FESTINA LENTE PRESS CZ
Jan Bažant and Nina Bažantová
Waldstein Palace in Prague The First Baroque Residence in Central Europe
Advanced Guides to Czech Monuments FESTINA LENTE PRESS CZ PRAGUE 2011
The art-historical analysis of the Waldstein Palace and Garden in Prague was supported by the grant no. IAA800090902 (Jan Bažant, Antická inspirace v českém barokním umění) of the Grant Agency of the Academy of Science of the Czech Republic.
Jan Bažant is a researcher at the Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of Science of the Czech Republic. Nina Bažantová is an art historian.
ISBN 978-80-254-9423-3 © Jan Bažant and Nina Bažantová 2011 © FESTINA LENTE PRESS CZ 2011 www.festinalentepres.cz
To Mama
Contents
13 WALDSTEIN AND HIS PRAGUE RESIDENCE 15 17 19 20 27 33 35 42 49 52 65 71
Facade Gates Chapel Two Palaces Main Hall Knights’ Hall and Antechamber Audience Hall Lower Gallery Upper Gallery Sala Terrena Garden Garden Statues
78 THE IDEA OF WALDSTEIN’S PALACE 85 NOTES 86 GRAPHIC AND LITERARY MODELS
Main facade
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1. Duke’s courtyard 2. Count’s courtyard 3. Sala terrena 4. Aviary 5. Fountain 6. Stables 7. Stables courtyard 8. Grotto (destroyed) 9. Wrestlers 10. Venus and Adonis 11. Laocoon 12. Neptune 13. Bacchus 14. Apollo 15. House of pages 16. Small lake 17. Riding hall
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Waldstein Palace and garden (arrows mark the public entrances)
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WALDSTEIN AND HIS PRAGUE RESIDENCE
Albrecht von Waldstein, detail of engraving, 1627
In his portraits, the Duke is always soldierly straight, luxuriously dressed, markedly pale, with a well-kept goatee and black hair combed back. He looked good, but his court painter, Baccio Bianco, knew better. Once, when he sustained a bad fall from the scaffolding, the Duke swore: To hell! What, this beast wants to break his neck before he finishes this painting for me? Albrecht von Waldstein (Friedrich Schiller’s Wallenstein), Duke of Friedland, Mecklenburg and Sagan, was one of the greatest Czechs, however controversial he might be. He was brought up as a Czech Protestant and, when he was 23 years old, he converted to the Catholic faith for the sake of his career. The appointment as Supreme Commander of the Imperial Army culminated in his astonishing career on the battlefields of the Thirty Years’ War. The Duke went down in European history and he was also one of the greatest builders. Nothing changed Prague as dramatically as his gigantic residence, which rose in the Lesser Town (Malá Strana). Waldstein’s Palace has been preserved practically intact, its facade looks as the Duke designed it. We are fortunate to have at least the mask with which one of the most enigmatic men in world history hid his face. Today there are as many Waldsteins as there were historians who wrote about him. 13
The central question of research on Waldstein is his loyalty to the Emperor. We will probably never know if he was loyal to his Emperor in the last years of his life. Waldstein Palace is, however, precious testimony to his self-representation at the time when he constructed his residence in Prague, that is in the years between 1621 and 1630. What do the buildings say about Waldstein’s attitude to the Holy Roman Empire? Does its decoration contain allusions to Emperor Ferdinand II? No one has posed such questions before, but we shall try to answer them in this guidebook, because they are crucial for the perception of Waldstein’s residence during his time. This is our goal–we want to look at the Palace through the eyes of Albrecht von Waldstein’s invited guests. The huge Palace complex was built and richly decorated in less than a decade. It was an excellent feat, tangible evidence of Waldstein’s managerial skills, which lay behind his victories on the European battlefields and his meteoric rise in the Holy Roman Empire. The Prague Palace was not his only building project, because he planned other respectable seats spread throughout Central Europe. The most important was the seat which he constructed simultaneously in Jičín, in North-Eastern Bohemia, in the middle of the Friedland domain, his main territorial base. Other ducal residences were planned in Mecklenburg (Germany) and Sagan (Żagań, Poland). When Waldstein started to design his palace, he had no detailed plan. Precisely as in his political career, he was flying blind as a builder as well. He was buying houses by the dozen, adding new parts and reconstructing them, all this at a feverish pace. But everything had to be done exactly as he wished and the Palace thus became the alter ego of the owner, his eternal doppelgänger. The Palace facade as well as its interior decoration and enormous garden are manifestations of the high requirements and orderly taste of the creator. Waldstein studied at gymnasium in Goldberg (Silesia) and Altdorf (Bavaria), where he also learned German and a bit of Latin. When he was seventeen he set off for a “Grand Tour,” an educational „rite of passage“ of the European aristocracy of that time. Its climax was an extensive tour through Italy, where Waldstein learned to speak Italian fluently, but above all to love everything Italian. His cultural horizons were no doubt widened by stays in Prague palace of his rich uncle Adam of Wald14
stein, who shined at the court of Emperor Rudolf II. Nevertheless, Albrecht von Waldstein was not an avid reader, after his death they found in the enormous Prague palace only one book, a treatise on fortification architecture. The man who enabled the materialisation of Waldstein’s vision was brilliant Giovanni Pieroni, a pupil of Bernardo Buontalenti, the chief architect and theatrical designer at the Medici Court. Pieroni did not build the Palace himself, this was the work of various master builders, he only created the architectural designs and laid out the scheme for the stucco decoration and paintings. These were carried out by Baccio Bianco, whom Pieroni brought to Prague from Florence. Pieroni was not only Waldstein’s architect, but also his intimate adviser. He was exceptionally well prepared for this function, as he was a Doctor of Law, a mathematician, alchemist, astrologer, and astronomer. The Imperial residence at Prague Castle, built and furnished by Emperor Rudolf II, was no doubt the impetus for Waldstein and also provided a model for the ideological programme of his palace. But the owner did not want a replica of Rudolf’s Imperial residence. Duke insisted not only on the highest, but also on the newest European standards. The architectural forms were a direct import from Florence. The functional arrangement was inspired by Rome of Waldstein’s time, which called the tune in palace architecture. Waldstein thus created in Prague the first Baroque residence in Central Europe. Facade Waldstein was assassinated at Cheb (Eger) on the night of 25th February, 1634, absolutely unnecessarily, because at that time he was already totally exhausted and would probably have died a few days later. He was seriously ill all his life, he had probably syphilis. But he was an extraordinarily vital and strong-willed person. Even centuries later, his authority radiates from the facade of his Palace in Prague, where we perceive it in its general design as well as in the minutest details. Nothing is left to chance, nothing is halfhearted. And everything is said clearly and briskly, like a military order. 15
Don Giovanni de’Medici, Bernardo Buontalenti and Matteo Nigetti, window of the Capella dei Principi (San Lorenzo, Florence), designed 1604, realised before 1625 (left). Window of the Waldstein Palace (right)
Let us imagine we are the Duke’s guests. He would certainly like us to begin our visit with a close inspection of the facade of his Palace. This was his visiting card, in the form of which he took a lot of care. 17th-century Praguers were certainly impressed by the plenitude of windows, which even today successfully evoke order and infinity, even though they are not distributed entirely evenly and there are only three rows of them. The Palace simulated a House of God, by the windows as well, which have a semi-circular arch above them, typical of Church architecture. The cornices above the windows are of a peculiar shape, resembling the Greek omega. These omega cornices, which we find repeatedly in Waldstein Palace, are of Florentine origin, Pieroni’s signature of a kind. His authorship of facades of the Waldstein palace is not attested in any archival document and, therefore, it is contested by some researchers. Nevertheless, it is very probable.
Main facade of Waldstein Palace
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The pitched roof is a northern trait for which we can find no parallel in Italy, where in winter time a roof need not withstand the weight of heavy snow. But the surface of the high northern roof, which can be as high as the facade in the case of a big building, had to be articulated somehow. Thus the attic window was born in Northern Europe, which also made possible the utilisation of the spacious loft, used as servants’ living quarters. On the roof of Waldstein’s Palace, the attic windows are provided with ornamental frames, which integrate the roof and facade. The exterior of Waldstein Palace is richly decorated, but secretive, the owner wanted to keep his distance from passers-by. Its facade does not reveal what lies within. Nobody can know that, behind the monotonous rows of windows, not only are rooms concealed, but also staircases, solid walls and a huge hall spanning two floors in the left half of the Palace. This is a typical feature of Baroque residences, the facades of which reveal nothing about the interior space. The facade of Waldstein’s Palace has a life of its own, everything we see on it is mutually interconnected. With this feature, the Waldstein residence also heralded a new era in architecture. The facade of Waldstein’s Palace forms an organic whole, from which nothing can be taken away without distorting the whole and to which nothing can be added. Gates are linked to windows, as well as the individual rows of windows with each other and the top row of windows with the roof. The round cornices above the windows touch the lower end of the cornice on which windows of the third row repose. Similarly, the cornices of the third row of windows touch the cornice separating the facade from the roof. Gates Many architectural elements in Waldstein Palace are interconnected in a manner which points to the architect-philosopher, which Pieroni undoubtedly was. The windows push down on the gates on both sides of the facade: before the cornice crowning its stone frame could develop into a triangular pediment, it was flattened in the middle by the window’s weight. The struggle between gates and windows is forever undecided because the side gates at the same 17
time assault the windows above them. The stone frames of these gates continue above in stucco reliefs, their elaborate volutes starting to close in on the windows in order to transform them into the gates’ tops. On the facade of Waldstein’s Palace, there is not only tension between the gates and windows, but also between the both side gates and the middle one. This gate is bigger; it has a full semicircular arch doubled over by a semi-circular cornice, which is the dominant 3D element of the facade. The middle gate triumphs over the windows; it completely eliminates the window in the second row. Waldstein Palace is important in the History of Architecture as the first transalpine residence with an emphasised central axis. This was undoubtedly architect’s intention, because in the centre of his facade there is a false gate. Its function is exclusively aesthetic and symbolic; it is in fact a counterpart of the ancient Roman triumphal arches which also lead nowhere. Waldstein Palace takes our breath away with its sweeping features, but it is also focused on attention to detail. When we reach the gate, we realise that the columns at its sides are embedded in its frame. This architectural trait does not point forwards but rather backwards, to the Mannerist architecture of the preceding epoch in which such weird details were common. Another Mannerist oddity are the stone blocks at the column’s sides which are placed upright. Any mason’s apprentice would have placed them horizontally. Thanks to these upright blocks the gate evokes instability, which is a typical Mannerist feature.
Gates of the main facade of Waldstein Palace 18
After looking at the entrance gate for a while, we have an uneasy feeling that in a moment the heavy framed window above it could break it. The columns would be of no help because they are not connected with the pediment of the gate. The part of the pediment, which columns originally supported, have already collapsed, only small fragments of them remaining on the top. The message of this sophisticated play with traditional architectural elements was to alert visitors, to signal strongly that they were entering the exceptional residence of an exceptional man. At the end of the entrance gate, there is a loggia, in which visitors immediately turned twice to the left and took the straight stairs leading up to the first floor where the most important rooms of the Palace were situated. To the left, but at the end of the loggia, the entrance to the Chapel is also situated. The importance of the northern part of the loggia has a simple explanation. The Duke and his guests usually arrived on horseback, from which one always dismounts on the left, which means to the North in the entrance loggia of Waldstein Palace. The stress on utility and functional details in Waldstein’s Palace is another feature heralding Baroque architecture. Chapel The Chapel is consecrated to St Wenceslas, the Patron of the Bohemian Kingdom and of Waldstein, whose full first names were Albrecht Wenceslas Eusebius. On the altar is a painting of Wenceslas’s death by Baccio Bianco, who also painted the cycle of paintings inspired by the life of the Saint which decorates the Chapel walls. This cycle is a distant echo of the cycle that decorates the walls of St Wenceslas Chapel in St Vitus Cathedral at Prague Castle. In this way, Waldstein Palace is connected with Czech religious tradition and the main Church building of the country. The Palace Chapel is unusual in many ways. It surprises visitors by its rich decoration, but above all by its small size. It would not be so surprising if Waldstein had realised his plan to build a corridor to an oratory inside the neighbouring St Thomas Church. The monastery Church of the Augustinians would thus have taken care of the spiritual needs of the Palace residents. The Chapel of the 19
Waldstein Palace is tiny, but it reaches to the top floor of the Palace. Its small size was counterbalanced by its universal accessibility, which made it the symbolic lynchpin of the whole residence. Wherever Duke found oneself within this huge Palace, he could reach the Palace Chapel in a few minutes.
