I have written recently on Rococo in far flung Eastern
Europe and on the great Rococo collections in England. The dynamic architectural
heart of Rococo remains, in my mind, in Germany and I wish briefly to
celebrate five more great sites.
Rococo is most associated with south Germany and it therefore comes as a pleasant
surprise to encounter St Paulin, Trier, just over the border from the
Belgian Ardennes. Trier (Trèves in French) is an
historic town on the Moselle, once capital of
Roman Gaul. There are many Roman remains there including the 2nd
century Porta Nigra (the ancient town gate) and Constantine’s Basilica, a
rather austere large church, now a Protestant cathedral. St Paulin is the third
church on the site originally dedicated to hold the relics of the late Roman
saint St Paulinus. The present building was completed in 1753 and its interior
was designed by the eminent Rococo architect Balthazar Neumann, master-mind of
the Bishop’s Residenz at Wurzburg.
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| Altar, St Paulin, Trier |
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| Painted Ceiling at St Paulin |
St Paulin is a lovely place, baroque and high-steepled
without, while inside bursting with Rococo exuberance and joy, much enhanced by
the astonishing, swirling Resurrection ceiling painting by Christoph Thomas
Schieffler.
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Frederick II of Prussia (1712-86), Frederick the
Great and a military genius, was by nature rather reclusive and laconic but he
was a disciple of Rationalism and befriended Voltaire. To relax from the
pressures of office in 1745 he commissioned the building in the Rococo style of
a modest 10-roomed palace at Potsdam, just
outside Berlin,
known as Sans Souci Palace (“Carefree”). Frederick’s fancy was to
have a summer house where he could cultivate vines, plums and figs in
tranquillity. He employed the trusted Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff as his
architect, with whom he quarrelled and the building was finished by Jan Boumann
in 1747.
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| Interior at Sans Souci |
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| Sans Souci Palace, Potsdam |
The original palace is rather low in the ground as Frederick insisted and
does not follow the plans or afford the views his architect would have
preferred. Yet it is a delightful building inside and outside and was Frederick’s favourite
residence. His successors extended the palace substantially in different styles
and it became the centre of a busy royal court until 1918. At heart however it
remains a modest Rococo treasure.
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Inevitably we are drawn south to the core of Rococo Germany.
Our next stop is in Baden-Württemberg in the little country village of Steinhausen. Here
the great architect and stuccoist Dominikus Zimmerman, with his brother Johann,
designed in 1728 the lovely Church of St Peter and St Paul,
Steinhausen reputedly “The most beautiful Village Church
in the World”
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| Steinhausen Church |
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| Steinhausen Ceiling by Johann Zimmermann |
We have already come across Dominikus Zimmermann as the
guiding spirit of the fabulous pilgrimage churches of Ottobueren and Die Wies. Again
the effect here is intensified by a wonderful ceiling, an apotheosis of
blissful saints and angels. Ottobueren and Die Wies are in rural situations and
Steinhausen is too; Rococo, which one might imagine to be a sophisticated urban
taste, was also embraced by country folk whose religious devotion was
stimulated by this emotionally irresistible artistic style.
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More great Rococo masters now again show us their
brilliance; The Asam brothers, who we have already seen at Weltenberg Abbey and
at St John Nepomuk, Munich, reappear at the Monastery Church
of the Assumption, Rohr, Bavaria. Not all the church is in
the Rococo style but the amazing altar, depicting the Assumption of the Virgin
defying the laws of gravity with entranced attendants, is an iconic Rococo
image.
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| Asams' Altar at Rohr, Bavaria |
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Finally, on the recommendation of a good friend, I bring for
your delectation the unusual and idiosyncratic Abbey Church at Irsee, Ostallgäu, Bavaria,
near Kaufbeuren. The baroque church has lavish Rococo decoration and is
associated with Meinrad Spiess, the cleric and friend of Bach. There is a
spectacular altar but most famously it boasts an elaborate pulpit shaped like a
ship. This derives from the “navigatio vitae”, the medieval notion that life
can be likened to a tempestuous sea voyage in a fragile boat with its desperate
struggle to reach a safe haven.
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| Pulpit at Irsee, Bavaria |
This astonishing pulpit typifies the adventurous artistic
spirit of Rococo, its disarming charm and its philosophical gravity. The
Rococo, like all styles, in due course went out of fashion and was derided by
its successors. Yet what a legacy of Beauty and Joy it has bequeathed to us!
SMD
5.01.13
Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2013
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