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| anonymous copy after David Beck Portrait of Christina, Queen of Sweden ca. 1650 oil on canvas Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Justus van Egmont Portrait of Queen Christina as Minerva before 1674 oil on canvas Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
"Christina's gender transgression is consciously evoked in her own memoirs. She describes there how Gustav Adolph [the king, her father] had decreed that she should receive a prince's education to prepare her for office. She continually evoked the idea that she had the spirit of a prince. She invited to her court the leading philosophers of the age, including René Descartes, Isak Voss, and Claude Saumaise, and engaged them in debate. She wore masculine attire. An observer at the court of Louis XIV records with astonishment her masculine demeanour, particularly her habit of swearing. She categorically refused marriage, declaring herself to have an aversion to sex and procreation. . . . Kari Elisabeth Barresen argues that the complex nature of Christina's gendered identity was influenced by a need to strengthen her authority through an emphasis on her masculine qualities. She notes the resemblance between depictions of Christina's lack of traditional feminine qualities and images of female saints in the early Church. Moreover, Christina wrote of women as inferior, thanked God for preserving her from feminine weakness, and stated that women should not be allowed to rule a kingdom. Barresen concludes: 'Christina's classical upbringing in androcentric theology, philosophy and anthropology resulted in her perfect internalization of female inferiority as normative for all other women than herself'."
– Charlotte Woodford, from Constructing Women's Love of Women: Sappho and Queen Christina of Sweden in the Letters and Work of the Viennese Poet Marie von Najmájer, published in Modern Language Review, July 2008
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| Rembrandt The Kitchen Maid 1651 oil on canvas Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Rembrandt St Peter 1632 oil on canvas Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Hendrick ter Brugghen Boy playing the lute (The Five Senses - Hearing) ca. 1620-30 oil on canvas Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Hendrick ter Brugghen Girl holding a glass and pitcher (The Five Senses - Taste) ca. 1620-30 oil on canvas Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Ferdinand Bol Woman playing the lute 1654 oil on canvas Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Ferdinand Bol Woman with pearls in her hair ca. 1653 oil on canvas Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Matthias Stom Young man reading by candlelight ca. 1630 oil on canvas Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Samuel van Hoogstraten Portrait of a young student before 1678 oil on canvas Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Domenico Fetti Classical Poet ca. 1620-21 oil on canvas Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Jacob Jordaens Old Satyr with flute before 1678 oil on panel Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Cornelis van der Meulen Portrait bust in niche of Ulrik, Prince of Sweden (deceased son of Charles XI) ca. 1685 oil on canvas Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Anonymous artist, in the manner of Caravaggio Head of a young man ca. 1610-50 oil on panel Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |