DOI Heft:
No. 342 (September 1921)
DOI Artikel:Studio-talk
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21393#0138
STUDIO-TALK
GRANITE RELIEF FOR
ENSKILDA BANK, STOCK-
HOLM. BY CARL MILLES
works of art, small or large, above and
around the doorway, or some prominent
part of the facade. 0000
During a period of transition, extending
over the eighteen-nineties down into the
present century, this decorative art in stone
was distinctly naturalistic and national in
character, with a predilection for sculp-
tured pine twigs and garlands of roses, for
instance. At the same time the traditional
use of emblems has continued to hold sway
in certaininstitutions,forexample,chemists'
shops, with their figures of animals,
and Swedish architects and sculptors have
not neglected to avail themselves of it. 0
In architectonic sculpture the pioneer is
Christian Eriksson, with his heads in red
sandstone (executed in the nineties) on the
premises of the Skane Bank in Fridsgatan,
the Lombard Street of Stockholm. They
are imbued with an extraordinary freshness
and vigour of form, though somewhat
marred by art nouveau naturalism, which,
however, is fairly justified by the soft, easily
treated material. In more recent times the
sculptors have been almost unanimous in
the choice of a grittier material: granite.
123
The thought of the ravages of the climate
on softer and more delicate material has
had something to do with this, but so has
the conviction of the great artistic possi-
bilities that lurk in granite, in spite of its
being a material so difficult of treatment.
One single condition is indispensable : a
certain simple grandeur in the form to the
exclusion of petty detail and disruptive
effects. These demands made by the
material chime in with a certain disposition
inherent in our times, tending towards
archaic simplicity and an almost Egyptian
rigour of style. 0000
Among the grandest architectonic sculp-
tures produced during the last ten years in
the whole of Scandinavia are those which de-
corate the newRadhus (Law Courts) Stock-
holm, which, finished in the autumn of 1915,
was built by one of the most prominent
Swedish architects, Carl Westman, in a
very simple and chaste style with the orna-
ments gathered upon the big gateway and
the heavy tower that rises aloft above it, on
which has been set a huge relief of St.
Erik, the patron saint of Stockholm in olden
RELIEF IN RED
SANDSTONE. BY
CHRISTIAN ERIKSSON
GRANITE RELIEF FOR
ENSKILDA BANK, STOCK-
HOLM. BY CARL MILLES
works of art, small or large, above and
around the doorway, or some prominent
part of the facade. 0000
During a period of transition, extending
over the eighteen-nineties down into the
present century, this decorative art in stone
was distinctly naturalistic and national in
character, with a predilection for sculp-
tured pine twigs and garlands of roses, for
instance. At the same time the traditional
use of emblems has continued to hold sway
in certaininstitutions,forexample,chemists'
shops, with their figures of animals,
and Swedish architects and sculptors have
not neglected to avail themselves of it. 0
In architectonic sculpture the pioneer is
Christian Eriksson, with his heads in red
sandstone (executed in the nineties) on the
premises of the Skane Bank in Fridsgatan,
the Lombard Street of Stockholm. They
are imbued with an extraordinary freshness
and vigour of form, though somewhat
marred by art nouveau naturalism, which,
however, is fairly justified by the soft, easily
treated material. In more recent times the
sculptors have been almost unanimous in
the choice of a grittier material: granite.
123
The thought of the ravages of the climate
on softer and more delicate material has
had something to do with this, but so has
the conviction of the great artistic possi-
bilities that lurk in granite, in spite of its
being a material so difficult of treatment.
One single condition is indispensable : a
certain simple grandeur in the form to the
exclusion of petty detail and disruptive
effects. These demands made by the
material chime in with a certain disposition
inherent in our times, tending towards
archaic simplicity and an almost Egyptian
rigour of style. 0000
Among the grandest architectonic sculp-
tures produced during the last ten years in
the whole of Scandinavia are those which de-
corate the newRadhus (Law Courts) Stock-
holm, which, finished in the autumn of 1915,
was built by one of the most prominent
Swedish architects, Carl Westman, in a
very simple and chaste style with the orna-
ments gathered upon the big gateway and
the heavy tower that rises aloft above it, on
which has been set a huge relief of St.
Erik, the patron saint of Stockholm in olden
RELIEF IN RED
SANDSTONE. BY
CHRISTIAN ERIKSSON