Schwetzingen - Schlösser-Magazin

Antiquity is a trove of model motifs, forms
and typologies. But it is more: the image of
a landscape that played its part in Classical
history and culture emerges on the site of
Schwetzingen itself.
One of the earliest buildings in the
Schwetzingen gardens is the Apollo precinct,
facing in two directions, with a temple for
which planning began in 1762. 6 Entering
by the terraced substructure to the west,
the visitor ascends through an apparently
confused jumble of murky passages which
appear to have been hewn into the rock,
towards a platform bathed in light with an
idealized classical monopteros, the god of
Order and Reason. The round temple also
crowns the backcloth that can be seen further
east between the hedges of the natural theatre.
In this setting, Apollo appears as the god of
Arts, the chief Muse on the summit of Mount
Helicon, where Pegasus stamped his hoof to
create the Fountain of Hippocrene, whose
wondrous waters are passed on to humans by
the naiads and cascades of Schwetzingen.
The terraces crowned by the temple
presumably drew general inspiration from
the Late Republican Sanctuary of Fortuna
in Palestrina (Praeneste), which had been an
influence in the design of villa gardens in
and around Rome since the 16 th century. 7 In
Carl Theodor’s day, round temples with no
cella could not be studied directly in ancient
monuments. Vitruvius does, however, provide
a description of the monopteros, and in
Claude Perrault’s edition there is a detailed
commentary with a visual reconstruction in
the form of a temple to Apollo. 8 The base,
6 Heber 1986, pp. 485-503; Carl Ludwig Fuchs, Claus Reisinger:
Schloß und Garten zu Schwetzingen. Worms 2001, pp.
117-127; Ralf Wagner: Arkadien auch in Schwetzingen? In:
Silke Leopold, Bärbel Pelker (eds.): Hofoper in Schwetzingen.
Musik, Bühnenkunst, Architektur. Heidelberg 2004, pp. 39-54;
Ralf Wagner: Das Badhaus des Kurfürsten Carl Theodor von
der Pfalz in der Sommerresidenz Schwetzingen, Phil. Diss.,
Heidelberg 2006, pp. 68-87.
7 Jörg Gamer: Schloß und Park der kurpfälzischen Sommerresidenz
Schwetzingen im 18. Jahrhundert, in: Kunstgeschichtliche
Gesellschaft zu Berlin. Sitzungsberichte, Neue Folge, vol. 19,
1970/71, pp. 11-17.
8 Vitruvius IV.8,1; Claude Perrault : Les dix livres d’architecture
de Vitruve. Paris 2 1684, pp. 139-144; on the monopteros cf.
Ingrid Weibezahn: Geschichte und Funktion des Monopteros.
Untersuchungen zu einem Gebäudetyp des Spätbarock und des
Klassizismus. Hildesheim 1975.
IV. Palace Gardens: Role and Significance
which has four sections each with three
columns, follows instead Andrea Palladio’s
illustration for Daniele Barbaro’s edition
of Vitruvius. 9 In modern architecture, the
monopteros has been taken as evidence of a
Vitruvian training. 10 One well-known example
of a monopteros in a garden is the rotunda
built around 1720 by John Vanbrugh for the
park at Stowe. 11 With its prominent position
on the artificial rock, the round temple at
Schwetzingen could also have been prompted
9 Daniele Barbaro: I dieci libri dell’architettura di M. Vitruvio.
Venice 1556, IV.8,1; Weibezahn 1975, p. 9.
10 Hans Christoph Dittscheid: Vitruvs Wiedergeburt inmitten
der Natur. Zur Rolle der Architektur in Sckells Konzept des
Landschaftsgartens, in: Die Gartenkunst. vol. 14, 2002, pp.
311-325.
11 Weibezahn 1975, Kat.-Nr. 24.
IV.
Fig. 2: Four allegorical
urns – The Ages of the World,
palace terrace, Peter Anton von
Verschaffelt, 1762-1765 (Photo:
Förderer).
Fig. 3: Fountain group,
“Arion and the dolphin”, central
basin of the circular parterre.
Ascribed to Barthélemy Guibal,
acquired for Schwetzingen
c.1766-1768 in Lunéville
(Lorraine) from the estate of
Stanisław Leszczyński (Photo:
Scholl).
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