Lyhdynkantajat

Lyhdynkantajat (Finnish for "the lantern bearers") is a group of sculptures at the main entrance to the Helsinki Central Station in Helsinki, Finland. The sculptures were designed by Emil Wikström and completed in 1914. Lyhdynkantajat is part of the façade of the Art Nouveau station designed by Eliel Saarinen.^[1]

The sculptures consist of four male figures made of granite, bearing spherical lamps in their hands. The square-jawed figures have muscular chests, but the bottom parts of their bodies consist of columns decorated in a way typical to Saarinen. The men have haircuts typical of the Awakening movement. It is said that the peasant Jalmari Lehtinen, born in the late 19th century, posed as a model for the figures. Lehtinen, who had worked as a gardener in Wikström's Visavuori home studio, had served as the model for some of Wikström's earlier sculptures as well.^[1][2] The Visavuori art museum contains many competition sketches of the Lyhdynkantajat sculptures.^[3] The granite figures have probably been made at the Ab Granit Oy factory in Hanko, like the pedestal of the Elias Lönnrot monument.^[1] The actual sculpting was done by a sculptor named Talja and his son. The bear figures of the old Vyborg railway station in Vyborg, Russia were also made by the aforementioned men.^{[citation needed]}

The Lyhdynkantajat sculptures combine romantic nationalist granite Art Nouveau style with ancient art. Saarinen's first sketches of the sculptures feature bears, which had also been used at the old Vyborg railway station as well as the main stairway of the National Museum of Finland. However, Saarinen ended up ordering the four male figures designed by Wikström. The four giant stylised male figures have each been sculpted with the same gypsum model. The sculptures have been compared to massive stone sculptures found in Egyptian and Assyrian sculpture art. Wikström was interested in ancient sculpture art, and the figures were inspired by ancient herms, columns whose upper part was sculpted to resemble a human figure, originally that of the god Hermes. In Wikström's time, herms were also a popular phenomenon in the architecture of Vienna, Austria.^[4][2]

Emil Wikström, the designer of the Lyhdynkantajat sculptures, was one of the most important sculptors during the Golden Age of Finnish Art. As well as Lyhdynkantajat, he also designed other architectural sculptures, such as the bear sculpture of the main stairway of the National Museum and the bronze sculptures at the end triangle of the House of the Estates.^[1]