Chapel
Staircase landing on the ducal floor. On the right is the door to the Duke’s loge, from which he attended services in the Chapel. On the left is the staircase leading to the Duchess’s apartment
On the western wall there are the superimposed windows of the Duke and Duchess’s loges. On the top floor is the balcony for the Palace servants. This design corresponds to the functional distinction of the Palace floors, the Duke used the second floor, his wife the third floor and the servants lived in the attic. Two Palaces In 1628, when Waldstein’s only son died, the Duke was already seriously ill and it was clear to him that he would not have another 20
male heir. He therefore appointed his devoted nephew, Maxmilian, Count of Waldstein, as his universal heir and the Prague Palace was adapted accordingly. The Palace was divided into two halves and the southern half was allocated to Waldstein’s nephew and his family. The division of the Palace, which is signified by the two gates on the main facade, symbolised the fact that the power of the Waldstein dynasty would forever pass smoothly from generation to generation. On the Palace’s external facade, its two halves have equal status, but in the interior, the Duke’s courtyard is clearly distinguished by the rows of semi-columns, which we do not find in the Count’s courtyard. The semi-columns are only on the shorter sides of the courtyard, no doubt intentionally. When standing in the entrance gate, visitors have a smooth wall on both sides and the opposite wall thus seems further away and the courtyard bigger than it actually is. It typifies the Baroque manipulation of the viewer which exploits the way in which the human eye perceives the world. Superimposed colonnades were a universally acknowledged symbol of prestige, evoking the ancient Roman Empire and the Eternal City, Rome. In this way, Waldstein Palace was defined as a residence of the highest category. In Renaissance Europe, the language of columns was an established means of communication, the bearers of meaning being not only the colonnades, but also their type. For the gates on the facade of Waldstein Palace, the Tuscan order was used, a variety of virile Doric, with which Albrecht von Waldstein was characterised. The teaching on the appropriateness of style according to subject and the symbolic use of architectural orders was based on Vitruvius’ book on architecture. Propriety, the ancient Roman architect stressed, is that perfection of style which comes when a work is authoritatively constructed on approved principles… The temples of Minerva, Mars, and Hercules, will be Doric, since the virile strength of these gods makes daintiness entirely inappropriate to their houses. In temples to Venus, Flora, Proserpine, Spring-Water, and the Nymphs, the Corinthian order will be found to have peculiar significance, because these are delicate divinities and so its rather slender outlines, its flowers, leaves, and ornamental volutes will lend propriety where it is due. The construction of temples of the Ionic order to Juno, Diana, Father Bacchus, and the other gods of that kind, will be in keeping with the middle 21
position which they hold; for the building of such will be an appropriate combination of the severity of the Doric and the delicacy of the Corinthian.
The Tuscan and Ionic orders in the Duke’s courtyard WALDSTEIN’S GROTTO
STABLES COURTYARD CO
DUKE’S COURTYARD
SALA TERRENA CO COUNT’S COURTYARD AND STAIRCASE
CHAPEL SACRISTY STAIRCASE TO LOGES
DUKE’S STAIRCASE Plan of the first floor of the Waldstein Palace
In superimposed colonnades, Doric (or Tuscan) were normally used in the basement, followed by Ionic and Corinthian. But in Waldstein Palace, the Tuscan semi-columns are not only on the 22
first, but also on the second floors. It is only on the third floor where we find the Ionic order. In early modern Europe, the first floor contained service rooms and the second floor was reserved for reception rooms. This was the principal floor, the “piano nobile” (noble level). The Tuscan order of the second floor of Waldstein Palace thus indicated that on this floor the Duke resided and worked.
The Duke’s courtyard seen from the entrance gate. On the right is the gateway to the Count’s courtyard. The public part of the Palace is behind the windows on the second floor of the right wing (above the gateway). The window of the Audience Hall is in the corner
As was usual at that time, Waldstein’s family occupied the third floor, which was appropriately characterised by Ionic columns. His second wife was the young Isabella Katharina née Harrach (1601-1655). His nephew married her sister and so they lived in the same Palace after their marriage. The Duke and Isabella Katharina were married in 1623, when he was already 40. Three years later, their daughter, Maria Elisabeth, was born. The apartment of Waldstein’s wife was in the North wing, that is on the left, when standing in the entrance gate. The apartment of her daughter was on the opposite side of the courtyard, in the South wing. The bedrooms of mother and daughter were, however, directly connected by a gallery in the East wing. 23
The external facade of Waldstein Palace are reservedly reticent, the facades of the courtyards are more communicative. From the presence of columns and from the use of the column order the visitors can find out where the Duke lived and worked, where his nephew lived, and where the private apartments of duke’s wife and daugther was situated. This openness had its limits and visitors were not informed about the functional differentiation inside the individual apartments. They could not know that the most important room in the whole Palace, the Audience Hall, was hidden behind the easternmost window on the southern side of the Duke’s floor. The Audience Hall, where Waldstein received his most distinguished guests, was directly connected with his private apartment through the gallery in the East wing. The first room which Waldstein entered from the gallery was his huge study, behind which his bedroom was situated. Other rooms in the North wing served as the Duke’s wardrobes and his dining room was in the biggest room. All the private apartments in the Waldstein Palace were simplified versions of the Duke’s floor, in the sequence containing antechamber, audience room and bedroom. The Baroque residential architecture successfully brought into accord the contradictory requirements, presentability and comfort, and the presence of servants and their invisibility. The private rooms in the Duke’s apartment were arranged in two rows and between them was a narrow service corridor which servants accessed through a spiral staircase at its western end. This design was repeated in the apartment of Waldstein’s wife and also the apartments of Maxmilian, Count of Waldstein and that of his wife were similarly arranged. Vertical staircases placed in strategic positions made quick and discreet communication between individual floors possible. There were altogether nine such spiral staircases, some of them were used by servants, but there were also staircases reserved exclusively for the Duke. By means of a small spiral staircase, Waldstein could go from the Audience Room directly to the bedroom of his young daughter, Maria Elisabeth. By means of another small spiral staircase, which he entered from a room next to his bedroom, the Duke accessed the bedroom of his wife which was situated directly above his own bedroom. The Palace of Albrecht von Wald24
stein was like a parade dress uniform, but it was entirely comfortable, because it was perfectly tailored to his body.
Oval spiral staircase in the Count’s half of the Palace (left) and small spiral staircase, which connected the apartments of Count Maxmilian and that of his wife DUKE’S DUKE’S BEDROOM STUDY
AUDIENCE HALL
LOWER GALLERY KNIGHT’S HALL
PRESENT ENTRANCE
ORIGINAL ENTRANCE MAIN HALL
COUNT’S PARTMENT
DUKE’S LOGE Second floor of Waldstein Palace
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DUCHESS‘ BEDROOM
DUCHESS‘ AUDIENCE ROOM UPPER GALLERY
CHILDREN’S ROOM STAIRCASE TO THE AUDIENCE HALL
STAIRCASE TO DUKE’S APARTMENT SERVANTS‘ STAIRCASE
DUCHESS‘ LOGE
COUNTESS‘ APARTMENT
Third floor of Waldstein Palace.
Entrance to the stables (left), street gate of the stables’ courtyard (right)
Within five minutes, from his private apartment or from the Audience Hall, Waldstein could be at his stables, which were a very important part of the Palace. In the 17th century, horses were a symbol of wealth and prestige. When we are standing in the main entrance gate, we see the passage to the stables’ courtyard on the opposite side of the court, on its left side. This courtyard also has a gate leading directly to the street outside. The interior of the stables 26
had richly decorated ceilings. In this horses’ palace, visitors admired the marble columns and troughs with fountains. Today, the Senate of the Czech Republic holds meetings in Waldstein’s stables. From the inventory of 1634, we know that at Waldstein’s time in the stables were 34 horse-boxes, while, in other stables of the Palace, there were boxes for another 46 horses. Main Hall The Audience Hall was at the end of the ceremonial itinerary through the public rooms of the Palace, which began on the staircase to the left of the entrance gate. Through the staircase, visitors reached the Main Hall, where they waited before they were received. The size of the Main Hall was impressive. It was the second Prague hall to span two storeys, after the Spanish Hall at Prague Castle built by Emperor Rudolf II. The Hall was colossal, not so much to accommodate waiting visitors, but above all to accommodate Waldstein’s large bodyguard which lined the walls. Guards in colourful uniforms played an extremely important role in the selfimage of aristocrats of that time, the larger the guard he could boast, the greater the respect he claimed for himself. Today we enter the Main Hall through the Count’s courtyard, on the western facade of which there is a loggia, now glassed in. From this loggia, we access a spiral staircase. In Roman palaces of Waldstein’s time, such spiral staircases led to secondary halls or rooms, while straight staircases were reserved for the most important halls. The hierarchy of the Duke and Count’s halves of the Palace also determined the way in which the upper floors were reached. The straight staircase was yet another exclusive attribute of the Duke’s section of the Palace. We begin the inspection of the Main Hall at the original entrance, which is opposite the present one. On this side of the hall, there are two doors, but the one near the windows facing the street is a sham. The marble door frames are later additions, which do not correspond with the decoration of the Hall. Waldstein’s guests were welcomed in the Main Hall, not only by the Duke’s guard lining the walls and Mars on the ceiling, but also by the stucco genii with 27
outstretched wings, which looked down on them from under the ceiling.
The original entrance to the Main Hall (on the right) was situated in such a way that Mars’ army painted on the ceiling attacked everyone who stepped inside
Genius looks like an angel, but his function is altogether different: it is a personification of abstract concept. In the Main Hall of the Waldstein palace these snow-white guards were the opposite number in everything to the Duke’s guardsmen in full armour. The genii are naked and hold the gilded symbols of a peaceful reign in their hands–palm branches, laurel wreaths and crowns. To the left of the original entrance, a genius stands to introduce this heavenly guard to Waldstein’s visitors. He raises over the 28
heads of all who enter the Main Hall, a symbol consisting of a crown in which two palm leaves are inserted. In Waldstein’s time, everybody knew this symbol because it was the personal emblem of the Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand II. The ruler used this emblem together with the motto LEGITIME CERTANTIBUS (to him who fights with honour), in which the meaning of the combination of crown and palm leaves, symbols of victory, is explained. Ferdinand II represented himself with this emblem, for instance, on a medal minted on the occasion of the Battle of White Mountain, on 20th November, 1620, in which the army of the Czech Estates was defeated.
Genii with a wreath, palm leaf, crown, and crown with inserted palm leaves
Emblem of Ferdinand II in a book of 1601 (left) and in the hand of a genius in the Main Hall (right)
The heavenly guard has its leader who is represented in the important place in the middle of the South wall. In his right hand, he holds the laurel wreath and with his left hand he ceremoniously raises the Marshall’s baton to stress that peace is victorious. On either side, he has adjutants with palm branches, the genius on his 29
left points to his heart, while the genius on his right points upwards, to the ceiling fresco of Baccio Bianco, which is the culmination of the rich decoration of the Hall.
Genii on the South wall, the middle raises the Marshall’s baton
The theme of the ceiling fresco, Mars in armour on a war chariot, heading into battle together with his companions, was inspired by the function of the Hall, in which Waldstein paraded his guard. In Germany, this type of hall was known as “Trabantensaal” (the hall of companions). The most famous analogy for Waldstein’s Main Hall is the “Hall of Mars” in the Palace of Versailles, named after the ceiling painting of Claude II Audran of 1672. This Hall was originally reserved for the guard, which was announced by the ceiling painting representing Mars riding in the sky in a chariot drawn by wolves.
