Vigeland Park Unwrapped!

Joined: 23 Mar 2004 Posts: 64

(I cut this from the July 16 posting so that it would be easy to navigate to for information about the park. If you read it in the journal entry, it is just a repeat here!)

Vigeland Park and Museum, a famous park set within Frogner Park, is located in Oslo. It hosts the most amazing collection of sculptures by Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943).

There are 192 sculptures with more than 600 figures featured in the park. Vigeland also designed the architectural setting and layout of the park grounds. The process of creating this park went on for forty years, evolving from the creation of a model of a fountain, which Vigeland presented to the City of Oslo in 1900. There were times of acceptance and moments of rejection as his ideas unfolded for the ongoing development of the park. Vigeland created models and statues throughout the rest of his life. The numerous works basically depict people at various stages of their lives, in five primary groupings.

The main entrance consists of five large and two small gates with two copper-roofed gatehouses. Each gatehouse features a gilt weather vane, one being a man and the other a woman, both stretched out horizontally, a testimonial to the depictions of life about to unfold as one walks throughout the park. The next main feature is the bridge. The granite sculptures portray humans and animals in various groupings, all of widely differing ages.

There is a long walkway towards the bridge, the second focal point of the park. The bridge widens to reveal a circular sculpture of bronze, a wheel that encloses a man and a woman, the circle symbolizing eternity. In a sculpture opposite this figure, a man is fighting to break out of what appears to be the imprisonment of this eternal ring. Go figure! The next series of figures alternate with dynamic energy and violent motion, portraying a vitality and zest for life.

The children’s playground is just below the bridge and boasts of eight bronze sculptures of small children at play. Beyond the bridge, the path leads through a beautiful rose garden to end at the fountain, which was the original feature in the park. The fountain features six giant men, of various ages, holding a large basin from which a curtain of water spills. With water being the universal symbol of fertility and life and the men struggling to endure life’s burdens. There are many trees intertwined throughout, representing man’s relationship with nature. They also hint at the Tree of Life, branching out and extending as the park extends through the various stages one must pass during their cycle of life.

The next section features a young woman dreamily leaning out from a tree and ends with a young man who seems to be lost in thought. Between them are three different love scenes. The next grouping shows life getting ever more complicated with expressions of loneliness, confusion, anguish, and anger apparent on the expressive faces of the figures. This leads to an area where elderly people are grouped with children to represent a new generation to continue the cycle of life. Finally, death is represented as a skeleton within the branches of the tree. Sixty bronze reliefs are on a parapet beneath this “tree of life” representing man’s relationship with nature. Men, women, children and the elders all interact in play and in conflict with the animals. The transition from death to new life is shown as the skeletons seem to sink down and are then carried away, completing the cycle and indicating that out of death new life will arise.

The ground around the fountain features black and white granite mosaics paving the path of a labyrinth that extends nearly two miles and symbolic of life’s journey, complete with its twist and turns, blind alleys, and passages. Most labyrinths have the same entrance and exit as their characteristic feature. This one does not. One enters and exits from two separate portals, indicating the journey spanned between birth and death. There are additional sculptures outside the main axis, with a secondary axis intersecting at the fountain.

Beyond the fountain is a path that leads to the highest point in the sculpture park. A monolith stands at this point and is guarded by eight wrought iron gates that outline human forms in amazing detail. Circular stairs lead up to the monolith. Around it are 36 groups of statues sculpted in granite. This too carries on the theme of the cycle of life, with the first statue at the top of the stairs representing a group of children. If one follows along in a clockwise direction it will lead to a group of lifeless bodies, marking the beginning and ending of life and featuring an array of typical human situations and relationships. In some, love and tranquility are apparent. In others there is obvious hatred and conflict. In one, two young boys tease a helpless and feeble individual while in others children play and young men and women embrace. The human relationships are emphasized and emotion pours out from these larger than life-sized forms.

The monolith is a column that consists of 121 figures and is carved out of a single block of stone. The figure extends from its plinth reaching 17.3 meters into the sky. The structure weighs 180 tons and was carved at its present site by three stone carvers who worked daily under Vigeland’s supervision from 1929 until 1943. It was completed just before Vigeland died. The monolith is completely covered with human figures in relief, starting with inert-looking bodies at the bottom and figures ascending in a spiral. At one point the movement seems to halt and then begins rising at a faster pace towards the summit, which is covered by small children. Vigeland once claimed that the movement of this monolith should be compared to a wave, rising and falling until it finally ebbs away! Some of the figures appear to be drifting while others seem to be struggling to keep from falling. Some are supporting others, mimicking life’s realities and the roles played out by varying circumstances.

Beyond the monolith plateau is a series of terraces that eventually lead to a sundial. It is mounted on a 12-sided granite pedestal and bears circular reliefs depicting signs of the zodiac. Finally, one arrives at the final sculpture, which is called the Wheel of Life. Here four adult figures and three children are linked together in a circle that surrounds a void. The way it has been crafted and mounted makes the group appear to be rotating, again emphasizing the cycle of life theme that is so prevalent throughout the park, and also illustrating the interdependence of human beings.