II. - Schloss Schwetzingen

IV.
182
Friedrich Ludwig Sckell
(1750-1823)
IV. Biographies
That same year, the court architect, Nicolas de
Pigage, had taken over as director of garden
architecture as well. With these appointments,
the groundwork for garden design and
maintenance of the highest order was laid.
It was in these surroundings that young Sckell
grew up, received a good education and came
to be familiar with Pigage’s French garden style,
in its late Baroque diversity and opulence.
In 1770, he continued his training in Bruchsal
and Zweibrücken; in 1771/72, he was in Paris,
studying gardening theory and practice at
Versailles and the Tuileries. Afterwards, he
went to England for three years to study the
new, and back home still largely unknown, art
of landscape gardening.
Back in Schwetzingen, Friedrich Ludwig
Sckell was commissioned by his patron,
Elector Carl Theodor, to create a landscaped
garden in the grounds from 1777. It drew
much praise when fi nished. More commissions
followed, some outside the Palatinate.
From 1789, Sckell was largely responsible for
the design of the English Garden at Munich.
In Schwetzingen he succeeded his father as
court gardener in 1792; from 1796 he was
Pigage’s successor as director of building and
gardening, and in 1799, the Bavarian Elector
Max IV Joseph made him Gartenbaudirektor
(director of gardening) for the Palatinate as
well as Bavaria.
In 1804, Sckell left Schwetzingen to take the
newly created position of court garden supervisor
at Munich. He converted the Baroque
park of Nymphenburg Palace into a landscape
garden and determined the fi nal look of the
English Garden. He also played a large part in
the town-planning for Munich.
In order to honour his outstanding achievements
as a garden artist, King Maximilian I
Joseph of Bavaria awarded him the Bavarian
crown’s Order of Merit in 1808, and the nonhereditary
title that went with it. Friedrich
Ludwig von Sckell died on 24th February
1823 in Munich. The enduring legacy of this
leading German garden artist of his time, is
the propagation of the English-style landscape
garden in southern Germany, and its further
development to a classical maturity in the
fi rst quarter of the 19th century. His manifold
professional experiences were left to posterity
in a handbook, Beiträge zur bildenden
Gartenkunst für angehende Gartenkünstler
und Gartenliebhaber, two editions of which
appeared in 1818 and 1825 at Munich.
(Hubert Wolfgang Wertz)
Matthias (Mattheus) van den Branden
(aktiv zwischen 1755 und 1788)
Little is known about the childhood of Matthias
van den Branden. He probably trained with
his stepfather, the court sculptor Christian
Litz. Following a stay at Vienna, Matthias van
den Branden was appointed court sculptor by
Elector Carl Philipp (1661/1716-1742), at the
age of 24. 64
He made the altar of the church of St. Michael
at Mannheim, as well as the decorative
carvings on the bookcases of the large palace
library (1756) and the library cabinet of
Electress Elisabeth Augusta. 65
64 Otto Knaus, Künstler am Hofe Carl Theodors, Schwetzingen
1963, pp. 93 ff.
65 Ludwig W. Böhm, Das Mannheimer Schloss, Karlsruhe 1994,
p. 13. Cp. Wiltrud Heber, Die Arbeiten des Nicolas des Pigage
in den ehemals kurpfälzischen Residenzen Mannheim und
Schwetzingen, vol I, Worms 1986, p. 126.