Mars as an allegory of war 30
In Waldstein Palace, Mars is clearly identified by the star over his head and the sign of the planet on his shield. He is raising his hand with a lethal weapon, the spiked mace. It is Mars, but he is not represented here as the Olympian deity. In ancient mythology, Mars always fights alone or with other Olympians. But Baccio Bianco represented Mars at the head of an army which is dressed and armed as soldiers of Waldstein’s time. This Mars is clearly a personification of war. The true nature of Mars’ army on the ceiling of the Main Hall of Waldstein Palace is revealed in a similar representation, which Antonio Bellucci painted for the Liechtenstein Palace in Vienna between 1697 and 1704. In this ceiling painting, we also see Mars in his chariot as he rides through the clouds into battle. The god is as dignified as his Prague counterpart, perhaps even more so, because he is represented à l’antica. But Mars’ companions in Vienna are ugly, naked savages who aggressively urge their lord to demonstrate his full destructive powers. In this painting, the spiked mace is also represented, but we do not see it in Mars’ hand, instead a naked Turk-like barbarian raises it in his right hand, while pushing Mars forward with his left hand.
Antonio Bellucci, Mars, 1697-1704, Liechtenstein Palace in Vienna
Mars in the Main Hall of Waldstein’s Palace personifies war, which dominates the ceiling decoration. The central panel with the chariot of the God of War is flanked by panels with painted trophies, which reappear in the stucco reliefs on the perimeter of the 31
ceiling. The Main Hall is not, however, a temple of Mars–its walls are not in the Doric order, as it would befit the God of War, but in the Ionic one. Genii with symbols of peace and just rule are standing on fragments of Ionic entablature supported by Ionic pilasters. If we completed the entablature in our imagination, we could be standing inside an Ionic temple, a temple of peace and prosperity, in which the demon of war is forever imprisoned. The Czech patriotic myth, to which we return later, sees Waldstein in Mars, even though this reading is unsubstantiated and improbable. A far more serious candidate is the genius with the Marshall’s baton in his hand, who might really be the alter ego of Albrecht von Waldstein. This genius leads the heavenly mission, which is explicitly defined as the mission of the Emperor Ferdinand II. The horror of war, which the ceiling with Mars has evoked, is thus averted and the walls of the Main Hall of Waldstein’s Palace acquire a symbolic dimension. It has become an impenetrable barrier to war, a guarantee of eternal peace.
Pieter de Jode (after a painting by Anthony van Dyck), Albrecht von Waldstein with Marshall’s baton, c. 1630
War trophies, which decorate the ceailing of the Main Hall, do not refer to any specific war. Nevertheless, we find here one concrete message. It is hidden in a stucco relief sculpture which is placed in an important position, in the South-East corner, where the 32
doors to the Knights’ Hall and Count’s apartments are. We find here the date 1623 and a cock, probably a signature of the creator of the stucco decoration of the Main Hall. The cock could be an emblem of stuccoer Santino Galli (gallus is cock in Latin), who in 1629 created the stucco decoration of the Sala Terrena.
War trophy on the ceiling of the Main Hall. On the shield is a cock and the date, 1623
Knights’ Hall and Antechamber Visitors entered the South wing through the Main Hall. In the South wing were three rooms with doors in a row. The increasing importance of the rooms was expressed by their varying size. At the beginning was the huge Main Hall, followed by the Knights’ Hall, where Waldstein received collective audiences. This was separated by the Antechamber from the Audience Hall, where the Duke received only the most important visitors. This quaternary arrangement was a direct import from Rome of that time, the aristocratic palaces of which served as a model for the Waldstein Palace interior. Today the Knights’ Hall is dominated by a monumental painting of Waldstein on horseback which dates from 1631, but the painting was brought to the Palace long after the Duke’s death (presumably from Valdice monastery). The painting was hung in 33
1877 in its present place above the fireplace, the idea coming from Countess Maria of Waldstein, who at that time supervised extensive reconstruction works in the Palace of her husband, Count Ernst von Waldstein. Albrecht von Waldstein’s portrait met the anticipations of Czech patriots, who expected to find allusions to the great Czech in the Palace. However, the portrait’s dominant position in the Knights’ Hall contradicts everything we know about the original decoration of the Palace. According to the inventory of the Palace furnishings, done right after Waldstein’s death (1634), there were no portraits of him or of members of his family. Instead, the Palace was full of portraits of members of the Habsburg Imperial Dynasty. Paintings of the Habsburgs were hanging in the ceremonial section of Waldstein Palace. In the Knights’ Hall, there were portraits of Emperor Ferdinand II and his wife and in the Antechamber, portraits of Ferdinand III and his wife. These were full-length, life-size representations, which was the most official type of portraiture. In both rooms, the Habsburg portraits were complemented by a series of twelve portraits of ancient Roman Emperors. From the 16th century onwards, such a portrait series was standard decoration in the public rooms of important residences. Its predecessor in Prague was in the palace of Emperor Rudolf II. The idea is rooted in ancient Rome, where Gajus Suetonius Tranquilius wrote his famous De vita caesarum, the biographies of the twelve founders of the ancient Roman Empire, from Caesar to Domitianus.
Petr Maixner, Minerva as a personification of victory and peace, 1877, ceiling of the Knights’ Hall. The painter could find traces of the original painting by Baccio Bianco, which he was able to recreate 34
The gallery of portraits which originally decorated the Knights’ Hall and Antechamber was meant to emphasise the continuity between the ancient Roman Empire and its successor, the Holy Roman Empire. At that time, it was firmly in Habsburg hands and this double portrait gallery thus also highlighted the dynastic idea. Just as in Ancient Rome, the rule passed from one Emperor to the next, in the Habsburg family, it passed from father to son. The decor of individual rooms in Waldstein’s Palace was interlinked, everything following a coherent pattern. In the Main Hall, Waldstein’s visitors were confronted with the personification of war, but in the following two rooms they were assured that the Imperial dynasty would not allow the fury of war to reign forever. The opposite number of the triumph of war on the ceiling of the Main Hall is the Golden Age, a key element in the Habsburg Imperial propaganda, which was explicitly celebrated in the Audience Hall. Audience Hall This Hall was richly decorated with a wall painting which Baccio Bianco created between 1623 and 1624. Venus’ visit to the workshop of her husband, where Vulcan is preparing the new armour for her son, Aeneas, is depicted on the ceiling. This was one of the most oftillustrated episodes from Vergil’s epic. Baccio Bianco followed the Dutch painters and conceived the mythical story as a scene from the then contemporary smithy, with which the simple dress of Venus and her informal position on the floor correspond. Amor playing with the iron net corresponds to the genre characteristics of the scene. In Vergil’s Aeneid Venus seduced Vulcan in the marital chamber to secure her plea: Venus … addresses Vulcan, and in her golden nuptial chamber thus begins, breathing into her words divine love … “I, who ne’er asked before, come a suppliant, and ask arms of the deity I revere, a mother for her son” … She ceased, and, as he falters, throws her snowy arms round him and fondles him in soft embrace. At once he caught the wonted flame; the familiar warmth passed into his marrow and ran through his melting frame ... the Lord of Fire rises from his soft couch to the work of his smithy … ”Away with all!” he cries; ”take hence your tasks begun, Cyclopes of Aetna, and hither turn your thoughts! Arms for a brave 35
warrior must ye make. Now is need of strength, now of swift hands, now of all your masterful skill. Fling off delay!” No more he said; but they with speed all bent to the toil, allotting the labour equally. The iron net, which Eros holds in his hands in the ceiling fresco, may ironically allude to Venus’ other story of seduction, her adultery with Mars. At that time, Vulcan imprisoned them under an iron net. But the net in this painting might just as well be part of the armour, with which Eros is playing.
Vulcan in his workshop with Venus and Amor
The Audience Hall was the heart of Waldstein’s Palace and its ceiling fresco was the key representation of the whole residence, its emblem. Thanks to Vulcan’s armour, Aeneas became Lord of Italy and founded the Iulian dynasty, from which not only the ancient Roman Emperors, but also their Habsburg successors derived their origins. In Vergil’s Aeneid there are two prophecies on which Habsburg Imperial mythology was founded. When Venus confided in Jupiter about her fears for Aeneas, the supreme god calmed her by predicting not only her son’s victory, but the glorious future of his kin as well: then Caesar shall be born, the Trojan from the noble family, whose empire shall reach to the sea and reputation to the stars. In the prophecy predicting the coming of the Golden Age under Imperial rule, Anchises told his son who was visiting him in the underworld: There he is, there–the promised man, how often you heard, Augustus 36
Caesar himself, the Divine son, who shall implement the Golden Age for us in Latio once again. In the Audience Hall, the coming of the Golden Age is celebrated by two sets of four paintings. On the vault, the succession of the ages culminating in the Golden Age are depicted and, on the wall, the ruler’s virtues, which are its precondition, are celebrated. The “historical” series decorates the vault, counter-clockwise. Beginning on the right of the entrance door, we see the battle of Olympian gods with Giants, Gigantomachy, Iron Age, Silver Age, and Golden Age. This reversal of the ages was prophesied in the famous Fourth Eclogue of Vergil: the great line of the centuries begins anew … a new generation descends from heaven on high… the iron brood shall at last cease and a golden race spring up throughout the world! The succession of the ages was known above all from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The illustrations of 1610 by Antonio Tempesta provided the models for the paintings, which was at that time a standard practice even for the best painters. The starting point of the Audience Hall decoration is Gigantomachy, which is depicted to the left of the entrance door, on the North wall. It is placed directly above the fireplace, the flames of which thus completed the characterisation of the Giants attacking Olympus.
Gigantomachy and Iron Age
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In the painting, the Giants are characterised by their huge size, nakedness and long hair. In the foreground they are lifting rocks, in the background, they are attacking heaven with branches. The Olympian gods are defending themselves from behind the clouds; Jupiter, in the middle, has a bolt of lightning, as Ovid describes him in Metamorphoses: Rendering the heights of heaven no safer than the earth, they say the giants attempted to take the Celestial kingdom, piling mountains up to the distant stars. Then the all-powerful father of the gods hurled his bolt of lightning. The basic difference between Gigantomachy and Titanomachy was that overcoming the Titans opened up the route to power for Jupiter, but Gigants rose up against him. Consequently, the defeat of Giants could be presented as a preview of later victories over other insurgents. In Habsburg Imperial iconography, Gigantomachy was a standard allusion to the Imperial opponents. The greatest internal enemies of Ferdinand II were the rebelling Bohemian Estates. After the Austrian and Hungarian Estates also joined their revolt, the Habsburg Empire was practically dissolved due to the Czech uprising. The defeat of the Czech Estates was therefore the greatest victory of Ferdinand II, and was appropriately immortalised in art. In 1622, Ferdinand II celebrated the victory over the Bohemian Estates and their “Winter King” Frederick with a medal containing his portrait and Gigantomachy on the reverse. On top, there is Justice and Jupiter, the alter ego of Ferdinand II, who is casting down the Giants with his bolt of lightning. In the prominent position on the bottom centre, we see a crushed Giant with the attributes of Frederick. He is lying on his back, with his hands helplessly outstretched. In his left hand he holds a sceptre, with his right hand he tries in vain to prevent the crown from falling off his head. The depiction is accompanied by Ferdinand’s motto: LEGITIME CERTANTIBUS. Since the Bohemian rebellion took place only a few years before Waldstein Palace was erected, it would be surprising not to find an echo of its suppression in its decoration. When we enter the Audience Hall, we have the representation of Gigantomachy on our left and that of the Iron Age on our right, about which Ovid writes in Metamorphoses: And now harmful iron appeared, and gold more harmful than iron. War came, whose struggles employ both, waving clashing arms with bloodstained hands. They lived on plunder. In the foreground 38
of the painting, an armoured rider attacks a soldier who is lying down and trying in vain to defend himself with a shield. In the background, soldiers capture a walled city to plunder it.
