Thesis Chapters by Ylva Haidenthaller
In the 17th century, especially after the Thirty Years War, Sweden was engaged with demonstrating... more In the 17th century, especially after the Thirty Years War, Sweden was engaged with demonstrating and presenting itself as the new great power it had become. Particularly the visual culture was a fine way to express the royal desires and ambitions, and what better way to show Sweden’s new age of greatness than through medals, the baroque business card.I strive to illustrate the significance of medals and the cultural context in which they were produced, which includes all components as the ordering of the medal, the medal artist and in the end the final item. The three German medal artists Johan Rethe, Johan Georg Breuer and Anton Meybusch were one of the first of their kind who came to Sweden to work for the Swedish Crown and they left apparent impressions on the Swedish medal art. Their carreers shall act as an example for cultural transfer, as well as it shall show the importance of hiring abled medal artists to properly use the medal arts’ potential.My focus is set on how the Swedish monarchs, Kristina, Karl X Gustav and Karl XI used medals to merchandise themselves and in what manner their medals were received. In addition to that it seems to be of importance to evaluate in which way the medals reached their intended public and who the planned recipients were. Analysis of the compound personifications of the royal court produced during the baroque era call for a careful and observant deciphering of their attributes and an awareness of how these medals could yield complex messages. Paradoxical, through pictures the message becomes more apparent and complicated at the same time. It is vital to understand the images’ function in relationship to the commissioning body and his position and personal taste, as well as the medals’ general significance as a cultural object.
The aim of the essay is to present medals, which depict queen Christina as the goddess Minerva. I... more The aim of the essay is to present medals, which depict queen Christina as the goddess Minerva. In the years 1645-1650 queen Christina started to represent herself with the goddess Minerva’s attributes. Her intent was to spread the idea of the wise queen, a personification of the mythological Minerva. The use of medals to broadcast this kind of messages was common in the baroque period in Europe. Christina needed a strong signature to legitimate her position as a female king and later, after her abdication, as a queen without land. The goddess Minerva turned out to be the ideal symbol for Christina’s reign; Minerva was on one hand wise and just and on the other hand the goddess of war. The goddess stood for everything the queen wished her people to associate with her. At last the queens embodying of the ancient goddess became her trademark.
Papers by Ylva Haidenthaller
Arte et marte: meddelanden från Riddarhuset, 2023
Vetenskapssocieteten i Lund. Årsbok 2023, 2023
Artium Quaestiones, 2023
During the 18th century, collections of coins and medals were familiar sights. The collectors ran... more During the 18th century, collections of coins and medals were familiar sights. The collectors ranged from scholars to amateurs, men and women and the collectables tempted collectors for various reasons: they signified wealth and knowledge, they rendered historical events or current politics in material form, or they were miniature artworks and financial investments. Also, the visual and material culture that involved collecting coins and medals consisted of cabinets and numismatic publications. But how were numismatic collections amassed, and how were they used? What did it mean to own a coin and medal collection? This article discusses the practices of collecting numismatics in 18th-century Sweden through various case studies concerning private and public collections, such as the Uppsala University coin cabinet or the possessions of politician Carl Didric Ehrenpreus, numismatist Elias Brenner, medal artist Arvid Karlsteen, and merchant-wife Anna Johanna Grill. These cases illuminate the diverse motivations behind collecting, from intellectual curiosity to social status. These case studies include immaterial facets such as witty discussions and international networks and material aspects such as coins, medals, cabinets, letters, and publications. Based on contemporary written sources, this article sheds light on how numismatic objects were bought, sold and circulated, highlighting the market dynamics of collecting. Furthermore, the examples examine how numismatic publications were used next to the objects, contributing to hermeneutic study and the collecting process. The written records provide insight into the scholarly discourse surrounding these collections, offering a glimpse into the intellectual context of the time. Finally, the article will add to the understanding of values and ideas attached to the practices of collecting coins and medals in early modern Europe. It elucidates the role of numismatics as a collecting practice, as well as how it shaped cultural perceptions, underscoring the intricate interplay between material and visual culture, society, and the production of knowledge during this period.
Swer den pfenninc liep hât. Festschrift für Hubert Emmerig zum 65. Geburtstag, 2023
IKON Journal of Iconographic Studies , 2020
One visual medium that is rather overlooked these days was particularly suited to the proclamatio... more One visual medium that is rather overlooked these days was particularly suited to the proclamation of great deeds and the insinuation of the always so fashionable flair of Antiquity, namely medallic art. This paper presents a selection of case studies exploring the use of ancient topoi illustrated on medals, and studying the purpose and significance of medals depicting early modern Swedish monarchs. Questions will be raised about how references to classical literature such as Ovid, Vergil or Horace are combined within the limits of a medal and in what way are the classical references reused and adapted to the new context. The aim of this paper is to provide a complement to the iconographic analysis by paying particular attention to the inscriptions and their connection to the images presented on medals. Subsequently, this will shed light on the innovative usage of classical literature on medals from early modern Sweden.
