The Vasa is decorated with 700 sculptures and ornaments. The exhibition "Imagery of Power" relates what these sculptures symbolize.

The first sculpture to be retrieved from the Vasa during salvaging was a roaring lion. He now sits on the ship together with 500 other lions, emperors and gods, mermaids and heroes, angels and devils. The exhibition Images of Power lets these sculptures speak.

By employing such images on the ship, the king wished to portray an ever stronger image to the world. The full repertoire of Renaissance symbolism was at his service. The sculptors drew on classical mythology and history, the Bible, and a fantasized Swedish antiquity.