Silver Age and Golden Age
The theme of the two paintings on the opposite side of the vault was the prophesy of the coming of the Golden Age. When we proceed in a counter-clockwise direction, at first universal peace will come in the Silver Age. Then houses were first made for shelter, we read in Ovid’s poem, before that homes had been made in caves, and dense thickets, or under branches fastened with bark. Then seeds of corn were first buried in the long furrows, and bullocks groaned, burdened under the yoke. It is the age of universal peace to which a woman who sits with a child on her lap alludes, but it is also the age of hard work, symbolised by men with shovels and bags over their shoulders, a man ploughing the field with a pair of oxen and men digging a patch of ground. After the Silver Age, the coveted Golden Age will finally come, which is represented exactly as Ovid describes it in Metamorphoses: Without the use of armies, people passed their lives in gentle peace and security. The earth herself also, freely, without the scars of ploughs, untouched by hoes, produced everything from herself. Contented with food that grew without cultivation, they collected mountain strawberries and 39
the fruit of the strawberry tree, wild cherries, blackberries clinging to the tough brambles. In this age, human beings will have no enemies, which is suggested by a wild animal who is peacefully walking past the men. It will be a blessed age, in which everybody will have everything without working; they will only have to pick the fruit from trees. This terrestrial paradise is illustrated by relaxing, naked people and happy children immersed in play. The painting is located right next to the garden window. In the same way as the flames of the fireplace enhanced the horror of the Gigantomachy, the rustle of leaves, the gurgling of fountains and bird song enliven the representation of the eternal peace and universal bliss of the Golden Age.
Glory and Victory
Fame and Eternity
In the lunettes of the Audience Hall, we find four personifications. In the West, in an important position above the entrance doors, Glory is placed. It is represented by a bare-breasted woman with a cornucopia in her left hand, the symbol of fertility and plen40
ty. She looks upwards and has a radiance around her head; in her raised right hand she holds a golden figure, a symbol of victory. Baccio Bianco painted an almost identical personification in the Palace Chapel, at the top of the East wall. On the North wall, next to the Golden Age, Victory is bringing peace. This is a young woman flying through the air, in her right hand she holds a laurel wreath and in her left hand, a palm leaf. She treads on a heap of arms and armour with her right foot. Below her, there is another symbol of war, a burned-out city. The painter represented Victory in a yellow jacket and white dress, a symbol of victory untainted by any guilt. To the right of the entrance doors, on the South-West wall, Fame, with huge coloured wings, is holding a trumpet in her raised right hand. She is dressed in a light robe, hitched up to mid-calf, so that she is able to run quickly. When we proceed in a counterclockwise direction, we find Eternity, a woman sitting on a dark cloud, her left hand reposing on a crescent moon and pointing to the sun with her right hand. Two panels with putti connect the wall paintings with the ceiling fresco representing Vulcan making Aeneas’ armour at Venus’ request. Between the allegory of Eternity and Fame, there is a putto with a bolt of lighting and Amor’s bow, symbols of Jupiter’s and Venus’ patronage of Aeneas. The putto on the opposite wall, with a quiver on his back and holding the helmet of Aeneas, has a similar meaning. These personifications did not have a general meaning, they celebrated the fame of victory and the eternal glory of Aeneas’ descendants, the Holy Roman Emperors.
Putto with bolt of lightning and bow and putto with Aeneas’ helmet 41
Lower Gallery The marked multiplication of communicative options in the relatively small Audience Hall corresponds with its key position in the Palace. Here, Waldstein had at his disposal three doors and two windows, all of them strategically oriented. From the North window, which is to the left of the entrance, he could see the courtyard and thus control the entrance gate. From the East window, he could look out on to the garden, into which he could descend by a spiral staircase, the small door of which is on the left side of the garden window. The West door was used by visitors and through the North door, the Duke reached his private apartment.
Lower Gallery sealing
The Audience Hall is connected with Waldstein’s private apartment via a gallery, the ceiling of which is decorated by a cycle of sixteen wall paintings illustrating Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Baccio Bianco painted them between 1623 and 1624, using as models Antonio Tempesta’s illustrations of Metamorphoses, which were published in 1610. For some scenes, as models he also used older illustrations of Virgil Solis of 1563. The succession of scenes closely follows the literary work. The beginning of the world, with which Ovid started his poem, is represented at the door to the Audience Hall. The series ends at the doors to Waldstein’s study, where the 42
apotheoses of Aeneas and Romulus are depicted, which were described in the fourteenth book, which is the last but one. Through scenes arranged in analogical or contrasting pairs, the wall paintings in the Lower Gallery sum up the history of the universe. At the beginning of this corridor, above the door to the Audience Hall, primordial chaos is contrasted with the separation of the elements, which is represented on the right, where God already split off the earth from the sky, and the sea from the land, and divided the transparent heavens from the dense air (all quotations in this chapter are from Ovid’s Metamorphoses).
Creation of the world: chaos (left) and ordered world (right)
In the second field, we see the restoration of the human race by Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha, after the deluge. They covered their heads and loosened their clothes, and threw the stones needed behind them … quickly, through the power of the gods, stones the man threw took on the shapes of men, and women were remade from those thrown by the woman. Life is contrasted with Death–on the opposite side, Mercury kills Argus, whom he has lulled to sleep. Argus was Juno’s allseeing watchman who lost his life because he was ordered to guard Jupiter’s love, Io, transformed into a cow. Mercury strikes the nodding head, where it joins the neck, with his curved sword, and sends it bloody down the rocks, staining the steep cliff. Argus, you are overthrown, the light of your many eyes is extinguished, and one dark sleeps under so many eyelids. Juno took his eyes and set them into the feathers of her own bird, and filled the tail with star-like jewels. In the background, we see Juno planting Argus’ eyes into a peacock’s tail, an inversion of the action of Deucalion and Pyrrha: living eyes are transformed into lifeless ornaments. 43
Deucalion and Pyrrha and Argus’ death
Phaethon’s fall and Arcas and Callisto
Europa and Cadmus
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In the third field, the theme of the paintings is the fall and rise. When a foolish young man with his crazy ride in the sun’s chariot endangered the whole world, Jupiter thundered, and balancing a lightning bolt in his right hand threw it from eye-level at the charioteer, removing him, at the same moment, from the chariot and from life, extinguishing fire with fierce fire. Thrown into confusion the horses, lurching in different directions, wrench their necks from the yoke and throw off the broken harness. Phaethon’s fall from heaven is contrasted with Callisto and Arcas, who are ascending to be made into stars. Diana’s companion, Callisto, was seduced by Jupiter. Diana punished her cruelly for the loss of virginity: she was transformed into a bear. In form of a bear she was nearly killed by her son whom she had with Jupiter. And now Arcas … had reached his fifteenth year ignorant of his parentage. While he was hunting wild animals … he came across his mother … when she quickly came nearer he was about to pierce her chest with his lethal spear. All-powerful Jupiter restrained him and in the same moment removed them and the possibility of that wrong, and together, caught up through the void on the winds, he set them in the heavens and made them similar constellations, the Great and Little Bear. In the painting, we see Callisto in the form of a bear ascending into heaven, in the background. In the foreground, is her son with a quiver on his back, the upper part of his body already in the shape of the future constellation. In the fourth field, we find the story of the Phoenician siblings, who left Tyrus and brought culture to Europe. Jupiter, in the shape of a bull, furtively carried Europa away, first from dry land and then from the shoreline, gradually slips his deceitful hooves into the waves. Then he goes further out and carries his prize over the mid-surface of the sea. She is terrified and looks back at the abandoned shore she has been stolen from and her right hand grips a horn, the other his back, her clothes fluttering, winding, behind her in the breeze. In her new home, Crete, Europa founded a famous dynasty, and her brother Cadmus, who set out to find her, founded Thebes on the Greek mainland. But first he had to kill a dragon, from the teeth of which the army was born. Alarmed by this new enemy Cadmus was about to take up his weapons: “Keep away,” one of the army, that the earth had produced, cried at him, “and take no part in our internal wars!” So saying he raised his sharp sword against one of his earth-born brothers nearby, then, himself, fell to a spear thrown from far off. 45
In the fifth field, there are two deaths caused by sight. Actaeon is hunting, but as soon as he reaches the cave mouth dampened by the fountain, the naked nymphs, seeing a man’s face, beat at their breasts and filling the whole wood with their sudden outcry, crowd round Diana to hide her with their bodies. But the goddess stood head and shoulders above all the others … she stood turning to one side, and looking back, and wishing she had her arrows to hand. She caught up a handful of the water that she did have, and threw it in the man’s face. And … she gave the horns of a mature stag to the head she had sprinkled. Actaeon, who was transformed into a stag, was killed by his own dogs. Actaeon died, because he saw what no one should see, Diana’s nakedness. Narcissus saw what everybody knows, one’s own face, nevertheless it cost him his life. While he drinks he is seized by the vision of his reflected form. He loves a bodiless dream. He thinks that a body, that is only a shadow. He is astonished by himself, and hangs there motionless, with a fixed expression, like a statue.
Actaeon and Narcissus
In the sixth field, a pair of stories is depicted, in which blood plays the main role, giving life and causing death. The lost dress of his lover, which was bloodied by a lion, was misinterpreted by Pyramus and he committed suicide. When Thisbe found him and saw he was dying, she said: “Unhappy boy, your own hand, and your love, have destroyed you! I too have a firm enough hand for once, and I, too, love “… placing the point under her heart, she fell forward onto the blade, still warm with his blood. On the opposite side, Pegasus is born from Medusa’s blood. Perseus struck her head from her neck. And the swift winged horse Pegasus and his brother the warrior Chrysaor, were born from their mother’s blood. 46
The death of Thisbe and the birth of Pegasus
In the seventh field, there are two tragic descents. Pluto carrying Proserpina to Hades, the ravisher whipped up his chariot, and urged on the horses, calling them by name, shaking out the shadowy, darkdyed, reins, over their necks and manes, through deep pools, they say, and the sulphurous reeking swamps of the Palici, vented from a crevice of the earth. On the opposite side, Icarus is falling from heaven, when his nearness to the devouring sun softened the fragrant wax that held the wings: and the wax melted: he flailed with bare arms, but losing his oarlike wings, could not ride the air.
Pluto’s rape of Proserpine and Icarus’ fall
The double fall in the seventh field makes a dramatic contrast with the double apotheosis in the last field, where the preparation of Aeneas for his final journey is contrasted with Romulus’ triumphal ascent into heaven. In the painting on the left, we see 47
Venus, drawn by her team of doves through the clear air, she came to the coast of Laurentum, where the waters of the River Numicius, hidden by reeds, wind down to the neighbouring sea. She ordered the river-god to cleanse Aeneas, of whatever was subject to death, and bear it away, in his silent course, into the depths of the ocean … Once purified, his mother anointed his body with divine perfume, touched his lips with a mixture of sweet nectar and ambrosia, and made him a god. In the scene on the right, we see Mars, leaning on his spear, he vaulted, fearlessly, into his chariot … he landed on the summit of the wooded Palatine. There he caught up Romulus, son of Ilia, as he was dealing royal justice to his people. The king’s mortal body dissolved in the clear atmosphere, like the lead bullet, that often melts in mid-air, hurled by the broad thong of a catapult. Now he has beauty of form … as is worthier of the sacred high seats of the gods.
The deifications of Aeneas and Romulus
The Lower Gallery is known in modern literature as the Mythological Gallery. However, the main function of the strange tales from the mythical past which decorate its ceiling was to prepare the ground for the key scenes at the doors of the Duke’s study. The apotheosis of Aeneas, who is assisted by his mother Venus, and the apotheosis of Romulus, whom his father Mars drives to heaven, were not only a mythical past, but above all, a promise of a splendid future. Aeneas and Romulus were not only mythical heroes, but also ancestors of the ruling dynasty, which was in this way being celebrated. The decoration of the Upper Gallery, which is not accessible to the public, corroborates this reading of the Lower Gallery.
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Upper Gallery In the East wing of the Palace of Albrecht von Waldstein, there are two galleries, one above the other. The Upper Gallery connected the bedrooms of Waldstein’s wife and the room which was probably destined at the outset to be the children’s bedroom. The ceiling paintings by Baccio Bianco from 1623-1624, which decorate the gallery, have not the intimate character we might expect. On the contrary, the celebration of the Imperial House dominates these paintings, as if it was a public space.
Personifications of continents: Africa and Asia
Personifications of continents: America and Europe 49
The Habsburg world rule is alluded to by a series of representations of the four continents on the East wall, variations on models in the Iconology of Cesare Ripa, the illustrated edition of which was published for the first time in 1603. On the ceiling, the cosmic dimension of the Holy Roman Empire is glorified. We find here personifications of seven planets, which are accompanied on both sides by the relevant signs of the Zodiac. On the northern side, the series begins with the Moon, followed by Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The planets are arranged in the traditional manner, in the order in which they supposedly orbited the earth.
