Ceiling painting in the ballroom of the Brühl Palace in Dresden

Palais Brühl Festsaal 1876

The ceiling painting in the ballroom of the Brühl Palace in Dresden , created in 1742 by Louis de Silvestre for the Prime Minister Count Heinrich von Brühl , no longer exists because it was destroyed in the Second World War. The painting in oil on plaster of paris represented Bellerophon's victory over the chimera .

description

Gustav Otto Müller describes the picture as follows:

"The same thing depicts Bellerophon's victory over the chimera in allegorical form. The gods watch the fight while the vices intended to accompany the fabulous beast plunge into the depths."

The ceiling is described in more detail in the inventory of Saxon architectural and art monuments:

“In the middle the hero riding on the white Pegasus, under whose hooves the Chimera. From the right an angel hovers down, swinging a rod, from the left two geniuses with torches and daggers. The vices of envy, play and drink, avarice and lust rush out of heaven. Cybele approaches from the left on her lion chariot, on the right Apollo on his team of four. Putti float in the painting, which is consistently treated from a perspective bottom view. "

Otto Eduard Schmidt interprets the message contained in the picture as follows:

“[…] While the ceiling picture of this hall, which originated from Brühl's own idea, was executed by Louis de Silvestre. The large painting - it now adorns the auditorium of the Kunstgewerbeschule - shows how Bellerophon conquers the chimera, that is, slander born from snake venom. In order to help the chimera, the other vices hurry: envy, play, drink, greed, lust, but they are driven out by Apollo (Brühl) and Cybele, the deities of light and the divine world order, and by someone who floats down from the right, Rod-bearing angel, accompanied by two geniuses with torches and daggers as symbols of earthly justice. This picture, under which the brilliant celebrations of the Brühl house was held, says more clearly than anything else that Brühl thought or at least wanted to know about his system of government. "

Story of the picture

When the palace was demolished in 1899, the ceiling painting could be saved by carefully removing individual parts. It was transferred together with the other decorations to the auditorium of the arts and crafts school built in 1901/1909 on Güntzstraße. Paul Schumann describes the details of the rescue of the ceiling painting in the " Dresdner Anzeiger " of September 24, 1900. Originally, the Saxon Ministry of Finance had spoken out against a salvage because the costs, calculated at 45,000 marks, seemed too high. Councilor Professor Ermenegildo Antonio Donadini (1847–1936) then proposed another method of salvage, which should only cost 5,000 to 7,000 marks. So the picture could be removed "literally at the last minute", when the demolition had already started. The "17.77 m long and 12.92 wide ceiling painting was glued to the picture side with canvas and - without touching the groups of figures - sawed into 51 large blocks, each weighing 18 - 24 quintals." Professor Donadini then also restored the ceiling painting in the arts and crafts school .

During the air raids on Dresden , the ceiling painting was together with the ballroom on 13./14. Destroyed February 1945. A cover color sheet by JH Assmann from 1876, which is kept in the Dresden Kupferstichkabinett, shows a complete - albeit strongly distorted perspective - reproduction of the ceiling painting.

Four photographs from the Dresden Monument Preservation Institute show some of the main groups in the composition: 1.) Bellerophon fighting the chimera. 2.) Cybele on her lion chariot. 3.) The personifications of play, drunkenness, avarice and lust. 4.) Two winged genii with torch and dagger.

As part of the so-called "Führer commission for monumental painting" , a photographic documentation of the ceiling painting, which was destroyed a short time later, took place in 1944.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Harald Marx: The paintings of Louis de Silvestre. State Art collections, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden 1975, p. 35f.
2. ↑ Figure 10: Ceiling painting in the ballroom of the Brühlschen Palais in Dresden. 1747. Loss of war. In: Harald Marx: The paintings of Louis de Silvestre. State Art collections, Old Masters Picture Gallery, Dresden 1975.
3. ↑ Harald Marx: Louis de Silvestre's ceiling painting for the ballroom in the Brühl Palace. In: Dresdener Kunstblätter. Quarterly publication of the Dresden State Art Collections. Issue 5, 1971, ISSN  0418-0615 , pp. 147-154.
4. ^ Gustav Otto Müller: Forgotten and half-forgotten Dresden artists of the last century. Hoffmann, Dresden 1895, p. 149.
5. ↑ Cornelius Gurtlitt (arrangement): Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. With the participation of the K. Sächsischen Alterthumsverein. Published by the K. Saxon Ministry of the Interior. Issue 22, Meinhold and Sons, Dresden 1901, p. 518f.
6. ↑ Otto Eduard Schmidt (Ed.) :: Minister Count Brühl and Karl Heinrich von Heinecken. Letters and files, characteristics and representations of Saxon history (1733–1763). Teubner, Leipzig / Berlin 1921, p. 287.
7. ↑ cf. Paul Schumann, Dresden. Leipzig 1909, p. 286f. (Famous Places of Art, Volume 46)
8. ↑ Harald Marx: The ceiling in the Brühl Palace in Dresden. In: ders .: On the decorative painting of the 18th century in Saxony. Art history dissertation. Halle / Saale 1971, p. 88.
9. ↑ Harald Marx: The ceiling in the Brühl Palace in Dresden. In: ders .: On the decorative painting of the 18th century in Saxony. Art history dissertation. Halle / Saale 1971, p. 88.
10. ↑ Entry in the historical color slide archive on wall and ceiling painting

literature

• Harald Marx: The ceiling in the Brühl Palace in Dresden. In: ders .: On the decorative painting of the 18th century in Saxony. Art history dissertation. Halle / Saale 1971, pp. 87-91.