Galate fountain (Moest, Dyckerhoff & Widmann)
The gala fountain by the artist Karl Friedrich Moest (1838–1923) was commissioned by the artificial stone and cement factory of Dyckerhoff & Widmann , which he created in 1869/70.
history
Dyckerhoff & Widmann made building decorations from cement and artificial stone. They hired artists for the designs, including Karl Friedrich Moest. At the General German Industrial Exhibition in Kassel in 1870, the company wanted to present itself with a monumental fountain. Moest was probably able to choose the theme of the fountain, Galatea , himself. The monumental figure he created is 4.5 meters high and weighs five tons .
The fountain was shown at the exhibition in Kassel in 1870 and also at the world exhibition in Vienna in 1873 .
Copies
- A copy was ordered in 1871, immediately after the end of the Franco-Prussian War , from the city of Karlsruhe , who wanted to use it to decorate the Sallenwäldchen , part of the new city garden . The purchase price was 2,500 marks . In 1954 the fountain was moved in front of the Hereditary Grand Ducal Palace , now the seat of the Federal Court of Justice .
- Probably around the world exhibition in 1873, a specimen was set up in a private garden in Klosterneuburg .
- Another example, of which it is not known when it was made, was in the holdings of Dyckerhoff & Widmann for a long time. Eugen Dyckerhoff donated it in 1907 to the then city of Biebrich (today: Wiesbaden-Biebrich), which set it up in today's Robert-Krekel-Anlage. In 1981 and 2008/09 the fountain was restored.
literature
- Ferdinand Werner : The long way to new building . Volume 2: cement and artificial stone. The triumph of the imagination . Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft , Worms 2016. ISBN 978-3-88462-372-5