Moon (Diana) and Venus
Sun (Sol) and Mars
Jupiter and Saturn 50
The modern name for the Upper Gallery, the Astrological Gallery, is misleading. There is no depiction of a specific constellation of planets in it, there is not even the slightest hint at Astrology, only the traditional Christian reading of the stars, namely as a link between Earth and the upper Heaven, the abode of God. After Saturn, the eighth and highest sphere follows the wall, behind which the bedroom of Waldstein’s daughter was situated. The wall is decorated by two superimposed personifications flanked by symbols, exactly as on the northern side. But while, on the northern side, plenty and public wellbeing are celebrated in general terms, on the southern wall, we find allusion to the ruling dynasty.
Allegory of the wise rule of Ferdinand II on the southern wall of Upper Gallery
On the southern wall, we find a crowned woman with a peacock, the attribute of ancient goddess Juno, on the left there is a sceptre and on the right a peacock. The Junoesque figure is a personification of Virtue: as a peacock shines with its own feathers, so Virtue shines with a light of its own. Below the woman with a peacock, there is a young man with a wreath and spear in his hand, symbols of victory and of rule. On the left, there are two sceptres inserted into an Imperial crown, on the right, there are two palm leaves inserted into a crown with spikes. This was the personal emblem of Emperor Ferdinand II, which we already encountered in the Main Hall. The young man with a wreath thus celebrates victorious rule, which is explicitly specified as the rule of Ferdinand II. 51
Sala Terrena The garden of the Waldstein residence is accessible from the first courtyard, through an inconspicuous door situated in the East wing. The architect hid the door to the garden, the better to surprise visitors who were totally unprepared for the fabulous view awaiting behind it. When they entered the door, they found themselves in the antechamber of paradise. Behind the door is a small loggia which heralds a radical change in architectural language. On its ceilings, we see artificial stalactites, which blur the borderlines between palace and garden, culture and nature.
Waldstein’s grotto
From the small loggia, one can enter an artificial cave, which is closed to the public. The ceiling and walls are entirely covered by stalactites. Waldstein could refresh himself on a hot day in the marble basin, but this was not so much a bathroom as a water sanctuary. The function of this room was primarily symbolic. In Italian 16th-century villas, we often find nymphaia, the sanctuaries of nymphs, a revival of ancient Roman polytheism and the cult of 52
natural forces. Water running from a nymphaion situated in a villa connected the building with the surrounding nature. Waldstein Palace introduced to Central Europe an entirely new concept of residential architecture which systematically differentiated street and garden fronts. The external facade is compact, strictly symmetrical, and flat. It reveals nothing about what it hides, and a passer-by had no chance of discovering anything about Waldstein’s private life. He was instructed exclusively that inside lived a man burdened with state functions and honorary ranks. The garden facade, on the contrary, has a broken surface, it is asymmetrical, developed in depth and we can read it like a book. The pronounced polarity of the facades made visible the dual character of the owner, which was a concept that in 16th century Europe took over from the ancient Roman Emperors. The external facade presented the owner as an almighty and inaccessible god, while the facade facing the garden characterised him as a man of flesh and blood who fully enjoyed earthly pleasures.
Sala Terrena. To the right of the Sala Terrena, there is a vertical row of small rhomboid windows illuminating the spiral staircase connecting Waldstein’s grotto, Audience Hall and the bedroom of the ducal daughter. To the left of the Sala Terrena, there is, above the blind arcade row of windows, an illuminated corridor in which Waldstein could walk around the garden
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Sala terrena. The interior with rich stucco and painted decorations
The most ambitious part of the Waldstein Palace architecture is no doubt the impressive Sala Terrena, in the terminology of that time, loggia, because the term Sala Terrena started to be used only from the 18th century. The Sala Terrena of Waldstein Palace is the rightly famous masterpiece of Giovanni Battista Pieroni. It is no ordinary garden building, but an architectonic and conceptual dominant of the Palace complex, which is stressed by its gigantic size, sumptuous decoration and the way it detaches itself from the garden. The Sala Terrena is raised on to a podium and, moreover, only its middle bay is accessible by a flight of steps from the garden. The side bays are closed off by a balustrade. The Sala Terrena, as a rule, integrated palace and garden. But in this case, the communication was deliberately restricted. Sala Terrena of Waldstein Palace is optically part of the garden, but the control of physical movement transformed it into a theatrical stage. People in the Duke’s garden 54
were thus divided into spectators and Albrecht von Waldstein (and his prominent guests). The Imperial nature of the Sala Terrena is indicated by its rich decoration. The niches in the walls are now empty, but the painted decoration has survived. It is decorated with 24 paintings and 10 small panels from 1628-1629. In these, a painter from the workshop of Baccio Bianco celebrated the Trojan hero, Aeneas. The sequence of paintings begins with the Sacrifice of Polyxena on the northern wall, behind which was situated the Audience Hall. The foremost Greek hero, Achilles, fell in love with the unfortunate daughter of the king of Troy. He asked her father, Priam, to give her to him and promised to end the siege of Troy if he could have her for his wife. When Paris, with the help of Apollo, shot the hero with a poisoned arrow in his only vulnerable spot, Achilles thought Polyxena had betrayed him, because he had told his secret only to her. When the victorious Greeks wanted to leave Troy, the spirit of Achilles appeared before them, ordering Polyxena to be sacrificed on his grave.
The sacrifice of Polyxena
As a model, the painter used the Antonia Tempesta illustration of Ovid’s Metamorphoses where the tragic story is narrated in detail: The crowd could not restrain its tears, that she restrained. Then the priest, also weeping, and against his will, driving his sword home, pierced the breast she offered up. Her knees gave way, and she sank to the ground, 55
keeping her look of fearless courage to the end. Even then, as she fell, she was careful to hide the parts that should be hidden, and to protect the honour of her chaste modesty. In the foreground, Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek army which destroyed Troy, is sitting on a throne. He is raising his hand, because did not approve of Polyxena’s sacrifice. On the southern side of the Sala Terrena, there is a scene with Neptune raising his trident to calm a sea storm. This composition was invented by Raphael and is known as “Quos ego,” after the relevant verse from the Aeneid, in which Neptune rebukes the disobedient elements: Has pride in your birth so gained control of you? Do you now dare, winds, without command of mine, to mingle earth and sky, and raise confusion thus? Whom I (Quos ego) –! But better it is to calm the troubled waves.
Quos Ego
The painting celebrated the end of Aeneas’ wanderings, while the painting on the opposite side of the Sala Terrena evoked its beginning. With the death of Polyxena, the Trojan war was definitively ended and Aeneas’ distressful wanderings began. This ended only thanks to Neptune’s intervention, which made possible the successful landing in Italy of Aeneas’ army. On the side wall of the Sala Terrena, Aeneas’ adventurous passage from Troy to Latium is depicted and is literally underlined on the northern and southern walls of the Sala Terrena by a triad of similarly conceived panels. In this lower register on both sides there is a Triton flanked by Nereids. 56
Sea creatures on the Northern wall
In the interpretation of the paintings in the Sala Terrena, visitors are guided by the plaster genii, which are incorporated in the architectural decoration of the walls. While the genii on the sides of Polyxena are turning away from the tragic scene, on the opposite wall the genii are rejoicing in Neptune’s timely intervention. The genius on the right is triumphantly pointing to the stormy heavens which the God of the Oceans has tamed. The genius sitting beneath the image of the “pious Aeneas” depicted on the western wall is the only one in the Sala Terrena who is also looking at a painting, as well as pointing to it. In this way, he is advising visitors to start their inspection of the paintings right at that point. In three lunettes on the western wall of the Sala Terrena, there are paintings, the main hero of which is Aeneas. On the left, in the southern lunette, we find the well known pictorial type of “Pious Aeneas,” in which the hero, accompanied by Iulus, carries his father Anchises from the burning Troy. The painter followed Antonio Tempesta’s illustration of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In Vergil’s Aeneid, the hero explains why he has to carry his father on his back: Come then, dear father, mount upon my neck; on my own shoulders I will support you…. Let little Iulus come with me, and let my wife follow our steps at a distance … Father, take in your arms the sacred emblems of our country’s household gods; for me, fresh from fierce battle and recent slaughter, it would be sinful to handle them until I have washed myself clean in running water.
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“Pious Aeneas”
Genius sitting beneath the painting of the “pious Aeneas”
The series continues on the opposite, northern side, of the western wall with the Trojan attack on Laurentum, the capital city of the Latins defended by Camilla. We see her on horseback in the left corner, the rider in front of her being Aeneas. When the capital of the Latins was besieged, Aeneas set off on a dangerous journey through a mountain pass in order to attack Laurentum from its undefended side. Turnus discovered his plan and lay in ambush there to kill Aeneas. However, when Turnus learned that Camilla had fallen, he had to return to the defence of Laurentum. Thanks to
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this development, Aeneas was able to reach the Laurentum battlefield safely and to win the war. The painter’s inspiration was an illustration of Aeneas’ epic published for the first time in 1559, in which the main events of the 11th book were summed up. In the accompanying text we read: Aeneas arrives at the enemy city. Everybody starts to fight, the Trojans start to prevail and also Camilla was killed.
Camilla (left) and Aeneas (centre)
The duel of Aeneas and Turnus
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The illustration of Aeneid culminates in the middle lunette depicting the closing scene of the whole epic, Aeneas’ hesitation before his deadly blow. When Turnus was defeated, he begged Aeneas to spare his life, and the hero hesitated: fierce in his arms, Aeneas stood with rolling eyes, and stayed his hand; and now more and more, as he paused, these words began to sway him. The duel of Aeneas and Turnus, together with the depiction of Pious Aeneas, was the most oft-illustrated scene of the whole Aeneid. On the vault of the Sala Terrena, between the lunettes and arches of the arcades, there are eight figures from ancient myths accompanied by inscriptions. The choice and placement of these heroes and heroines is coherent. They are divided into three groups, the Greeks besieging Troy, the Trojans defending their city and the Trojans and their enemies in Italy. The duel between Aeneas and Turnus in the central lunette is flanked by the relevant figures of Aeneas and Pallas. The choice is obvious: Pallas was killed by Turnus and his death was avenged by Aeneas. On the opposite side of the Sala Terrena, Turnus and Camilla are depicted, the main opponents of the Trojans in Italy. As is to be expected, Turnus is facing his adversary, Aeneas. The quartet of protagonists from Vergil’s Aeneid represented in the middle of the Sala Terrena is flanked by the heroes of the Trojan War represented in all four corners. On the northern side, two defenders of Troy, Hector and Penthesilea, are depicted. Hector is thus placed next to his sister Polyxena, whose sacrifice is represented on the northern wall. On the southern side are two protagonists of the Greek invasion army, Achilles and Odysseus, with a statuette of Minerva which he stole from Troy. Penthesilea does not figure in the Iliad, but in a later epic cycle she played a prominent role, as the main defender of Troy after Hector’s death. Achilles and Penthesilea became tragic lovers, because their mutual love burst into flames the second Achilles was killing her. It is probably not accidental that Achilles and Mars’ daughter, Penthesilea, are facing each other diagonally. The heroes from the Aeneid, represented in the middle of the Sala Terrena, also formed couples, whose affectionate relationship by far surpassed that of commander and devoted officer. What Pallas meant to his superior Aeneas, Turnus meant to his officer, the Amazon, Camilla.
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Odysseus and Achilleus
Aeneas and Pallas
Camilla and Turnus 61
Hector and Penthesilea
The culmination of the Sala Terrena decoration was on its ceiling where there are three panels with Olympian gods, the arrangement of which is tied closely to the depictions on the vault and in the lunettes. The middle panel represents Jupiter, flanked by Juno, the main divine opponent of Aeneas, and Venus, his main protector. On the southern ceiling panel, above two Greek protagonists of the Trojan war, Odysseus and Achilles, we see an assembly of gods who sided with the Greeks: Minerva, Juno, Neptune, Vulcanus, and Mercury. On the left, there is a small panel with the emblem of the main supporters of the Greeks, Juno’s peacock, on the right is Jupiter’s eagle.
