Proefschrift--Letteren--Katholieke universiteit Nijmegen, 1994. / Résumé en anglais.

This thesis concerns six Swedish history paintings from 1864 until 1897 with motifs depicting the Swedish renaissance. The purpose of the thesis is to examine the influence of 19th century fashion on the depiction of garments from the renaissance, and what this portrayal deflects concerning the artists contemporary vision of fashion and bodily ideals in the 16th century. Using a checklist method to approach the artworks the thesis examines how and to what extent the artists used visual culture from the 16th century in their visualization of the era and wether or not this portrayal is affected by the artists contemporary fashions. Interwined with the method is the theoretical framwork of the thesis, based upon the notion of fashion in art as a fabricated construct and history usage. The thesis presents the idea that the history painting depicting events spanning between a period of 70 years still uses a similar fashion in the works, even considering the time frame of different styles. The idea of gender coded garments and body siluetts during the 19th century heavily affects the fashion in the paintings, as well as the artist’s contemporary attitudes towards representations of sexuality and bodily beauty.