Marble bathroom
The marble bathroom is a bathing facility not far from the orangery in the Karlsaue Park in Kassel .
The building with a square floor plan is Germany's last significant and preserved representative bathing complex from the late baroque period . It was built between 1722 and 1728 under Landgrave Karl von Hessen-Kassel .
The building has three floors. In the center is the marble bathing pool. The baroque interior was created from 1712 to 1728 by the French sculptor Pierre-Étienne Monnot .
Building interior decoration
Pierre-Étienne Monnot designed twelve marble sculptures and ten wall reliefs and medallions . He created portraits of Landgrave Karl and his wife Amalia von Kurland , who died a year before the marble bath was built.
Ovid's Metamorphoses
The works from Roman mythology , Ovid's Metamorphoses , act on two opposite chimneys . The sculptures depict Faunus , Bacchus with Ampelos , Mercurius with Cupid , Aurora , Leda with the swan and Cupid, Apollon Marsyas skinning, Minerva with a satyr , Narcissus , Venus and Cupid, Paris with the apple, Latona with Apollon and Diana in the pool as well a bacchante whose head is no longer preserved.
Reliefs
The reliefs show the marble Europa and the bull, the discovery of Callistus pregnancy by Diana, the liberation of Andromeda by Perseus with Cupid, the triumph of Galateia , Apollon and Daphne with Cupid, Diana and Actaion , the flight of Arethusa with Diana's help from Alpheios , as well as the wedding of Bacchus and Ariadne with Cupid's support. Partly minor characters are made out. The walls are clad in color in contrast to the marble.
Web links
literature
- Jens Ludwig Burk: Marble Bath Kassel. Regensburg 2001, ISBN 978-3795413125
- Karlhein W. Kopanski: The marble bath in the Kassel Karlsaue: A late Baroque total work of art with important sculptures and reliefs by Pierre Etienne Monnot. Regensburg 2003, ISBN 978-3795415822
- Kerstin Merkel: Pierre-Etienne Monnot: The marble bathroom in Kassel . In: Die Gartenkunst 6 (2/1994), pp. 249–280. ( PDF file; 4.08 MB ; accessed July 20, 2015.)
Picture gallery
General view of the orangery: on the left the marble bathroom, above the main portal the sun of the planetary hiking trail, on the right the kitchen pavilion
Coordinates: 51 ° 18 ′ 37.6 ″ N , 9 ° 29 ′ 58.6 ″ E