II. - Schloss Schwetzingen

Absolutism and Enlightenment
Elector Carl Theodor chose the so-called
bathhouse, a hermitage in the shape of a
summer house, to be his private refuge. The
linear development, and thus disciplining,
of the surrounding nature by the trellises
of the “water-spouting birds”, is in keeping
with Baroque tradition. The paysage sauvage
depicted by the diorama, on the other hand,
refl ects the longing for an earthly paradise,
an attitude more characteristic of the era of
Enlightenment. The same is exemplifi ed by
the sculptures of the “water-spouting birds”,
illustrating as they do an Aesop fable about
the Humanist ideals of solidarity and human
brotherhood.
The natural theatre, too, shows the infi ltration
of old structures by new ideals. The theatre
was built in 1766, along with its stage backcloth,
a “hill of the muses” surmounted by the
Temple of Apollo, here characterized as the
god of both the arts and the muses. Situated
in the immediate vicinity of the bathhouse,
which was used by Carl Theodor during his
stays at the summer residence from c.1776,
the theatre again suggests the Elector’s identifi
cation with the god, as well as his generous
patronage of the arts and, more generally, the
lively musical “scene” at the Palatine court.
In 1772, a terrace was added at the back of
the stage structure, another indication of
the Elector’s changing world view. Viewed
from here, the structure becomes a temple of
Reason, a sun temple, and Apollo takes on the
aspect of Helios, the sun god. By association,
Carl Theodor now appears as the radiant
fi gure of an enlightened ruler.
The building of the mosque heralds the
– belated – arrival of the Oriental fashion or
turquerie in the garden. The “architectural
view” towards the east in those years, was the
embodiment of a romantic need to project
hopes and desires onto the Orient. However,
this phenomenon also indicates a willingness
to distance oneself from one’s own culture,
to take a critical look through the eyes of
a stranger. The mosque is a statement of
II. Schwetzingen – A Prince Elector’s Eighteenth-Century Summer Residence
this attitude, and of the values of the Age of
Enlightenment it is based on.
The English Landscape Garden
Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell was the man
responsible for the introduction of the English
gardening style in Schwetzingen. The newly
redefi ned relationship between man and
nature took the shape of the “ideal disorder”
of a landscape garden, a utopia suggesting
the earthly paradise. 5 Of course nature is not
really given free rein; rather, it is exalted and
idealized – but the gardener’s arrangements
remain invisible. Critics of the movement
were quick to point out that the attempt to
5 Götz Pochat, Geschichte der Ästhetik und Kunsttheorie – von
der Antike bis zum 19. Jahrhundert, Köln 1986, pp. 376 ff.
II.
Fig. 3: “Partie sauvage”, view
towards the Temple of Mercury
(photo: Brähler).
Fig. 4: Roman water tower and
obelisk (photo: Förderer).
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