Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
painter. He was probably born in
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
Stockholm county
Stockholm County ( sv, Stockholms län, link=no ) is a county or '' län'' (in Swedish) on the Baltic Sea coast of Sweden. It borders Uppsala County and Södermanland County. It also borders Mälaren and the Baltic Sea. The city of Stockholm ...
. Sylvius spent much of his youth and manhood abroad; however, little is known about his early life. He may have been of German origin, and he worked for some years (1658–85) in Rome. During his time spent in Rome, he had the opportunity to study Peter Paul Rubens and other Netherlandish masters. Thirty-five pen-and-wash drawings survive from his time spent in Italy. These were originally the property of his colleague, Nicodemus Tessin.
Sylvius travelled to England in the 1670s, wherein he assisted
Antonio Verrio
Antonio Verrio (c. 1636 – 15 June 1707) was an Italian painter. He was responsible for introducing Baroque mural painting into England and served the Crown over a thirty-year period.British Art Journal, Volume X No. 3, Winter/Spring 2009/10
...
with the decoration of Windsor Castle. En route to England, he possibly stepped in Paris, where he might have studied Charles Le Brun.
During his stay in England, he was praised by
Peter Lely
Sir Peter Lely (14 September 1618 – 7 December 1680) was a painter of Dutch origin whose career was nearly all spent in England, where he became the dominant portrait painter to the court.
Life
Lely was born Pieter van der Faes to Dutch ...
for his skill as a portrait painter. His most notable surviving works are the vast allegorical and mythological paintings (dating from 1685 to 1695) wherewith he decorated Drottningholm Castle.ilvius Johan-Fulton"> He also decorated Slottskyrkan in
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
in the same period.
In the
National Museum in Stockholm
Nationalmuseum (or National Museum of Fine Arts) is the national gallery of Sweden, located on the peninsula Blasieholmen in central Stockholm.
The museum's operations stretches far beyond the borders of Blasieholmen, the nationalmuseum manage ...
, there exist a number of studies of his works.Johan Sylvius in Konstnärslexikonett Amanda. /ref> In Rome, Sylvius painted an oil painting of unknown date depicting Minerva, the
Roman goddess
Roman mythology is the body of myths of ancient Rome as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans. One of a wide variety of genres of Roman folklore, ''Roman mythology'' may also refer to the modern study of these representat ...
of wisdom and strategic warfare. This oil painting measures 164 cm x 122 cm.
In Rome, Johan Sylvius also drew a pen and wash drawing on paper in gray and black, executed with pencil and brown ink, called ''Gravmonument över Ferdinand van den Eynde'', or 'Tomb monument over Ferdinand van den Eynde,' after François Duquesnoy's original in the church of Santa Maria dell'Anima in Rome. The latter drawing measures 38.2 x 23 cm.