II. - Schloss Schwetzingen

II.
Fig. 15: Temple of Mercury,
southwestern part of the palace
gardens, Nicolas de Pigage,
begun 1784 (photo: Förderer).
32
II. Schwetzingen – A Prince Elector’s Eighteenth-Century Summer Residence
In Mariology, Mary is described as the “domus
sapientiae” 30 which Christ, divine wisdom
incarnate, chose to dwell in. Wisdom has a
special place among the “seven gifts of the
Spirit”. In the 17th and 18th centuries divine
wisdom was usually not depicted as Christ,
but as a richly dressed and crowned woman
with a halo. 31 The temple of wisdom is therefore
a temple of Mary. This also explains why
the altars are not placed in front of the temple
as they were in antiquity, but inside it. Like
the bulls’ heads, sacrifi cial daggers and bowls,
they allude to the death of Christ.
Pigage’s Temple of Minerva is a Masonic
“Temple de la sagesse et de la vertu”. It is a
sophisticated piece of garden architecture,
surrounded not by a landscape garden, like
its English models, but by a French formal
garden. The Schwetzingen temple marks the
beginning of a new development, and may
be considered the earliest surviving example
in a European Continental garden. Among its
unusual features is the basement, laid out to
resemble a room hewn in rock. It may have
30 Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie, Freiburg 1968, vol. 4, p.
40.
31 See also: Paul von Naredi-Rainer, Salomos Tempel und das
Abendland. Monumentale Folgen historischer Irrtümer, Köln
1994, pp. 103 ff.
served for Lodge meetings, but its uses are not
known.
The ‘Fabriques’ in the Landscape Garden
Beyond the signifi cance of individual
picturesque buildings, the function of the
“fabriques” as a whole should be pointed out.
The bathhouse, the Temple of Botany, the
Roman water tower, the Temple of Apollo, the
Temple of Mercury and the mosque are connected,
despite their individual uniqueness.
Formally, the connection is the watercourse.
In the sequence given they also represent the
course of the day and the cycle of life, death
and rebirth, in analogy to the 18th-century
Masonic rites of initiation symbolizing the
candidate’s death and rebirth.
The Temple of Botany represents morning
and birth, embodied by the female element
of sowing, planting, cultivating. The so-called
Roman water tower recalls the Porta Nova and
thus symbolizes rebirth into a new life. The
bathhouse, too, celebrates morning and sunrise
in the fresco of its ceiling. The bathhouse
and the “water-spouting birds” are places of
leisure; the bodily pleasures are very much a
part of it, although the raw animal urges have
been refi ned into sophisticated desire. It is
safe to assume that the 18th-century visitor
was quite aware of the meaning hinted at by
the birds, the shells, the amethysts and the
shape of the whole structure, all alluding to
erotic adventures and the shape of the female
sexual organs. At the same time the bath is
reminiscent both of birth and of ritual cleansings.
Here, too, the mastering of the physical
urges is an issue.
The Temple of Apollo symbolizes masculinity,
life, midday. The plaques depicting the sun
refer both to the sun god and to the sun king.
The rayed sun is one of the most common
symbols of 18th-century Freemasonry. The
Schwetzingen Temple of Apollo recalls the
Temple of Solomon of contemporary Masonic
imagery, and the sun is depicted on the apron
of the Masonic Grand Master as well.