Johan Niklas Byström och Bengt Erland Fogelberg : samtidiga svenska skulptörer i rom

Abstract

Summary Johan Niklas Bystrom and Bengt Erland Fogelberg: Two Swedish Sculptors in Rome The present article concerns the Swedish sculptors Johan Niklas Bystrom and Bengt Erland Fogelberg, both of whom worked in Rome during the first half of the 19th century: Bystrom from 1810 to 1848 and Fogelberg from 1821 to 1854. Research in art history has characterized the relationship between the two sculptors as marked by conflict, both on the artistic level and, above all, on the personal level. In this essay I have shown that while this may have been the case in the initial stages of their acquaintance, any conflict between the two of them eventually dissapated. Instead, Bystrom and Fogelberg helped one another in different ways. The conflict which indeed existed had its basis in competition over important commissions, certain personal antagonisms, and artistic differences in an age characterized by the choice between Classicism and Romanticism. Furthermore, it is interesting to note that both sculptors took on th...