Carl von Gontard

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Stamp issue for
Gontard's 250th birthday
(Deutsche Bundespost Berlin 1981)

Carl Philipp Christian von Gontard (born January 13, 1731 in Mannheim ; † September 23, 1791 in Breslau ) was a German architect who worked mainly in Potsdam , Berlin and Bayreuth . In terms of architectural history, Gontard's work stands independently without successors between the Palladian Rococo Knobelsdorff and the classicism of the older and younger Gilly and her students.

Life

Gontard's house in Bayreuth
Reitzenstein-Palais in Bayreuth around 1910, destroyed in an air raid in April 1945
City side of the Brandenburg Gate in Potsdam
The collapsed tower of the New Church , drawing by Johann Gottfried Schadow
Street at the Bassin in Potsdam
Marble Palace , Potsdam

Carl Gontard came from the Huguenot Gontard family from the Dauphiné . His parents were Alexander von Gontard (1706–1747) and his wife Elisabeth Kurz († 1776). His father was probably the ballet master of the Electoral Palatinate in Mannheim before he became ballet master at the margravial theater in Bayreuth in 1741. Carl von Gontard also initially worked as a ballet master at the margravial opera. He was married to Sophia von Erckert (1733–1795) and had 16 children, including Carl Friedrich Ludwig von Gontard , who later became an honorary citizen of Berlin . In 1767, Emperor Joseph II raised Carl Gontard to the hereditary nobility, together with his brother, an imperial officer .

In 1749 he joined the Bayreuth court building authority as a conductor . After two years of study in Paris with Blondel and a long trip to Italy, he had already made a name for himself as the court architect of Margravine Wilhelmine von Bayreuth when, after the death of Margrave Friedrich von Brandenburg-Bayreuth in 1763, due to the austerity policy of his successor Friedrich Christian, there were hardly any more tasks . In Bayreuth he was a member of the Masonic Lodge Eleusis for Confidentiality .

Gontard entered the service of Frederick II of Prussia (brother of Wilhelmine von Bayreuth ) in 1764 , who immediately enlisted him to design the New Palace and the associated Communs , Gontard's first major work in Potsdam. Gontard's main work in Berlin, the porticoed columns and towers of the German and French cathedral , gave the Gendarmenmarkt its face. However, after the spectacular partial collapse of the German Cathedral (then: New Church) in July 1781, Georg Christian Unger took over the completion of the building. Gontard did not fall out of favor, but kept the construction management of the Royal Library , where he set up the stairwell and the great hall. He also designed and built houses in Potsdam, such as the representative street Am Bassin . He is one of the most important artists of the Frederician Rococo .

Immediately after Friedrich's death, Gontard received the order from the heir to the throne, Friedrich Wilhelm II , to decorate the parade rooms in the Potsdam City Palace and the garrison church for the funeral ceremonies . Larger royal orders followed. From 1787 to 1790 he furnished nine rooms in the royal chambers in the Berlin City Palace . At the same time he created the Marble Palace in Potsdam, one of his best works. His last work was the Dutch establishment in Potsdam's New Garden .

Works (selection)

literature

Web links

Commons : Carl von Gontard  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b Horst Drescher:  Gontard, Carl v. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , p. 643 f. ( Digitized version ).