Samlad Glädje 2019 Numismatiska klubben i Uppsala 1969-2019, 2019
Swedish Art History : A Selection of Introductory Texts, 2018
Chapter within the anthology Swedish Art History: A Selection of Introductory Texts. My paper dis... more Chapter within the anthology Swedish Art History: A Selection of Introductory Texts. My paper discusses a selection of royal medals from the seventeenth century and how they might be regarded as a means of visual rhetoric (pp.117-126).
http://portal.research.lu.se/portal/files/49854561/Swedish_Art_History_2018.pdf
Nordisk Numismatisk Unions medlemsblad, ISSN 0025-8539, nr 2, s. 53-58
Conference Presentations by Ylva Haidenthaller
Eighteenth-Century Media and Mediation: ISECS Executive Committee Meeting 2022
XVI International Numismatic Congress INC 2022, 2022
NORDIK: The 13th Triannual Nordik Committee for Art History Conference: Collections, 2022
RSA Virtual , 2022
Medals are tactile, portable image vehicles aimed to be held, viewed, and shown, and these are as... more Medals are tactile, portable image vehicles aimed to be held, viewed, and shown, and these are aspects entirely familiar to miniatures too. Both art forms embody wealth and status, were used as gifts, personal mementoes and were appreciated collectables. However, the fact that they share many common features, both concerning use and visual execution, often remains unnoticed.
This paper will take a closer look at the interplay between medals and miniatures, and explore their similarities and differences, and discuss how these art forms influenced one another and existed side by side in early seventeenth-century Sweden. I will present examples of coloured medals, miniatures with a similar design as medals, and a gift exchange where both art forms were distributed. Eventually, the paper will examine the interaction between these image vehicles and demonstrates how visual trends could be transferred from one object category to another.
Emblem conference Road to Vienna , 2023
RNS Numismatic Early Career lectures 18 February 2020
Student lectures at the Royal Numismatic Society
Thesis-project: “Medals in the Early Modern S... more Student lectures at the Royal Numismatic Society
Thesis-project: “Medals in the Early Modern Swedish Society: significances and practices” [current working title]
The 12 of June 1651, Courtier Johan Ekeblad sent a letter to his father Christopher describing the French ambassador’s departure from the royal court in Stockholm. The ambassador was rewarded with a medal attached to a golden chain worth 1000 ducats. Ekeblad’s letter narrates a custom that was common among the elites since the Renaissance, namely donating portrait-medals and thereby signifying alliances and friendship. Already a few years after Ekeblad’s letter, the practice started to become out-dated, and miniature-portraits were preferred gifts at the European courts. The portrait-medal was still in vogue; only its purpose had changed. A medal illustrates Renaissance’s awareness of the individual, Baroque’s fondness of emblematic riddles as well as Enlightenment’s passion for taxonomy. Medals were a regular feature of early modern visual culture, and it is rare that an object allows conclusions on such multifaceted intended and even unintended usages, value concepts and interpretations. Yet, in comparison to medals’ former popularity and clear position within the visual culture, they are today frequently overlooked. My ongoing thesis aims to remedy this by contributing to the knowledge of practices related to medals c. 1560–1790. The thesis concentrates on two main questions: How did the use of medals change during the investigated period? How did the use of medals affect medals’ visual execution and vice versa? The medals issued by the Swedish court might due to their manageable quantity offer an insight to similar practices mirrored at other European courts and lead from a smaller to a greater perspective
Erfolgreiche Einwanderer. Künstlerimmigration im Ostseeraum während der Nordischen Kriege (1554–1... more Erfolgreiche Einwanderer. Künstlerimmigration im Ostseeraum während der Nordischen Kriege (1554–1721)
Workshop des Leibniz-Instituts für Geschichte und Kultur des östlichen Europa (GWZO)
IKON conference 2019
‘Afterlife of Antiquity’, Rijeka 30-31 May 2019
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Thesis Chapters by Ylva Haidenthaller
Papers by Ylva Haidenthaller
http://portal.research.lu.se/portal/files/49854561/Swedish_Art_History_2018.pdf
Conference Presentations by Ylva Haidenthaller
This paper will take a closer look at the interplay between medals and miniatures, and explore their similarities and differences, and discuss how these art forms influenced one another and existed side by side in early seventeenth-century Sweden. I will present examples of coloured medals, miniatures with a similar design as medals, and a gift exchange where both art forms were distributed. Eventually, the paper will examine the interaction between these image vehicles and demonstrates how visual trends could be transferred from one object category to another.
