Three Wedded Couples : The Purpose and Function of Swedish Pendant Portraits ca 1590–1620

Pendant portraits are a gateway into early modern material and visual culture, specifically marital virtues and genealogical values. This paper will examine the functions of Swedish marital pendant portraits from the late 16th and the early 17th century. These portraits were usually commissioned to commemorate a certain stage in married life such as the marriage, the birth of an heir or the inheritance of a title, thus being used for its mnemonic function. Furthermore, the portraits symbolize marital conjunctions and family alignments. Research on pendant portraits has been scarce, even more so regarding Swedish ones from this period. This thesis will focus on six Swedish pendant portraits from 1590–1620, depicting noble husband and wives. The function of the portraits will be discussed in relation to the format and the ways of display, the notion of marriage and the importance of ancestry, the meaning of virtue, and the ideal images of the nobility. Using formal analysis as a descriptive tool, the models’ attire, attributes and gestures are illuminated. This also accentuates the formats’ impact of the portraits communication of meaning as well as how the pendants interact with each other visually, thematically and compositionally. The analysis of the pendant portraits will show how the Swedish nobility used them as a way to manifest power, identity and pedigree. On a more general level, it will provide profound knowledge of the Swedish nobility’s usage of visual culture in the transitional period between the renaissance and the baroque. It can also be an important contribution to pendant history and the functions of pendants in general, not least in Sweden