The portrait genre has been one of the most significant in royal and aristocratic homes since the Renaissance. This thesis concerns the portrait collection in the Baroque castle Skokloster, built by the successful count and field marshal Carl Gustaf Wrangel in the 1600s with its unique architecture. The castle houses a significant collection of portrait paintings, some of which date back to the time of its construction, and which constitute a majority of the total number of artworks in the collection. The Swedish noble family, as part of Early Modern court culture, saw their creation of an art collection as vital for fashioning a sense of lineage, respectability, and exercise of power. The thesis asks questions like how the portraits can be understood in relation to the architecture and decorum of the rooms, and how the Swedish Baroque culture and aesthetics are staged in the portraits in relation to court culture and the art collection as a whole. The portrait as a medium is a way for us to remember a deceased historical person but at the same time a way for the sitter to idealize and flatter themselves into an image they desire. Hence a portrait is a union between realism and ideal, documentation and fiction. The portrait has a performative power and acts on behalf of the real person which it depicts. Furthermore, the portrait can give us glimpses of a bygone era of court culture, art patrons, artists, Baroque fashion, court ballets, and festivities.

Skokloster castle, Sweden, houses a group of more than fifty objects in serpentine stone, acquired during the 17th century. The group is generally called Wrangels fältservis [Wrangel’s field service], referring to field marshall Carl Gustaf Wrangel (1613-1676). The, in many aspects, unresearched material is here approached through the field of material culture studies. The thesis is based on a three-partite approach towards the material, in which the first is the result of actual handling and examination of the objects, paired with a comparative analysis of similar objects regarding dating and influences. The second is a theoretical study of form and serpentine matter, and why the serpentine objects share so many form elements with metal artifacts. The third is based on inventory research and aspects of value, both monetary and cultural. The ascribed value of the group varied over time, from being used as kitchen utensils in the 17th and 18th century, to be regarded as private museum pieces in the 19th and 20th century. The various attitudes have left marks on the objects, both physical (as in level of attention given to repairs etc.) and in inventory matter (as in location and descriptive detail), which can be studied and reveal information otherwise unaccessible.