Material worlds explores the patronage and collecting of Queen Hedwig
Eleonora of Sweden (1636–1715). The book principally focuses on three of her areas of
interest, grouped as metaphorical material worlds: pictures, wonders and knowledge.

It looks at Hedwig Eleonora’s patronage of portraitists, miniaturists, ivory sculptors, hardstone
carvers, jewellers and goldsmiths, as well as ideas on natural resources, rarities and scholarship,
which all were of great significance to the visual display and political culture created around the
Swedish royal court. Furthermore, the study of her collections brings to light the influence of her
international connections, including agents of exclusive commodities and scholars, as well as the
great importance of her continental family network, the most notable are the courts at Gottorf
and Dresden, whose patronage patterns are mirrored in the symbolic environments created by
Hedwig Eleonora.

This book contributes to the body of scholarship on early modern patronage and collecting by
looking at how Hedwig Eleonora through these material worlds established a significant arena
of cultural and political power, which was to last more than half a century, and although acting
in Sweden, it mirrored very much the taste and activities of the continent.