Venus and Amor, Jupiter, and Juno 62
Minerva, Juno, Neptune, Vulcanus and Mercury
Venus and Amor, Apollo, Mars, Diana and river god Xanthus/ Skamandros
On the northern side of the ceiling, above the main defenders of Troy, Hector and Penthesilea, represented in the northern corners, we see an assembly of gods who sided with the Trojans: Venus, Apollo, Mars, Diana, and the river god Xanthos/Skamandros. On its sides, there are two small panels with Venus’ birds, the swan and dove. The painter who decorated the Sala Terrena also painted a cycle of paintings with Argonauts on the ceiling of the Banquet Room, which is behind the doors on its southern wall. The depiction of the quest for the Golden Fleece was a response to a very important event in Waldstein’s life, which considerably heightened his identification with the Holy Roman Empire. In 1628, he received the Order of the Golden Fleece, the highest Habsburg honour, in which the myths of Jason and the Argonauts were updated. 63
Scenes on the ceiling of the Banquet Room depicting several mythical episodes of the expedition of Argonauts for Golden fleece
Already in antiquity, the eastern journey of the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece had been identified with Titus’ journey to the insurgent Palestine, from where he brought the treasure of the Jerusalem temple to Rome. Due to this association, the mythical Colchis, where the Golden Fleece was kept, was identified with Jerusalem and the Argonauts became a model for all who tried to liberate the grave of Jesus Christ from the hands of the pagans. The Order of the Golden Fleece was founded in 1429 with the explicit aim of liberating Jerusalem from Turkish rule. Ancient myth was interpreted along Christian lines and the Golden Fleece was identified with the mystical Divine Lamb. The Grand Master of the Order, the ruling Habsburg Emperor, thus became its greatest protector. The decoration of the Dining hall and Sala Terrena was inspired by ancient myths, but its message was the celebration of the 64
Habsburg dynasty, the Holy Roman Empire and its historical mission. Jason’s eastern expedition in search of the Golden Fleece was a prefiguration of Alexander the Great’s conquests and his Eastern Empire. However, much more important for the future of mankind was the duel of Aeneas and Turnus, which was represented in the most important place in the Sala Terrena, in the central lunette of its back wall. This victory enabled the descendants of the great Trojan to become not only Lords of Italy, but also of the whole world. Garden When we look around the garden, we see on top of the walls the covered walkways on consoles through which Waldstein could reach everywhere. Without leaving the Palace, he could go, for example, from his bedroom to the Riding Hall at the very end of the garden. From the small windows of these walkways, he saw everything, without himself being seen. In his Palace garden, he could be invisible and omnipresent, like a god.
Riding Hall
Around the perimeter of Waldstein’s garden, various buildings are arranged, with the Sala Terrena as its optical and ideological centre. In the South is a huge aviary. On the opposite side, but further to the East, there is a protruding square building which divides the garden into two sections. Waldstein’s pages were lodged and instructed in this building, therefore it served as a visual symbol of the owner’s impressive court. The eastern end of the garden is optically extended by a large pool in which the facade of 65
the imposing Riding Hall is mirrored. This was a worthy counterpart of the Palace at the opposite side of the garden. In Waldstein’s time, riding halls were attributes of the most important residences. In Prague, its only equivalent was at the Imperial seat of Prague Castle, where the Ball Game Hall (1567-69) served also as a riding hall. A striking feature of the garden is the monumental aviary situated to the South of the Sala Terrena. It catches the eye with its stalactite walls, similar to the adjoining stretch of South wall decorated in the same way. In the middle of this wall, there was originally an entrance to the great stalactite cave with a pond. In it Waldstein’s visitors could find shade and fresh air on hot summer days. This dark and damp cave, which was also the opposite number in everything else to the sunny Sala Terrena, was one of the key spaces of the garden. Since it has not been preserved, the garden is a fragment, which in its present shape, does not make sense. That is why we must pause here for a while.
Aviary 66
Central cave behind the stalactite wall of Waldstein garden (stalactites cut off)
Let us sit down in the shade and contemplate what we see around us, only in this way can we assume the role of Waldstein’s visitors. The inhabitants of Prague at the time of Waldstein were no doubt dumbfounded by these artificial caves and stalactite architectural features. And we must stress that, later on, no garden has surpassed Waldstein in this respect. Even today, the southern part of the Waldstein garden strikes us as extraneous and out of keeping with the rest of the residence, because it has no predecessors and no followers of this scale in transalpine Europe. The models of this extraordinary complex are in Renaissance Italy and in classical antiquity. The great cave of Waldstein Palace has not been preserved, but we have descriptions of the ancient caves which served as its models. Let us visit some of them. Firstly, we visit two caves of Diana, the mythical original in Greek Boiotia and a copy, with which a city house was decorated. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Diana’s cave in which poor Actaeon strayed, is described in detail and also its origin is explained. There is a valley called Gargaphia; sacred to Diana, dense with pine trees and the pointed cypress, where, deep in the woods that fringed the valley’s edge, was hollowed in frail sandstone and the soft white pumice of the hills an arch, so true it seemed the art of man; for Nature’s touch ingenious had so fairly wrought the stone. Ingenuity (ingenium) is therefore the 67
common denominator of Nature and Man - ingenious Nature imitates Art and ingenious Man imitates Nature. In Apuleius’ Metamorphoses, which are better known as The Golden Ass, the hero admires the statues of Diana and Actaeon which are in an artificial cave, which looked exactly as if Nature had created it. In the middle of a house there arose a rock in the shape of a grotto, with moss and grass and leaves and branches, vines here and shrubs there, a whole plantation in stone ... Round the edge of the rock there hung grapes and other fruits so cunningly modelled that art had outdone nature in making them seem real. Art imitates Nature, but not in order to create something different. For the ancient Greeks and Romans, Art was a means of becoming again an integral part of Nature. Man returned from whence he came–a cave.
Huge stalactite wall in the Waldstein garden
In Homer’s Odyssey we read about the cave of Phorcys, the old man of the sea, in which nymphs weave purple robes of indescribable beauty on stone looms. It is a cave of Art which has two entrances, one toward the North Wind, by which men go down, but that toward the South Wind is sacred, nor do men enter thereby; it is the way of the immortals. Man and God are living in separate worlds, which intersect in Phorcys’ cave, or, in other words, in Art, of which this 68
cave is a symbol. In 16th-century Italy, the caves, grotte, again became part of the human residence, as its opposite number and model. In the grotte of Italian palaces and their transalpine imitations, nature and culture, the world of gods and the world of humans are interwoven. People were fascinated by grotte because they saw in them the infinite cosmos, into which they could step. Now we understand the enormous size of the stalactite wall in the Waldstein garden. The gigantic dimension was necessary to transform the wall into a backdrop. We must not forget that the man behind the conception of the Waldstein residence was Pieroni, a pupil of Buontalenti, at his time the greatest stage designer. In order to enter a cave during a theatrical performance, we must not be surrounded on all sides by stalactite walls. One is sufficient, but it must be big enough to fill the entire back stage, the rest we can add in our imagination. The stalactite wall transformed the entire Waldstein Garden into a cave, the ideal place for philosophical meditation. Italian gardens of the 16th century, which inspired Waldstein’s garden, always had an important philosophical dimension. The Palace garden was created not only to divert and entertain, or in order to celebrate the creator, but also as a place where one could clear one’s mind of the problems of everyday life and pose the fundamental questions of one’s existence. Where have I come from and where am I going? What am I, after all? When we take a closer look, we discover that the grey stalactite walls in the Waldstein garden are actually full of life. There are countless snakes, frogs, cats, and other animals, but above all, hundreds of grotesque heads of all sizes. There are miniature heads hidden behind the stalactites, as well as a large number of huge monstrous heads grinning at visitors. All visitors ask the same question: Who are they? And they reply: When you can answer this question, you shall know who you are. In the beginning of Metamorphoses, Ovid wrote: I want to speak about bodies changed into new forms. You, gods ... you are the ones who alter these, and all other things. Similarly to the tales in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the stalactite walls in the Waldstein garden were understood as fantastic images capturing the true essence of the world through their illusory nature. In fact, the whole wall is a living creature of its kind, the dead rock starts to pulsate with vital 69
energy wherever we look carefully, so we cannot tell where the artificial rock ends and the living organism begins. The whole cosmos forms an indivisible whole and we, human beings, are its integral part. In principle, a human being does not differ from stone. We can read in Ovid’s Metamorphoses about the men-stones, which Deucalion and Pyrrha were throwing behind them. The stones, and who would believe it if it were not for ancient tradition, began to lose their rigidity and hardness, and after a while softened, and once softened acquired new form. Then after growing, and ripening in nature, a certain likeness to a human shape could be vaguely seen, like marble statues at first inexact and roughly carved. The earthy part, however, wet with moisture, turned to flesh; what was solid and inflexible mutated to bone; the veins stayed veins … So the toughness of our race, our ability to endure hard labour, and the proof we give of the source from which we are sprung. Behind the decoration of the walls of Waldstein’s garden was the idea of the interconnectedness of living and non-living Nature. The grotesque creatures hidden in the artificial stalactite walls became an instrument of poetic metamorphosis, not only of Nature, but also of History. They demonstrated the totality of the world, the unity of the present, a dreamlike timelessness and a legendary past. These stalactite walls decorated with grotesque figures were understood as an encyclopaedic summary of all possible relationships and meanings.
Detail of stalactite wall 70
Garden Statues The actual placement of the garden statues unfortunately does not correspond to the original situation, but this can easily be corrected in our imagination. Today, the fountain with a bronze statue of Venus with Amor is situated in front of the Sala Terrena. It is the work in 1599 of Benedikt Wurzelbauer and the Rudolphine sculptor, Nikolaus Pfaff (the original is in the Gallery of Prague Castle). Waldstein bought the statue from the Lobkovic family in 1630, but he did not place it in front of the Sala Terrena. In Waldstein’s time, an elaborate fountain with bronze sculptures stood on this site, which summed up the message of the Duke’s Prague residence. The fountain was crowned by Neptune and its decoration consisted also of four dogs, four horse heads, two lion heads and two gryphon heads. It was complemented by four bronze sculptural groups on marble bases which stood between the fountain and the Sala Terrena - Laocoon and his son, the Wrestlers, Venus with Adonis, and Bacchus with the little Satyr. These statues were created between 1623 and 1627 in the Prague studio of the celebrated Adrien de Vries, former court sculptor to Emperor Rudolf II. In 1648, the statues were stolen by the Swedish army and moved to Drottningholm, where they became the pride of the residence of the Swedish kings. In 1910, copies of all the sculptures which had decorated the Neptune fountain were made. Today they are installed in the Waldstein garden, but not in their original site. They are arranged along the axis of the Sala Terrena, together with the statue of Apollo. This statue is not dated and probably it was never exhibited in the garden because, after Waldstein’s death, a white box was found in his Palace which contained “a metal statue of Apollo.” Other copies of de Vries’ statues can be seen in various locations in the garden, but it is not certain that they originally decorated Waldstein’s garden. In 1625, Adrien de Vries created a statue of Laocoon, which was to crown the fountain in front of the Sala Terrena, but, at Waldstein’s request, it was replaced by Neptune. This change was evidently very important for Waldstein, because his order seriously endangered the completion of the garden sculptures. At that time, Adrien de Vries was in his seventies and he died soon afterwards. 71
The Neptune statue, the last work of the master, was completed in his studio after his death, in 1627.
