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1980; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 49; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00233608008603951

1651-2294

Margareta Reuterskiöld,

Architecture and Art History Studies

Summary The last Dream of a Great Power Amongst the sketches and plants of Nicodemus Tessin the younger, are many items whose exact identity is unknown. One of them is a plan for a large formal garden, 281.5 cm by 68 cm (the actual drawing 261.5 cm by 56.5 cm), a part of the Wasa Collection. On close examination, it is apparent that the ground plan for a palace at one end of the garden corresponds in almost every detail with an ink drawing of a façade, earlier identified as one of the projects for a pleasure palace for Charles XII that is contained in the same collection. The discrepances are not more significant than those in Tes‐sin's drawings of similar projects. Judging from the projected lay‐out of the grounds, the palace was to be approached from the water, situated up a fairly steep bank. The garden behind the palace was to slope gently upwards towards a plateau just beyond the middle, where a pavilion, a variant of Tessin's temple of Apollo for Versailles, would dominate the perspective. Beyond the pavillion the garden would open out into a large oval amphitheatre with a stage building at the far end. The whole garden was to offer a great variety of pleasure‐pavilions, bosquets, and above all, fountains. The dimensions of the grounds were to be 1 128 metres by 245 metres. Regarding the exact location of the projected palace there remain a number of unsettled questions, but access to water was to be recommended, not least in consideration of the large number of fountains. A map and a sketch of a garden in the collection of drawings of the National Museum, Stockholm, suggest a location at Ålsunda, then just outside Stockholm, at about an equal distance from the Royal palaces at Stockholm and Drottningholm. It is apparent that in this project Tessin made use of ideas he gathered from his studies in Italy and France. Amongst his papers is a small sheet on which he has sketched details from Palazzo Farnese at Caprarola, Villa Lante at Bagnaia, Algardi's Villa Pamphili and his proposals for the stairs at Piazza di Spagna, etc. The palace, 178 metres by 80 metres, bears resemblance with Vanvitelli's palace at Caserta and Fischer von Erlach's second proposal for Schönbrunn, and all three architects have taken inspiration from Escorial. Both Charles XII and Tessin must have been fully aware that Swedens finances could not have borne the cost of such a project, which would have put Versailles itself in the shade. As a flight of fantacy away from the hard fact that Sweden stood on the brink of economic ruin, they dreamed the last dream of a Great Power.