Chinese House (Potsdam)
Encyclopedia
The Chinese House is a garden pavilion in Sanssouci Park
in Potsdam
. Frederick the Great
had it built, about seven hundred meters southwest of the Sanssouci
Summer Palace, to adorn his flower and vegetable garden. The garden architect was Johnn Gottfried Büring, who between 1755 and 1764 designed the pavilion in the then-popular style of Chinoiserie
, a mixture of ornamental rococo
elements and parts of Oriental architecture.
The unusually long building time of nine years is attributed to the Seven Years' War
, during which Prussia's economic and financial situation suffered significantly. Only after the end of the war in 1763 were the chambers inside the pavilion furnished. As the building served not only as a decorative piece of garden architecture but also as a setting for small social events, Frederick the Great ordered the building of a Chinese Kitchen, a few meters south-east of the Chinese House. After a conversion in 1789, only the hexagonal windows show the Oriental character of the former outbuilding. A few years later, the Dragon House
was built in the form of a Chinese pagoda
on the northern edge of Sanssouci Park bordering Klausberg. The building was Frederick the Great's attempt to follow the Chinese fashion of the 18th century, which began in France before spreading to England, Germany, and Russia.
, lacquer, silks and porcelain to Europe. In the noble courts of the baroque
era, an interest in Oriental arts grew during the rococo
period into Chinoiserie, a genuine fashion for all things Chinese. In addition to the enthusiasm for Asian luxury goods which harmonized with the certain forms of rococo, travelogues and exhibitions portrayed the carefree living of the Chinese, which corresponded with the European courts' ideal of a relaxed lifestyle. Whole rooms of palaces were decorated with porcelain, small Chinese-style furniture and wall murals which presented the ideal world that was supposedly China.
, France. This trefoil
-shaped building was created by the French architect Emmanuel Héré de Corny
for the Duke of Lorraine, Stanisław Leszczyński, former King of Poland, who lived in exile in France. An exemplar of one of the etchings of the Maison published by Héré in 1753 was in the possession of Frederick the Great.
The Chinese House has the shape of a trefoil. The rounded central building contains three cabinet rooms regularly interspersed with free spaces. Rounded windows and French windows that reach almost to the ground let light into the pavilion's interior. The rolling tented copper ceiling is supported in the free space by four gilded sandstone
columns, the work of the Swiss ornamental sculptor Johann Melchior Kambly
, who was in the employ of Frederick the Great from 1746.
The gilded sandstone sculptures that sit at the feet of the columns and stand at the walls of the rooms originate from the workshops of the sculptors Johann Gottlieb Heymüller and Johann Peter Benckert. People from the area stood as models for the eating, drinking and music-making Chinese figures, which explains the statues' European features.
The cupola
crowning the roof is surmounted by a gilded Chinese figure with an open parasol. Friedrich Jury created it in copper after a design by the sculptor Benjamin Giese. Light falls into the central chamber through the long oval window openings of the cupola as it does through the windows in the façade.
marble. Monkeys with musical instruments worked in stucco over the French windows, brackets holding porcelain and wall sconces between the windows are all coated with gold leaf. Likewise coated is a richly decorated chandelier which hangs from the cupola.
The ceiling painting on the higher circuit of the room is the work of Thomas Huber, dating from 1756. Huber also painted the ceilings of the empty chambers on the exterior surface. The plans of the French artist Blaise Nicholas Le Sueur
, who taught as an art master at the Berlin Academy of Arts, served as a model for the interior. The ceiling paintings show Oriental men behind a balustrade, some looking into the room, others chatting with one another. They are surrounded by parrots, monkeys and Buddhas
sitting on posts.
The walls between the central room and the adjoining chambers are decorated with brightly-coloured, silken wall coverings painted with floral patterns, at the time a desired and valuable wall textile known as "Pekings". As may be seen here, Frederick the Great preferred to use for the interiors of his buildings only the highest quality materials manufactured by Prussian silk factories. Small fragments of this wall covering were used as a model for the reconstruction of the original during a restoration of 1990–1993.
Sanssouci Park
Sanssouci Park is a large park surrounding Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam, Germany. Following the terracing of the vineyard and the completion of the palace, the surroundings were included in the structure. A baroque flower garden with lawns, flower beds, hedges and trees was created. In the hedge...
in Potsdam
Potsdam
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....
. Frederick the Great
Frederick II of Prussia
Frederick II was a King in Prussia and a King of Prussia from the Hohenzollern dynasty. In his role as a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, he was also Elector of Brandenburg. He was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel...
had it built, about seven hundred meters southwest of the Sanssouci
Sanssouci
Sanssouci is the name of the former summer palace of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, in Potsdam, near Berlin. It is often counted among the German rivals of Versailles. While Sanssouci is in the more intimate Rococo style and is far smaller than its French Baroque counterpart, it too is...
Summer Palace, to adorn his flower and vegetable garden. The garden architect was Johnn Gottfried Büring, who between 1755 and 1764 designed the pavilion in the then-popular style of Chinoiserie
Chinoiserie
Chinoiserie, a French term, signifying "Chinese-esque", and pronounced ) refers to a recurring theme in European artistic styles since the seventeenth century, which reflect Chinese artistic influences...
, a mixture of ornamental rococo
Rococo
Rococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...
elements and parts of Oriental architecture.
The unusually long building time of nine years is attributed to the Seven Years' War
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War was a global military war between 1756 and 1763, involving most of the great powers of the time and affecting Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines...
