Queen Christina of Sweden (1626-1689) is at the center of a display dedicated to her culturally and literarily fruitful reign.
The exhibition at Rome’s Palazzo Ruspoli includes a 150-piece collection that reflects the customs of this Scandinavian country from the 17th and 18th centuries.
Christina was exceptional for her time. She greatly stimulated patronage, art and literature, and said in her youth that she did not want to marry.
She converted to Catholicism and simultaneously (in 1654) abdicated from the throne. She left Sweden and went to Rome, where she spent most of her life, in constant touch with the popes of her time. She played a key part in the election of Pope Clement IX, successor of Alexander VII.
Key to her conversion to Catholicism was her contact with the superior general of the Jesuits, Father Francesco Piccolomini.
The young queen went to Rome just seven years after the Protestant victory signed in the Peace of Westphalia. Her visit to Rome represented a great victory for the papacy, explained Agneta Lundstrom, Barbro Bursell and Soldrid Soderlind, directors of the museums that have loaned works for the occasion.
The present Swedish sovereigns, King Gustav Karl XVI and Queen Sylvia, inaugurated the exhibition Oct. 28 in Rome, at the headquarters of the Memmo Foundation, located in the Palazzo Ruspoli on the Via del Corso.
The exhibition starts with a gigantic white and black mural with typical Swedish vegetation, and moves onto the history of the Swedish dynasty through its rich collections, reflecting the contacts between Stockholm and Rome, especially in the area of cultural exchanges.
There are several portraits of Queen Christina; busts; swords of King Gustav Adolph II; an oil painting of Venus and Adonis by Cornelis Cornelisz; the canopy of the queen’s coronation; and Peter Paul Rubens’ painting «The Three Graces with a Basket of Roses.»
The face of a young servant, chosen as the motif of the exhibition, is by Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn. The exhibition will be open to the public until Jan. 15.