Apollo and Laocoon
Before we ask why Waldstein preferred Neptune, we must ask ourselves what made Adrien de Vries choose the Laocoon myth. All the sculptures which de Vries created for Waldstein represented classical themes and could have had the same function as those created by this sculptor for the Imperial residence of Rudolf II at Prague Castle. Namely, to turn Prague into a second Rome. This seems logical because an ancient Roman group statue depicting the death of Laocoon and his sons was a famous icon of Rome. It was a highlight of the Papal collection at the Vatican. But the Prague Laocoon is not a copy of an ancient original, it is the very first variation on this ancient theme in European monumental sculpture. The Vatican statue was often copied, but in spite of its enormous popularity, or because of it, no sculptor before de Vries depicted the story of Laocoon in a way which differed from the Vatican original. It is to be noted that the second variation on the Laocoon theme was created two centuries later. It follows from this that Adrien de Vries’ Laocoon is absolutely exceptional. For de Vries, the depicted subject was evidently more important than a reference to the ancient marble statue in Rome, with which his Laocoon has only the mythical story which it represents in common. 72
What could make Laocoon topical in Central Europe at the beginning of the 17th century? Laocoon was the Trojan priest who revolted against the gods’ decision that his city must be captured by the Greeks and he was immediately cruelly punished. When he wanted to sacrifice to Neptune, two snakes emerged from the sea and strangled him together with both his sons. Laocoon had to die because Troy had to be burned to allow Aeneas to arrive in Italy, this sequence of events later leading to the birth of Rome and its world empire. Laocoon, as a token of God’s plan, thus legitimised Imperial rule on earth. Adrien de Vries’ Laocoon might also allude to the defeat of the Bohemian Estates in the Battle of White Mountain in 1620. When the theme of Laocoon appeared in art of that time, it was always in a negative context, as an example of justly punished transgression. In the Waldstein garden, an impious Laocoon would become a negative counterpart to the pious Aeneas, who was the ancestor and alter ego of the Emperor. But Waldstein decided that Neptune would better fit into the programme of the decoration of his palace, and we must ask what could have been his motivation. Adrien de Vries’s Neptune calming the sea alludes to the relevant passage in the Aeneid, which is also illustrated in the Sala Terrena. This oft-imitated “Quos ego” type of Neptune was created by Raphael and owes its enormous popularity to Marcantonio Raimondi’s engraving of 1515-1516. It represents the angry god, who holds reins in his left hand, and the trident, which he holds in his right hand, is clearly menacing. But Adrien de Vries’ Neptune does not raise his weapon to strike; he holds it as an attribute in his left hand, moreover he hides it behind his back. He holds the terrible trident in reverse, with the spikes pointing downwards–this detail was de Vries’ invention because we do not find it on any other Neptune statue of this type. The contrast to Raphael’s aggressive Neptune could not be greater. The Neptune of Adrien de Vries has his right hand raised in a way which compares the ancient god to a mortal orator, calming the disorderly crowd. It was an evident allusion to the subsequent verses in the Aeneid, in which Vergil compared Neptune calming the sea to a man who resolutely stands up in the middle of a civil riot and calms the mutineers with his wise words. And as, when ofttimes in a great nation tumult has risen, the base rabble rage angrily, 73
and now brands and stones fly, madness lending arms; then, if perchance they set eyes on a man honoured for noble character and service, they are silent and stand by with attentive ears; with speech he sways their passion and soothes their breasts: just so, all the roar of ocean sank, soon as the Sire, looking forth upon the waters and driving under a clear sky, guides his steeds and, flying onward, gives reins to his willing car. Vergil’s verses were a transparent allusion to Emperor Augustus’ role in the civil war. Thanks to this, the iconographic type entered the propagandistic art of Waldstein’s time.
Neptune calming the sea
The Prague Neptune corresponds to the way the god was represented in the Art of that time and Adrien de Vries intensified the image of peacemaker by small details. Nevertheless, his Neptune is as powerful and authoritative as that of Raphael. In Prague, Neptune’s enemies were represented by a dog, another addition of Adrien de Vries, which is absolutely unique in the iconography of this god. Neptune was often represented with horses or dolphins, but never with a dog. The dog would suit Pluto, but the statue no doubt represents Neptune, de Vries stressed this by adding small dolphins to his trident. The dog represents the rebels to which Vergil’s description of Neptune calming the sea alludes. It could also allude to the defeated Bohemian Estates. It is a conspicuously small dog, when 74
compared with Neptune. The dog is no monster, merely a dog which got into a fury and was quickly pacified by his master. He stands with head threateningly lowered, trying to be scary, but only at distance, because Neptune’s authority does not allow him to leave the place between his feet.
Wrestlers (left). Venus and Adonis (right)
Neptune’s fountain in the Waldstein garden was originally complemented by four statues, which are all mentioned in the correspondence between Waldstein and Adrien de Vries. The Wrestlers, which was created in 1625, according to the inscription on its base, might be a distant echo of an ancient Roman statue, but most probably it was also an allusion to the defeat of the Bohemian rebels. Adrien de Vries characterised his statue as a “group of those who wrestle with each other,” but their actions do not correspond to this description, because the fight is already decided. The left wrestler is represented in a deep forward bend; evidently he is trying to pull the right wrestler down to the ground with both his hands. With his left hand, he has grasped his opponent’s shoulder and with the other hand his thigh. He is the aggressor; he started the fight, while the right wrestler only resolutely reacts to his action and successfully defends himself. 75
The victor is represented standing firmly upright with legs apart, but he is not attacking, he holds the aggressor’s hands with both his hands so that he can force them away from his body. The right wrestler is evidently the winner, because in the following moment, the aggressor will be lying on the ground. The allegorical content of the wrestlers is made clear by the laurel wreath which is depicted on the ground, a prize awaiting the victor, who fought with honour. The wreath also appears in the 1624 group with Venus and Adonis, although it is never included in depictions of this mythical couple! Over the hundred-year period around 1600, Venus and Adonis was a very fashionable theme in painting and we often find it in the Prague Court Art of Rudolf II. Two scenes were most often depicted, Venus trying to stop Adonis from departing on the fateful boar hunt and Venus lamenting his death. The representation of Adonis’ departure was noticeably stereotyped; we repeatedly see a seated Venus trying to embrace Adonis, who is walking away. The Prague statue seemingly conforms to this type, because Venus is also represented on the ground and she is raising her hands towards the walking Adonis. But the hunter is not departing, he is returning from a successful hunt with the game over his shoulder! Adonis’ triumphant return is highlighted by the wreath in Venus’ raised hand, which occupies a central position in the group. In Waldstein’s time, the standard allegorical reading of the Adonis myth was centred on the hero’s refusal of divine counsel, his departure from Venus and its tragic consequence. This would make Adonis a perfect counterpart to Laocoon, who also did not obey and had to pay for it. But Prague’s Adonis is safely returning from a hunt with a stag on his shoulders and Venus is greeting him with a wreath, because he did exactly what she had advised him: “Be bold when they run, but bravery is unsafe when faced with the brave. Do not be foolish, beware of endangering me, and do not provoke the creatures nature has armed, lest your glory is to my great cost. Neither youth nor beauty, nor the charms that affect Venus, affect lions or bristling boars or the eyes and minds of other wild creatures.” In the 16th and 17th centuries, we do not find any other examples of Venus with a wreath or the motif of the Adonis’ return from the hunt with a small animal on his shoulders. Adrien de Vries reversed the traditional iconographical type, but retained its politi76
cal message. The tamed Adonis obeys his divine master and is justly rewarded, or, when we translate it into contemporary political terminology, we may see in Adonis an obstinate rebel who is transformed into a dutiful subject.
Bacchus and Satyr
Next to the fountain in the Waldstein garden, it is possible to imagine the statues of Laocoon and the Wrestlers standing side by side, the former symbolising punished impiety and the latter defeated revolt. Next to the group with Laocoon, in which resistance was condemned, the group with Venus and Adonis could have stood, in which the advantages of foresightful submission were celebrated. The group with Bacchus and the little Satyr, which celebrated the blessings of peace, could have stood on the other end of the row, next to the Wrestlers. In this arrangement, the peacebringing Venus would be a counterpart to the peaceful Bacchus, who would be the opposite number to the Wrestlers. While in the fight between the Wrestlers, life is at stake, Bacchus with a wine beaker behind his back is only teasing the little Satyr. The story told by the wall paintings in the interior of Waldstein Palace thus seamlessly continues in the garden statuary. All the mythological statues Adrien de Vries created for Waldstein were site-specific and comments on political developments in Prague and the Bohemian Kingdom. The snarling dog tamed by a god 77
stressed that the fountain of Neptune is not only an illustration of an ancient myth. This impressive detail, which has no substantiation in ancient mythology, indicates that this Neptune is actually Ferdinand II, and Waldstein most probably wished his garden to be dominated by this very god. The Emperor was celebrated, because he had calmed the political storm which threatened the very existence of the Holy Roman Empire. THE IDEA OF WALDSTEIN´S PALACE Waldstein Palace is one of the first monumental residences built for himself by a man who rose to eminence in the world by his own determined and unscrupulous striving. Albrecht von Waldstein was a member of an ancient, but impoverished and powerless noble family. However, he became perhaps the most famous exponent of a new social order brought about by absolute monarchy. His meteoric career was the result of absolute loyalty to his sovereign– noblesse oblige was transformed into ruler obliges. The old-style nobleman yoked to his family, tradition and the land, was replaced by a cosmopolitan courtier without any preconceived opinions, ready to obey any order. Others say, however, that Waldstein was one of the last military entrepreneurs, known in Italy as the condottieri. Who was he then? Man of the dying old world, or new hero, harbinger of the future? Perhaps both. People like Waldstein are difficult to pinpoint. We may only definitely say one thing about him–the absolute loyalty to the sovereign had its counterpart in the absolute submission which he expected from his subjects. Even the great sculptor Adrien de Vries, at that time in his seventies, had to conform, when the Duke changed his mind about the sculptural decoration of his garden. The Palace’s construction is a chronicle of Waldstein’s career in the Holy Roman Empire. He started to create it in 1621, when he was appointed as the Supreme Commander of Prague, and the main building of the palace was constructed and decorated before 1625, when he was appointed as Generalissimo of the Imperial Army. In 1624 already, Waldstein became a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire and in 1627 he was elevated and became the Duke of 78
Friedland and, a year later, the Duke of Mecklenburg, very prestigious titles indeed. This triumphant entry into the elite of European aristocracy expressed itself in considerably higher requirements which Waldstein’s Prague residence met. We see this upgrade above all in the conception of the garden, in the truly imperial Sala Terrena with its monumental fountain decorated with bronze sculptures. Through this, Waldstein surpassed everything which he had so far created in his Prague residence. Waldstein wholly identified himself with the Holy Roman Empire, but in the decoration of his Prague Palace, the allusions to his personage were and still are predominantly being sought. The most famous example is the Mars in the Great Hall, which is traditionally interpreted as a crypto-portrait of Albrecht von Waldstein, in spite of the fact that archival documents do not corroborate this identification. In his autobiographical letter of 1654, Baccio Bianco wrote: The Main Hall was already finished ... His Excellence ordered me to paint something on the ceiling. The hall was already decorated by arms and trophies in stucco. Pieroni proposed that I paint the carriage of Mars. I have made a drawing and its form was well received. The formulation of Baccio Bianco’s report implies that a martial theme was allocated to the Main Hall from the beginning and that the iconography of the ceiling painting was proposed by Giovanni Battista Pieroni. Waldstein is not mentioned anywhere. Nevertheless, in all the scholarly books and guides, the ceiling painting in the Main Hall of Waldstein’s Palace is interpreted as a crypto-portrait of Waldstein. Why? Baccio Bianco’s Mars has a full beard, while Waldstein was always portrayed with a carefully trimmed goatee beard. Mars’ face has the same physiognomic features as all the other men Baccio Bianco painted on the walls of Waldstein Palace and there is nothing in this representation which enables us to connect it with Albrecht von Waldstein. The attributes of Mars, the star above his head and the sign of the planet on the shield, point exclusively to the planetary divinity. Moreover, he is represented exactly like the Mars in the Sala Terrena of Waldstein Palace, who could not be Waldstein. So, why Waldstein? The answer must be sought in Albrecht von Waldstein’s status in Central European historical consciousness. The Duke was assassinated on 25th February, 1634, and as early as March of that year, a very influential book appeared in Prague which summed up 79
the main arguments of Imperial propaganda, which still influence our perception of this man. The Latin title of this unsigned pamphlet, written by a certain Albert von Kurtz, may be translated as follows: Havoc of Disloyalty of Albrecht of Friedland or the Hell of an Ungrateful Soul. According to this pamphlet, the Duke of Friedland wanted to be Bohemian King and he organised an uprising whose aim was to seize the Czech lands, the hereditary property of the Habsburg Emperors. In the subsequent centuries, a positive evaluation of Waldstein prevailed because of his “anti-imperial attitude.” Especially in Germany and Bohemia, this was taken for granted and he was sometimes even portrayed as a pioneer of the resistance to Rome and the Habsburgs.