, during which Prussia's economic and financial situation suffered significantly. Only after the end of the war in 1763 were the chambers inside the pavilion furnished. As the building served not only as a decorative piece of garden architecture but also as a setting for small social events, Frederick the Great ordered the building of a Chinese Kitchen, a few meters south-east of the Chinese House. After a conversion in 1789, only the hexagonal windows show the Oriental character of the former outbuilding. A few years later, the Dragon House
Dragon House (Sanssouci)
Dragon House is a historical building in Potsdam, Germany, built by King Frederick the Great of Prussia on the southern slope of the Klausberg, which borders the northern edge of Sanssouci Park. It was constructed between 1770 and 1772 in the prevailing Chinoiserie taste of the time, designed to...
was built in the form of a Chinese pagoda
Pagoda
A pagoda is the general term in the English language for a tiered tower with multiple eaves common in Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and other parts of Asia. Some pagodas are used as Taoist houses of worship. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most commonly Buddhist,...
on the northern edge of Sanssouci Park bordering Klausberg. The building was Frederick the Great's attempt to follow the Chinese fashion of the 18th century, which began in France before spreading to England, Germany, and Russia.
Chinoiserie
In the 17th century, Dutch traders brought Chinese mother-of-pearlNacre
Nacre , also known as mother of pearl, is an organic-inorganic composite material produced by some mollusks as an inner shell layer; it is also what makes up pearls. It is very strong, resilient, and iridescent....
, lacquer, silks and porcelain to Europe. In the noble courts of the baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
era, an interest in Oriental arts grew during the rococo
Rococo
Rococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...
period into Chinoiserie, a genuine fashion for all things Chinese. In addition to the enthusiasm for Asian luxury goods which harmonized with the certain forms of rococo, travelogues and exhibitions portrayed the carefree living of the Chinese, which corresponded with the European courts' ideal of a relaxed lifestyle. Whole rooms of palaces were decorated with porcelain, small Chinese-style furniture and wall murals which presented the ideal world that was supposedly China.
Architecture
Frederick the Great modeled the Chinese House on the Maison du trefle, a 1738 garden pavilion in the palace grounds of LunévilleLunéville
Lunéville is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in France.It is a sub-prefecture of the department and lies on the Meurthe River.-History:...
, France. This trefoil
Trefoil
Trefoil is a graphic form composed of the outline of three overlapping rings used in architecture and Christian symbolism...
-shaped building was created by the French architect Emmanuel Héré de Corny
Emmanuel Héré de Corny
Emmanuel Héré de Corny , court architect to Stanisław Leszczyński, Duke of Lorraine and former King of Poland at his capital of Nancy, is famous for the harmonious suite of axial spaces he developed, extending from the Place Stanislas to the Palais du Gouvernement; the sequence is a prime example...
for the Duke of Lorraine, Stanisław Leszczyński, former King of Poland, who lived in exile in France. An exemplar of one of the etchings of the Maison published by Héré in 1753 was in the possession of Frederick the Great.
Outer design
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
columns, the work of the Swiss ornamental sculptor Johann Melchior Kambly
Johann Melchior Kambly
Johann Melchior Kambly was a Swiss sculptor who took part in the development of the architectural style of Frederician Rococo....
, who was in the employ of Frederick the Great from 1746.
The gilded sandstone sculptures that sit at the feet of the columns and stand at the walls of the rooms originate from the workshops of the sculptors Johann Gottlieb Heymüller and Johann Peter Benckert. People from the area stood as models for the eating, drinking and music-making Chinese figures, which explains the statues' European features.
The cupola
Cupola
In architecture, a cupola is a small, most-often dome-like, structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome....
crowning the roof is surmounted by a gilded Chinese figure with an open parasol. Friedrich Jury created it in copper after a design by the sculptor Benjamin Giese. Light falls into the central chamber through the long oval window openings of the cupola as it does through the windows in the façade.
Interior design
The wall of the circular central chamber, accessible by the north side, is coated with stuccoStucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...
marble. Monkeys with musical instruments worked in stucco over the French windows, brackets holding porcelain and wall sconces between the windows are all coated with gold leaf. Likewise coated is a richly decorated chandelier which hangs from the cupola.
The ceiling painting on the higher circuit of the room is the work of Thomas Huber, dating from 1756. Huber also painted the ceilings of the empty chambers on the exterior surface. The plans of the French artist Blaise Nicholas Le Sueur
Blaise Nicholas Le Sueur
Blaise Nicholas Le Sueur, 1716–1783, German painter and engraver of allegorical and historical subjects. As director of the Berlin Academy of Art, he was influential in the development of the landscape painter Jacob Philipp Hackert and historical painter Bernhard Rode...
, who taught as an art master at the Berlin Academy of Arts, served as a model for the interior. The ceiling paintings show Oriental men behind a balustrade, some looking into the room, others chatting with one another. They are surrounded by parrots, monkeys and Buddhas
Buddhahood
In Buddhism, buddhahood is the state of perfect enlightenment attained by a buddha .In Buddhism, the term buddha usually refers to one who has become enlightened...
sitting on posts.
The walls between the central room and the adjoining chambers are decorated with brightly-coloured, silken wall coverings painted with floral patterns, at the time a desired and valuable wall textile known as "Pekings". As may be seen here, Frederick the Great preferred to use for the interiors of his buildings only the highest quality materials manufactured by Prussian silk factories. Small fragments of this wall covering were used as a model for the reconstruction of the original during a restoration of 1990–1993.
Sources
- Paul Sigel, Silke Dähmlow, Frank Seehausen und Lucas Elmenhorst, Architekturführer Potsdam - Architectural Guide, Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-496-01325-7.