Thesis-project: “Medals in the Early Modern Swedish Society: significances and practices” [current working title]
The 12 of June 1651, Courtier Johan Ekeblad sent a letter to his father Christopher describing the French ambassador’s departure from the royal court in Stockholm. The ambassador was rewarded with a medal attached to a golden chain worth 1000 ducats. Ekeblad’s letter narrates a custom that was common among the elites since the Renaissance, namely donating portrait-medals and thereby signifying alliances and friendship. Already a few years after Ekeblad’s letter, the practice started to become out-dated, and miniature-portraits were preferred gifts at the European courts. The portrait-medal was still in vogue; only its purpose had changed. A medal illustrates Renaissance’s awareness of the individual, Baroque’s fondness of emblematic riddles as well as Enlightenment’s passion for taxonomy. Medals were a regular feature of early modern visual culture, and it is rare that an object allows conclusions on such multifaceted intended and even unintended usages, value concepts and interpretations. Yet, in comparison to medals’ former popularity and clear position within the visual culture, they are today frequently overlooked. My ongoing thesis aims to remedy this by contributing to the knowledge of practices related to medals c. 1560–1790. The thesis concentrates on two main questions: How did the use of medals change during the investigated period? How did the use of medals affect medals’ visual execution and vice versa? The medals issued by the Swedish court might due to their manageable quantity offer an insight to similar practices mirrored at other European courts and lead from a smaller to a greater perspective
Workshop des Leibniz-Instituts für Geschichte und Kultur des östlichen Europa (GWZO)
http://portal.research.lu.se/portal/files/49854561/Swedish_Art_History_2018.pdf
This paper will take a closer look at the interplay between medals and miniatures, and explore their similarities and differences, and discuss how these art forms influenced one another and existed side by side in early seventeenth-century Sweden. I will present examples of coloured medals, miniatures with a similar design as medals, and a gift exchange where both art forms were distributed. Eventually, the paper will examine the interaction between these image vehicles and demonstrates how visual trends could be transferred from one object category to another.
Thesis-project: “Medals in the Early Modern Swedish Society: significances and practices” [current working title]
The 12 of June 1651, Courtier Johan Ekeblad sent a letter to his father Christopher describing the French ambassador’s departure from the royal court in Stockholm. The ambassador was rewarded with a medal attached to a golden chain worth 1000 ducats. Ekeblad’s letter narrates a custom that was common among the elites since the Renaissance, namely donating portrait-medals and thereby signifying alliances and friendship. Already a few years after Ekeblad’s letter, the practice started to become out-dated, and miniature-portraits were preferred gifts at the European courts. The portrait-medal was still in vogue; only its purpose had changed. A medal illustrates Renaissance’s awareness of the individual, Baroque’s fondness of emblematic riddles as well as Enlightenment’s passion for taxonomy. Medals were a regular feature of early modern visual culture, and it is rare that an object allows conclusions on such multifaceted intended and even unintended usages, value concepts and interpretations. Yet, in comparison to medals’ former popularity and clear position within the visual culture, they are today frequently overlooked. My ongoing thesis aims to remedy this by contributing to the knowledge of practices related to medals c. 1560–1790. The thesis concentrates on two main questions: How did the use of medals change during the investigated period? How did the use of medals affect medals’ visual execution and vice versa? The medals issued by the Swedish court might due to their manageable quantity offer an insight to similar practices mirrored at other European courts and lead from a smaller to a greater perspective
Workshop des Leibniz-Instituts für Geschichte und Kultur des östlichen Europa (GWZO)
In the eighteenth century, the portrait genre, previously restricted to royalty and nobility, became available to users from a broader social spectrum. All over Europe, physicians, scholars, writers, merchants, and proprietors had their portraits painted to mark their standing in society. However, not these grand paintings but their printed versions made the sitters known to the wider public. But who commissioned these engravings, how were they produced and distributed, and to what purpose?
This paper presents a pilot study for my postdoc project that examines how portraits were spread and mediated in eighteenth-century Sweden. The study discusses the roles of engravers, publishers, and printers in the portrait market. It will give examples of newspaper announcements that shed light on how engraved portraits were advertised and by whom, as well as correspondence between sitters, engravers and publishers highlighting how and why engravings were commissioned. Thereby, the paper will provide insight into the players of the Swedish print market and their varying agendas concerning the portrait genre.
Parallel to Sweden’s historical and cultural development, the analysis follows medal art chronologically and thematically in five chapters. The study addresses the transformation from being a royal gift to prize medals and rewards and from limited use to being available at an open market. It examines how the medal was viewed, handled, circulated, and used plus what significance people ascribed to it. The medium aided the sitter’s commemoration, self-fashioning, and legitimisation while being used as a gift, worn as a jewel, collected, discussed, or viewed as an artefact with antiquarian purposes. The medal was appreciated for its potential to express various themes on a small surface, its exclusive material and practical size. However, much of its meaning was connected to the sensory experience of touching the medal. The medium’s materiality was an essential element of how the medal was used, the way its visual design communicated with the beholder, and the importance that the object conveyed. By its broad and exhaustive timeline, the thesis presents a comprehensive case study on the phenomenon of medal art and aids in understanding how early modern art and visual culture was used and how these uses changed over time.