Waldstein’s Count coat of arms of 1622
The Czech language and nationhood were revived in the 19th century, but the Czechs could not separate themselves politically from the Habsburg Empire. But they at least could systematically cut Habsburgs out of the cultural history of their land. Special care was taken to weaken the Habsburg presence in the historical monuments of Prague. At that time, no one was interested in the Imperial themes in the decoration of Waldstein Palace, but any link with its creator would, on the contrary, be most welcome. 80
In an 1848 edition of a Prague Guide, we read about Waldstein’s Palace: after great and famous victories by which he conquered for the emperor the whole northern Germany he fell in imperial disgrace and built it as his residence. Here he set up a court so magnificent that it equalled even that of the emperor … (in the Main Hall) he let himself be portrayed on a ceiling, as victor on a two-wheel chariot drawn by four horses, with a star above its head, which is decorated with a laurel. Needless to say, there is no laurel painted on Mars’ head. In the 20th century, when art historians started to analyse the depiction of Mars on the ceiling of the Main Hall, its identification with Waldstein was so firmly embedded that it occurred to no one to search for its roots. The most striking feature of Waldstein Palace is not what it reveals, but what it hides. What we miss on the facade and in the Palace interior is any direct reference to Albrecht von Waldstein. He is conspicuously absent in this huge Palace, which thus differs from its counterparts in Italy and elsewhere. The Palace is enormous, but ostentatiously anonymous; on its facade we do not find coat of arms of Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von Waldstein, Duke of Mecklenburg, Friedland, Sagan and Glogau, Count of Schwerin, Lord of the lands of Rostock and Stargard. In Waldstein Palace, we only find the owner’s coat of arms in the garden. It decorates the stone sockle which is today part of the fountain with Venus and the copies of bronze vases. In the Palace, we do not find the crowned eagle anywhere, his princely and later ducal emblem, which he started to use from 1622. In Waldstein Palace, we find depictions of lions which are interpreted as an allusion to Waldstein’s ancestral family. But why do we not find here the main motif of the Waldstein family emblem–a standing lion with a double tail depicted from the side? Why do we find here exclusively the lion’s head depicted en face, which is not part of the Waldstein emblem. In Waldstein Palace and garden, we very often find the lion’s head, a clear indication that it is not a purely decorative feature. Nevertheless, it evidently does not allude to Waldstein, but to the vanquished enemies of the Holy Roman Empire. The lion’s head often has a ring in its mouth, symbolic of a dangerous beast which was, however, overpowered and tamed. This motif has no special heraldic meaning; from classical antiquity on we often find lion´s heads as decoration of porches.
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Lion´s heads on porches of the main façade of Waldstein palace
When we look for celebrations of Waldstein, the Palace and its rich interior seem faceless. But at the moment that we forget his personage and start to look for allusions to Empire, the person is suddenly vividly present. We see right before us Albrecht von Waldstein, Generalissimo of the Imperial Army, Admiral of the North and Baltic Seas and Knight of the Order of Golden Fleece. In 1626, when Waldstein started to mint coins, he hesitated between the mottos: “God is my protector” and “In defiance of envy.” Evidently the former seemed to him too general and the latter too personal, so he finally adopted the motto in the form: SACRI ROMANI IMPERII PRINCEPS (Prince of the Holy Roman Empire).
Waldstein’s coin of 1626 with the eagle and inscription SACRI ROMANI IMPERII PRINCEPS
Waldstein spent considerable time on the battlefields, he took a fancy to Astrology, and had a thousand other predilections, but he never displayed his personal experiences, feelings or atti82
tudes, unless he could turn them to his personal advantage. In the last years of his life, his physical condition quickly deteriorated, which might have influenced his psychic state and political attitudes. But at the peak of his career, in the 1620s, he wholly identified himself with the Holy Roman Empire. This was also expressed in the decoration of his Palace in Prague, which he constructed at that time. In this sense, we may say that in the Palace of the most energetic man of his time, impersonality reigned. All the glory went to the Holy Roman Empire and its Emperor.
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NOTES
WALDSTEIN AND HIS PRAGUE RESIDENCE Praha, Malá Strana, Valdštejnské nám. 4, Valdštejnská 1, Letenská 10. Cf. P. Vlček, ed., Umělecké památky Prahy, Malá Strana, Praha 1999, 147-159. Bibliography: L. Konečný, Albrecht von Wallenstein, His Buildings, and His Artists: A Bibliography, in: Studia Rudolphina 5, 2005, 80-86. Books: I. Muchka, K. Křížová, Valdštejnský palác, Praha 1996; M. Horyna, et alii, The Wallenstein Palace in Prague, Praha 2002; E. Fučíková, L. Čepička, eds., Albrecht von Wallenstein. Inter arma silent musae? Praha 2007; P. Uličný, Maniera of the Architecture of Albrecht of Wallenstein, Umění 59, 2011, 194213. Inventory of Waldstein palace of 1634. State regional archive (Státní oblastní archiv), Praha, Family archive (Rodinný archiv), “Valdštejnové“ (Waldsteins), cart. 6, sign. A29, cf. E. Schebek, Die Lösung der Wallensteinsfrage, Berlin 1881, 587-608. Emblem of Ferdinand II. Jacob Typotius, Symbola divina et humana, Praga 1601, 106. Medal of Ferdinand II. Crown with crossed palm leaves: National Museum (Národní museum), Praha, inv. n. H5-56.099, srov. T. Kleisner, Giovanni Pietro de Pomis’ Medal of the Battle of White Mountain, Studia Rudolphina 8, 2008, 90-93, fig. 2 (palm leaves are not inserted into the crown, but crossed under it). Gigantomachy: Národní muzeum, Praha, inv. n. H5-58.539, cf. Fučíková, Čepička, op. cit, no. 14, 48, Kleisner, op. cit., fig. 4. Imperial propaganda against Waldstein. Alberti Fridlandi Perduellionis Chaos Sive Ingrati Animi Abyssus, 1634. On the title page we read, “Cum Licentia Superiorum”, but no author, publisher or place of publication is given. The iconography of paintings in Waldstein Palace. Autobiographic letter of Baccio Bianco on Mars: Era già finita la sala principale … Mi commessa sua Eccellenza, che dovessi a pesare a qual cosa. Già il salone era adorno di arme e trofei di guerra finti di stucco. Il Pieroni propose, che si facesse dentro il carro di Marte. Ne feci il disegno, e piacque in buona forma (F. Baldinucci, Notizie de’professori del disegno da Cimabue in qua, Milano 1811-1812, Vol. 12, 392-405). The first identifications of Mars in Waldstein Palace as Albrecht von Waldstein: F. Klutschak, Der Führer durch Prag, Prag 1838, 107; K. V. Zap, Průwodce po Praze, Praha 1848, 209. Mars in the Liechtenstein Palace in Vienna: cf. M. Reuss, Belluccis Gemäldefolge für das Stadtpalais Liechtenstein in Wien, 85
Hildesheim-Zurich-New York 1998, 276-278. Cf. J. Bažant, SACRI ROMANI IMPERII PRINCEPS: Wallenstein’s Palace in Prague Revisited in: Ad Honorem Eva Stehlíková, Praha 2011, 32-38. Sculptures of Adriaen de Vries: cf. L.-O. Larsson, Ein neues Rom an der Moldau? Der Skulpturengarten Albrecht von Wallensteins in Prag, in: 1648: Krieg und Frieden in Europa, Münster 1998, vol. 2, 201-208; F. Scholten, Adriaen de Vries 1556-1626: Imperial Sculptor, Zwolle 1999; L.-O. Larsson, Imitatio und aemulatio: Adriaen de Vries und die antike Skulptur, in: Adriaen de Vries 1556-1626: Augsburgs Glanz–Europas Ruhm, Ausst.- Kat., Augsburg 2000, 66-72; S. Michalski, Der Laokoon und die Ringer des Adriaen de Vries im Garten des Prager Wallensteinpalastes: Symbole der Überwindung des böhmischen Aufstandes?, Studia Rudolphina 4, 2004, 28-30.
GRAPHIC AND LITERARY MODELS Apul. met. = Apuleius, The Golden Ass (translation by E. J. Kenney) Hom. Od. = Homer, The Odyssey (translation by A. T. Murray) Ov. met. = Ovid, Metamorphoses (translation by A. S. Kline) Spreng 1563 = Spreng, J. (ilustrace Virgil Solis), Metamorphesos Ovidii ... Frankfurt/Main 1563 Tempesta 1610 = Tempesta, A., Metamorphoseon Sive Transformationum Ovidianarum Libri Quindecim, Nunc Primum ... Antwerpen c. 1610 Verg. Aen. = Vergilius, Aeneis (translation by H. R. Fairclough) Verg. ecl. = Vergilius, eclogae (translation by H. R. Fairclough) Two Palaces. On architectonic orders - Vitruvius 1, 2, 5 (translation by M. H. Morgan). Garden Ovid on Diana’s cave (Ov. met. 3, 155-159) and on animate and inanimate nature (Ov. met. 1, 1-2; 1, 400-410). Apuleius on art imitating nature: Apul. met. 2, 4. Homer on the cave of Phorcys: Hom. Od. 13, 109-112. Quos ego: Verg. Aen.1, 148-156. Venus advises Adonis: Ovid. met. 10, 543-552 (translated by B. More). Audience Hall Vulcanus in his workshop: Verg. Aen. 8, 372–445; Prophecy on coming of the Golden Age: Verg. Aen. 1, 286-287; 6, 791-795; Verg. ecl. 4, 5-9. 86
Gigantomachy, Tempesta 1610, 6 (Ov. met. 1, 151-154); Iron Age, Tempesta 1610, 5 (Ov. met. 1, 141-144)
Silver Age, Tempesta, 1610, 4 (Ov. met. 1, 121-124); Golden Age, Tempesta, 1610, 3 (Ov. met. 1, 99-105
Lower Gallery
Creation of the world, Tempesta, 1610, 1 (Ov. met. 1, 22-23); Deucalion and Pyrrha, Tempesta, 1610, 8 (Ov. met. 1, 398-413) 87
Mercury kills Argus, Tempesta, 1610, 10 (Ov. met. 1, 717-722)
Phaethon, Tempesta, 1610, 12 (Ov. met. 2, 311-313); Arcas and Callisto, Solis 1563, 27 (Ov. met. 2, 496-507)
Europa, Tempesta, 1610, 22 (Ov. met. 2, 870-875); Cadmus, Tempesta, 1610, 24 (Ov. met. 3, 115-119)
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Actaeon (Ov. met. 3, 177-194), Solis 1563, 40 (left), Tempesta, 1610, 25 (right)
Narcissus, Tempesta, 1610, 28 (Ov. met. 3, 416-419)
Pyramos and Thisbe, Tempesta, 1610, 32 (Ov. met. 4, 147-163); Pegasos, Tempesta, 1610, 41 (Ov. met. 4, 784-786) 89
Proserpina, Tempesta, 1610, 47 (Ov. met. 5, 402-406); Icarus, Tempesta, 1610, 75 (Ov. met. 8, 225-228)
Aeneas’ apotheosis, Tempesta, 1610, 141 (Ov. met. 14, 598-607); Romulus’ apotheosis, Solis 1563, 172 (Ov. met. 14, 819-827)
Sala Terrena
Polyxena, Tempesta, 1610, 122 (Ov. met. 13, 475-480); Quos Ego, Marcantonio Raimondi after Raphael, 1515-16, Bartsch, XIV, 204, 352, detail (Verg. Aen. 1, 131-135) 90
Pious Aeneas, Tempesta, 1610, 126 (Verg. Aen. 2, 707-720)
Aeneas kills Turnus (Verg. Aen. 12, 939-941), illustration of the 12th book of Vergil’s Aeneid, detail (Dell’Eneide di Virgilio del commendatore Annibal Caro, Roma 1622); Camilla and Aeneas, illustration of the 11th book of Vergil’s Aeneid (Vergilii Maronis dreyzehen Bücher von dem tewren Helden Enea… Frankfurt 1559), Camilla is on the left, she is identified by an inscription on her shield, Aeneas is in the right upper corner, inscription on his horse.
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Jan Bažant and Nina Bažantová Waldstein Palace in Prague The First Baroque Residence in Central Europe
PRAGUE, FESTINA LENTE PRESS CZ 2011 www.festinalentepress.cz ISBN 978-80-254-9423-3
