Gottfried Semper Monument
The Gottfried Semper Monument is a monument in Dresden in memory of the architect and university professor Gottfried Semper (1803–1879), whose most famous and most important work in the Saxon capital is the Semper Opera House named after him .
location
The monument stands in the northeast of the Innere Altstadt district on Brühl's Terrace , a relic of Dresden's fortifications . Directly below is the entrance to the Museum fortress Dresden . The Gottfried Semper monument is located on the Brühlscher Garten street, which is named after the adjacent green space of the same name . A double flight of stairs , which leads from the terrace down to the neighboring Georg-Treu-Platz , frames the area on which the monument stands.
description
The Gottfried Semper monument consists of a bronze - plastic , on a pedestal of red Meissen granite rests. The life-size Semper statue stands in a general- like pose with its back to Georg-Treu-Platz. Semper turns his gaze to the half-left below (from the viewer to the right), so his face is pointing north. He is dressed in a suit with a coat over it. In his hands he is holding a partially rolled up architectural drawing . With his left foot he stands on a console decorated with two lion heads . A bronze plaque with the sitter's name is attached to the front of the more than 1.50 meter high base.
history
Gottfried Semper worked in Dresden from 1834 to 1849. He is considered the most important neo-renaissance architect in Saxony and one of the namesake of the Semper Nicolai School , the regional variant of this style. Semper was an architecture professor at the art academy and designed many important buildings in the Saxon state capital. These include the Semper Gallery , which was built between 1847 and 1854 to complete the Zwinger , the Semper Synagogue , which was consecrated in 1840 and destroyed in 1938 , the Dresden Court Theater , which was completed in 1841 but burned out in 1869, and - as its replacement building at the same location - the 1871 to 1878 under the direction of his son Manfred Semper built the Semperoper .
Because of his participation in the Dresden May Uprising , Gottfried Semper fell out of favor with the royal court and had to flee Dresden. In contrast, he continued to enjoy a high reputation among the citizens of Dresden. After Semper's death in 1879, they wished to erect a monument to this great architect in the city. However, the Kingdom of Saxony and the City of Dresden did not provide any money because of Semper's participation in the May uprising. Finally, the Association of German Architects and Engineers donated the monument.
The renowned Dresden sculptor Johannes Schilling (1828–1910), who had earned his reputation since the late 1860s with the creation of the group of figures Four Times of the Day and the Rietschelden monument, was commissioned to carry out the work . From 1889, Schilling first created a clay model of the figure, which representatives of the Association of German Architects and Engineers' Associations viewed and approved in December 1890. Gottfried Semper's son Manfred was also present during the inspection and agreed to his father's depiction. King Albert of Saxony chose the place on Brühl's Terrace as the site of the monument.
In the spring of 1891 Schilling then made a plaster model, after which the Lauchhammer art and bell foundry finally cast the bronze statue. Constantin Lipsius , from whom the plans for the directly adjacent art academy , also known as the Lipsius Building after him, originate, provided the design for the granite plinth. Lipsius also contributed the plans for the sandstone flight of steps to Georg-Treu-Platz, which begins right next to the monument. This was finally inaugurated on September 1st, 1892. It survived the devastating air raids on Dresden in February 1945 unscathed.
As a cultural monument , the Gottfried Semper Monument is now a listed building (→ list of cultural monuments in the inner old town ). The Dresden art historian Fritz Löffler criticized the memorial as "much more superficial" than Schilling's previous works in Dresden.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ dresden-und-sachsen.de: bronze statue of Gottfried Sempers ( memento of October 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved March 9, 2013.
- ^ Association of German Architects and Engineers Associations. Negotiations of the XX. Assembly of representatives in Nuremberg on August 7, 1891. In: Deutsche Bauzeitung , XXV. Volume, September 12, 1891 ( digitized ; PDF; 11.2 MB).
- ^ Fritz Löffler : The old Dresden. History of his buildings . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1981, ISBN 3-363-00007-3 .
Coordinates: 51 ° 3 '9.7 " N , 13 ° 44' 38.3" E