II. - Schloss Schwetzingen

II.
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II. Schwetzingen – A Prince Elector’s Eighteenth-Century Summer Residence
with hornbeam hedges and decorated with four
sandstone busts. 13 In order to provide a point
de vue from the theatre, Pigage built a small pavilion
which served as a transition to the former
menagerie (today, the arboretum). The pavilion
is lined entirely with delftware tiles and
could be used as a summer dining room – the
bathhouse kitchen is right next to it. The bathhouse
is raised slightly above the lawn in the
manner of a belvedere, and reached by a short
fl ight of steps. Originally there was an iron gate
here separating the public grounds from the
Elector’s private garden. Pigage designed a plaque
with the Elector’s monogram “CT” and the
symbols of his rank, the electoral hat and ermine
cloak, to surmount this front of the building.
One would expect to fi nd a door beneath,
but there is just one window in the central projection.
The same layout is repeated on the side
facing the Apollo canal. In this way Pigage indicates
that the building is a ruler’s house but nevertheless,
a private area.
The main approach is from the west and the
Temple of Apollo. This is the only approach
that could be used by coaches. However, the
monumental gate framed by rusticated blocks,
at fi rst only leads into the dark basement of the
temple. From there the visitor can pick his way
to the rocky stairs leading to the bathhouse.
The stairs divide just above the wild boar grotto;
the ends were originally closed off with iron
gates. The visitor had to be a personal guest of
Carl Theodor to proceed further.
Access to the bathhouse is via a semicircular
portico. Pigage designed this as an “intrada”
with two Tuscan columns. It is based on
antique thermae architecture, which in 18thcentury
building was fi rst refl ected in English
interiors. The wall apses with statues in niches,
were brilliantly used by the English architect
Robert Adam in the fi rst half of the 18th century,
both with and without a set of columns in
front. 14 His models were drawings by Andrea
Palladio of the Baths of Diocletian in Rome. In
13 The busts are sandstone copies by the sculptor Franz Conrad
Linck after casts from the Chamber of Antiques at Mannheim.
14 For example at Kedleston Hall, Syon Park, Osterley Park and
Kenwood.
France elements of thermae architecture were
used on the exteriors of buildings.
Thus, in 1770, the architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux
created an entrance with an open semicircular
portico for the house of the dancer, Marie-
Madeleine Guimard on the Chaussée d’Antin in
Paris. Expert literature has consequently identifi
ed Ledoux as the spiritus rector, who fi rst
transferred an element of interior decoration
to the outside of a building. However, Palatine
building director Nicolas de Pigage did the
same in 1768/69, when building the Schwetzingen
bathhouse, creating an ideal entrance in
the spirit of Classicism before his more famous
colleague did.
The intrada motif appears on the northern and
southern fronts. In the middle of the concave
wall is a door, which can be shuttered by slatted
doors. Flanking each door are two niches
surmounted by shell motifs in stucco. In keeping
with recent fi ndings, the walls are painted
a pale yellow with a pattern of drops. On either
side of the intrada are fake doors surmounted
by sopraportas depicting water nymphs.
The niches of the southern intrada contain a reworked
plaster statue of a faun accompanied
by a goat kid 15 and a Cupid by the court sculptor,
Peter Anton von Verschaffelt. 16 The northern
portico has reworked plaster casts modeled
on the Apollino Tribuna 17 and Idolino. 18
Both porticoes are deliberately simple in appearance;
early Classicist doctrine held that the in-
15 The statue of the satyr accompanied by a small goat, is fi rst
mentioned in 1676; it was discovered near the church of S.
Maria Vallicella in Rome. It is an imperial-era marble copy of a
Greek bronze dating from the 2nd half of the 3rd century BC. In
1724 it came into the possession of the Spanish King, Philipp V.
He had it put up in his summer palace of San Ildefonso; hence
the name, “Ildefonso Faun”. In 1839, the statue was taken to the
Prado in Madrid, where it is still on view.
16 The casts were modeled on pieces from the Mannheim
Chamber of Antiques. Another cast of the “Ildefonso Faun” at
Mannheim was bought by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe for
his house in Weimar, and still adorns the staircase there.
17 The marble statue of Apollino was excavated c.1500 in Rome,
and in 1684 came into the possession of the Medici family. It
is a Roman marble copy, below life-size (hence the diminutive,
‚Apollino’), after a larger-than-life original by the sculptor
Praxiteles or his school. It is on display in the tribuna of the
Uffi zi in Florence, hence the name, “Apollino Tribuna”.
18 The bronze original of the Idolino is a Roman copy, dating
from the 1st century BC, of a Greek sculpture of the High
Classical era associated with the sculptor Polyklet. The
statue, discovered in 1530 near Pesaro, belonged to the Duke
of Urbino. It has been part of the Medici collection since
1630. At fi rst it was displayed in the Uffi zi; today it is in the
Archaeological Museum in Florence.