Schwetzingen - Schlösser-Magazin

to Lunéville from Einville Castle. 25 Pigage
no doubt knew of it, and recreated it for
Schwetzingen. It was liked so much that after
his stay at Schwetzingen in 1782, Emperor
Joseph II asked Pigage to send him the plans
so he could have one built for himself at
Schönbrunn near Vienna – a plan, however,
that was not realized.
Summary
Looking at the layout of the bathhouse and
its garden along its longitudinal axis, it is
evident that Nicolas de Pigage worked with
the interplay of light and shade as one would
with spotlights on a stage. An imaginary
visitor would start out in full sunlight (weather
permitting) from the little open space near the
wild boar grotto. Before him the overgrown
and shady “berceau en treillage” opens,
widening towards the bathhouse. The ground
rises almost imperceptibly, and the shade
blurs the distance, which is really too small
to allow for a proper respectful approach.
The building itself is in full sunlight again.
On entering the bathhouse and looking back,
the visitor is faced with an effect like that of
a fourth-wall stage with a naturally lighted
background – here, the wild boar grotto,
designed as a point de vue by Pigage. When
the visitor enters the Oval Hall and looks out
the north door, his gaze is directed slightly
downwards by another shady, trumpet-shaped
“berceau en treillage” – which again blurs
the actual distance – towards the bright open
area of the water-spouting birds. Behind that
there is another berceau, another open space
and yet another, longer berceau terminating
in the sunlit diorama which thus appears
to be much further away than it actually is.
Pigage has used the contrast of light and
shade in a manner worthy of the theatre stage,
creating a setting the depth of which cannot
be guessed. His contemporaries appear to
have been deeply impressed by this subtle
manipulation of the senses. In fact, the axes
created in this way – from the wild boar grotto
25 The author does not know whether or not the painting
survived a recent fire in Lunéville.
III. Architectural Features
to the bathhouse, and from the bathhouse to
the Diorama – are reminiscent of the main
axes of the palace and garden that really do
lead off into the distance, terminated by the
far-off hills of Königstuhl and Kalmit. Both are
important landmarks within the Palatinate.
The Baroque system of axes/avenues leading
up to a precisely calculated point, has its origin
in the Absolutist self-image of the ruler. The
Schwetzingen bathhouse, however, adds a
playful and charming variant.
(Ralf Richard Wagner)
III.
Fig. 13: Versailles, the so-called
maze (destroyed): waterspouting
birds (From: S. Pincas,
Versailles, Paris 1995, p. 182).
Fig. 14: View towards the
diorama (Photo: Förderer).
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