In Italy in 1528 the famous author Baldassare Castiglione published the book Il Cortegiano. In words Castiglione portraits the ideal courtiers and provides a lot of advice on how to achieve the ultimate courtier manner. For example he introduces and explains the words sprezzatura and grazia. His advice spread from Italy and influenced the courts around Europe.  My purpose with this study has been two folded. Firstly, I have analysed Castigliones Il Cortegiano in order to examine his vision of virtues and ideals. Castiglione’s advice on the perfect courtier is several and the book is quite extensive. In order to make his advice clear I have arranged these under five headings: noble birth, ideals of a gentleman, beautiful character, warlike virtues and book learning. Furthermore, I have analysed four portraits of Swedish rulers. The portraits are as follows: Johan Baptista van Uther’s portrait of Johan III produced in 1582, Matthaeus Merian’s picture of Gustav II Adolf from 1632, David Beck’s portrait of queen Kristina produced in 1650 and finally David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl’s portrait of the riding Karl XI from 1682. Finally, I have applied Castiglione’s advice on the portraits in order to study how well they conform.   The study has shown that many of the ideal and virtues emphasized by Castiglione are similar to many of those highlighted in the portraits. The idea of a beautiful soul in a controlled body seems to run like a thread through the selected portraits as well as in Castiglione’s advice on how to be an ideal courtier. In conclusion, many of the ideals stressed by Castiglione in sixteenth century Italy also inspired Swedish sovereigns. His advice also seems to have survived in the seventeenth century, if nonetheless in other forms.

This study examines four suits of armour that belonged to two Swedish kings, one protestant and one catholic, during the renaissance. The study tries to determine if it is possible to extract the religious identity of these kings based upon the decorations or other connotations of the suits of armour. Since the two kings, Erik the XIV:th and John the III, where half brothers and they succeeded each other, the suits of armour are closley matched in time and style.   The study also examines the grave effigy of one of the kings, John the III of Sweden, to examine if there is a connection between crossed legs on effigys and the perception of religion during the period.   The study is conducted through a archeological and historiological method and uses a combination theory of Smarts seven dimensions and the pictoral turn.   The main question of the study is: -          What does it take to track religious bias through armour? The subsequent questions are: -          Is it possible to find the religious identity in the suits of armour? -          Was the Gothicism movement a religious movement? -          The effigy of John the III was sculpted in a style popular in the eleventh century, created in the 16:th century and placed in the 18:th century. What conclusions can be drawn from this while also tracking the discourse of effigys in the same time expance.   The study concludes that if the identity of the owner of a suit of armour is known, the symbols that adorne the suit can be interpreted fairly well. It also conludes that the gothic movement in Sweden where an extremely aggressive catholic movement. Finally it concludes that the creation and placement of the tomb in Uppsala cathedral closely follows the different discourses about the meaning of crossed legs on effigys in Europe and that the makers most likely gave the position a devout religious connotation.