Objectivity and Aesthetics: The Problem of Stucco in Swedish Conservation, 1949–1969

Abstract

The Vasa castles are prominent exponents of the built Swedish national heritage that the Vasa kings constructed during their reigns in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. From 1949 to 1969, the exteriors of three of the Vasa castles—Uppsala, Örebro, and Gripsholm—were restored under the influence of theories of historical objectivity that had assumed a dominant position in Swedish historiography. These so-called objective historians opposed the nationalistic myths that had been a substantial part of conservative historiography, and led to a supposed neutral presentation of historical artifacts and a correspondent treatment of the process of restoration. The article addresses how the treatment of the exterior stucco of the three Vasa castles reflected this mode of historiography and the wider political context of postwar Sweden.