Memorials and Expressions of Mourning: Portraits of Dead Children in Seventeenth-Century Sweden

Abstract

Portraits of dead children tell us about the important role children played in seventeenth-century Swedish society and the corresponding emotional investment that families placed in their children. This chapter looks at such portraits for their evidence of parental and community emotion on the death of children. Reflecting their religious beliefs, portraits of deceased children became opportunities to refocus the attention of parents on the afterlife, an effect that gave meaning to their children’s short lives. Through memorials, these children continued to play an important role in their family stories, providing consolation to parents during a time that was expected to be sorrowful and full of grief, and standing as symbols of parental love and sacrifice.