The Royal Danish CollectionAmalienborgThe PalaceInterior and objectsThe Throne ChamberAllegory of Africa

Allegory of Africa

The black woman and the lion symbolize Africa. Like America, she is naked in order to underline the age’s conception of her wild and uncivilised nature. Painting by Nicolai Abildgaard.

Relations

Allegory of America

America symbolized by a naked woman and a tapir.

Motif from Rome, 1951

Oil painting by Tyge Bendix from 1951, which represents the Janiculum in Rome with St Peter's in the background.

The Throne Chamber

The Throne Chamber was made for Prince Frederik, the half brother of Christian VII. When the Prince took up residence in the Palace and commissioned Abildgaard to furnish it, he had no political power.

Allegory of Asia

Asia is symbolized by a woman in a turban with a camel.

Painted flower decoration

The flower decoration below the ceiling in The Blue Cabinet was rediscovered during a study of the architectural history in 1983.

Dance Scene from Tahiti

Painted by Nicolai Abildgaard, who led the renovation of the palace after the royal assumption of it. An almost identical motif is to be found in the English explorer James Cook’s travel journal, “A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean” from 1768-71, which inspired Abildgaard to paint this dance scene. Motifs from the great voyages of discovery were a popular form of decoration at the end of the 18th Century.

Allegory of Europe

The woman with a bull symbolizes Europe.

Overdoors

Overdoors made during Nicolai Abildgaard’s furnishing of the place around 1800. They underline the room’s classical symmetry and feature motifs from antiquity.