II. - Schloss Schwetzingen

the edge, spitting water down into the basin.
The whole thing illustrates a fable by the
ancient poet, Aesop – the evil eagle-owl has
killed a bird, and is consequently screamed
and spat at by the good birds. Originally the
birds were made of sheet iron and painted in
their natural colours. In 1995, copies made
of sheet copper were installed. An inventory
dated 1926 gives exact numbers: 1 eagle-owl
and pheasant, 12 large birds, 8 mediumsized
birds, 12 small birds. Today 20 of the
original 32 birds are left; the twelve small
birds – that were not connected to the water
system – have been stolen. The birds are very
natural-looking, some with wings spread.
Some can even be identifi ed: there is a turkey,
a cockatoo, a capercaillie, a goose, a hoopoe, a
Great Bustard, a hen and a rooster. The natural
impression was heightened by the four
aviaries originally installed on the diagonals
of the open space; the birds enlivened the
scene with their twittering. On the transverse
axis are two small buildings known from their
décor as the agate cabinets. One charming
aspect of the fountain is that the visitor can
walk all round the central basin beneath the
jets of water. Instead of the usual fountain
hurling water into the air, which then returns
to earth in an arch, the water jets converge
on the basin. The inspiration for the waterspouting
birds was, once again, Versailles. The
labyrinth there featured 39 fables of this type,
made widely known by copperplate illustrations,
among them a scene resembling the one
at Schwetzingen. However, the installations
at Versailles were dismantled very soon while
the Schwetzingen fountain survives.
Most guide books state that the birds, like
many of the garden’s more remarkable sculptures,
were brought from Lunéville. There is
another possibility. Kurt Martin believed them
to be from the gardens of the Lorraine palace
of La Malgrange, quoting a French garden
guide book of 1818: “C’est à la Malgrange
que Stanislas avoit placé cette scène”. 24 In a
plan of La Malgrange Emmanuel Héré writes,
24 Kurt Martin, Die Kunstdenkmäler des Amtsbezirks Mannheim.
Stadt Schwetzingen, Karlsruhe 1933, p. 266.
II. Schwetzingen – A Prince Elector’s Eighteenth-Century Summer Residence
under Caption No. 35: “Bassin de Rocaille avec
un grand nombre d’Oiseaux remplissant un
demi dôme de treillage, jettant de l’Eau en
abondance sur un Hibou.” 25 A semicircular
“berceau en treillage” with a central half-dome
surrounds and surmounts a circular tuff
basin. The birds were probably perched on
the latticework of the half-dome, with the
25 Julia Rau-Gräfi n von der Schulenburg, Emmanuel Héré.
Premier Architect von Stanislas Leszczynski in Lothringen
(1705-1763), Berlin 1973.
II.
Fig. 9: Bathroom in the bathhouse
(photo: LAD Esslingen,
2006).
Fig. 10: Chiswick House
(England, near London), c.1725
(photo: postcard).
43