Schwetzingen - Schlösser-Magazin

with the colossal stags spouting water by
Verschaffelt marks the transition to the next
section of the axis. The fountain features
had originally been bigger. 40 There was a
reflecting pool behind it, but in 1803 this was
filled in. 41 Today’s lawn parterre traces the
contours of that pool. The figures that once
surrounded it depict the four elements. The
main axis continues along a long, lower-lying
tapis vert, with the main path running along
the sides, flanked by lime trees. Along the
edges of the lawn there are pedestals with
golden balls, another allusion to the Golden
Age. The axis now ends at the lake, which was
originally a rectangular basin terminating
the garden. Only in 1823 were the basin
walls replaced by a natural embankment. 42
The colossal figures of Rhine and Danube
that stand in the lake today were once on the
basin walls. They symbolize the biggest rivers
within Carl Theodor’s realm. They were to be
complemented on the other side of the lake
by Moselle and Meuse, but when the court
moved away to Munich this never happened.
In this way, the mythological programme of
the Schwetzingen gardens – the Golden Age –
is placed within the sphere of Carl Theodor’s
governance and his political intentions.
The thematic rationale of the Schwetzingen
gardens – the Golden Age with its everlasting
spring and summer – is the common thread
that binds all the sections together. 43 Statues
of Spring and Summer stand on the western
transverse avenue of the orangery garden,
which runs from the lion steps to the gate
of the Arboretum. This is the path that a
visitor should take after crossing the northern
bosquet. The statues of Autumn and Winter
are opposite them in the eastern avenue.
In the cosmological cycles that constituted
the Baroque programme, it was a standard
feature to combine elements of Greek natural
40 Eva Hofmann: p. 227 f.
41 Kurt Martin: Die Kunstdenkmäler des Amtsbezirkes Mannheim.
Stadt Schwetzingen. Karlsruhe 1933, p. 180.
42 Kurt Martin: p. 188.
43 Ovid: Metamorphosen. München 1994, p. 11: “Eternal spring
reigned, and gentle west winds stroked flowers that sprouted
unsown with their soft airs. Soon unploughed earth bore
wheat.”
IV. Palace Gardens: Role and Significance
philosophy in sets of the ideal number four. 44
The natural theatre 45 in the northern
bosquet with its architecture and decorative
sculpture constitutes a great homage to the
theatrical arts. The auditorium is furnished
with six sphinxes. 46 Verschaffelt characterizes
them himself as “… répresentant la musique, la
danse, la comédie, la tragédie et les deux autres
comme on les représente ordinairement”. 47
The artist has not allocated clear-cut symbols
to the sphinxes that would tag them as a Muse
or an ordinary sphinx. Just two sphinxes have
attributes: one has her paw on a pile of books,
and the other has hers on the Elector’s hat,
which has a sceptre lying next to it. Sphinxes
have a range of meanings and functions,
amongst them as guardians of holy places but
also of wisdom. The wisdom consigned to
books, and the theatre, which is to be seen as
a moral, educational institution, are protected
by the Elector, symbolized here by his insignia.
The sphinxes also watch over the holy grove of
Apollo. One example of an Ancient connexion
between sphinxes and an Apollonian shrine is
44 “For the Ancients argued as follows. As it is in nature, so must
it be in art; but in many cases nature is fallen into four (…) There
are four continents, four elements, four essential qualities,
four winds, four states of the body, four dispositions of the
soul, and so forth...” (Anonymous Carthusian, 12 th century).
45 Heber 1986, p. 485 ff. Hofmann 1982, p. 234 ff.
46 There is a preliminary ink drawing by Verschaffelt in the
Reiß-Engelhorn-Museum in Mannheim, 28.9 cm by 17.9 cm,
Inv. no. LBW 1974/48. On a rectangular plinth, a sphinx to the
right sits erect. On her head she is wearing a scarf tied in a
knot over her chest. On the back of the sheet there is a sketch
of a memorial tomb. See the exhibition catalogue: Peter Anton
von Verschaffelt; op. cit., illustration on p. 62.
47 HStA München MF Fürstensachen 832 ⅓ of 27 June 1779.
IV.
Fig. 7: Two stag groups
terminating the circular
parterre to the west, Peter
Anton von Verschaffelt, 1766-69
(Photo: Scholl).
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