The Japanese Palace in Dresden: a Highlight of European 18Th-Century

都市と伝統的文化 The ‘Japanese Palace’ in Dresden: A Highlight of European 18th-century Craze for East-Asia. Cordula BISCHOFF Dresden, seat of government and capital of present-day federal state Saxony, now benefits more than any other German city from its past as a royal residence. Despite war-related destructions is the cityscape today shaped by art and architecture with a history of 500 years. There is possibly no other place in Germany where to find so many exceptional artworks concentrated in such a small area. This accumulation is a result of the continuosly increasing significance of the Dresden court and a gain in power of the Saxon Wettin dynasty. The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation was a conglomeration of more than 350 large and tiny territories. The 50 to 100 leading imperial princes struggled in a constant competition to maintain their positions. １） In 1547 the Saxon Duke Moritz（1521-1553）was declared elector. Thus Saxony gained enormous political significance, as the seven, in 18th century nine electors, were the highest-ranking princes. They elected the Roman-German emperor and served as his innermost councils. The electors of Saxony and of the Palatinate were authorised to represent the emperor in times of vacancy. At the same time in 16th century Saxony rose due to its silver mining industry to one of the richest German territorial states. ２） In the second half of the 17th century the Saxon court even counted among the most important European courts. A peak of political power was reached under Frederick August（us）I. of Saxony（1670-1733）, called August the Strong. He was at the same time elector and Arch-Marshal, that is military representative of the emperor. Furthermore in 1697 he was elected king of Poland. Two events led to a further increase in prestige: after the death of emperor Joseph I. in 1711 August held the position of imperial vicariate, which means that he temporarily managed imperial responsibilities. Moreover he forged close links to the imperial house by marrying his son to the emperor’s daughter Maria Josepha in 1719. The outstanding position of an elector and the even more exposed office of a king required the visualization of these entitlements. For one thing he had to illustrate his own position within the hierarchy of German princes; secondly he strove to reach or exceed the standards of culturally leading international courts. Indicators for representation expenses were “splendour” and “magnificence”, visible in art and architecture, for instance in size of buildings, modernity of furbishing, use of elaborate and costly materials, extensiveness of painting and art collections, property of rare and exotic items, or exclusiveness of certain objects. According to this between － 133 －立命館言語文化研究30巻 3 号 1）The Japanese Palace in Dresden Photo: X-Weinzar [CC BY-SA 2.5 （https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-sa/2.5）], from Wikimedia Commons 1710 and 1720 the planning and construction activity and the modernization and structuring of the residence increased tremendously. （ill.1）One of these prestigious buildings will be examined in the following: the so-called Japanese Palace in Dresden. ３） With a number of 50-60.000 porcelain objects from Asian as well as European origin August the Strong possessed around the year 1730 the most extensive porcelain collection in Europe. To create a suitable accommodation for them he erected a specially designed palace, the largest building ever planned or built to present porcelain. In 1717 August bought a small summer palace in French style which had been erected two years before, called the ‘Dutch Palace’ because it was meant to be furnished in Dutch style with Oriental porcelain. It is situated opposite to the Residential Palace on the other side of the Elbe river. From the beginning the plans envisioned an Asian style interior design exhibiting the collections of porcelains and Asian art as part of the room setup. Nine rooms on the ground floor and nine rooms on the first floor were furnished mainly in Chinoiserie style, that is a mixture from European wall coverings, silver furniture and French mirrors, panelling and paintings in Chinoiserie style copying East Asian patterns, decorated with original Far Eastern porcelain and lacqerware. New was the concept to create each room in a different colour setting, each matching a special group of porcelain. On the occasion of the marriage of the crownprince and the emperor’s daughter in 1719 one of the major festivities took place in this palace, the festival of the planetary god Apollo or Sol（September 10th, 1719）which was celebrated with costly fireworks. Starting already in 1719 the building was now also called ‘Japanese Palace’, a fact to which I will return later. From 1722 onwards numerous, constantly changing architectural plans were made. The － 134 － The ‘Japanese Palace’ in Dresden（BISCHOFF） 2）The building of the Japanese Palace Photo: Creative Commons: BY-SA 4.0, https://www.pictokon.net/bilder/ ausflugsziele-sachsen-2015/1055-japanisches-palais-museum-fuer- voelkerkunde-in-dresden-201206.html expansions were mainly realized between 1727 and 1733, but were retarded until the 1750s. The Palace never was completely finished. The building we see today is a four-wing castle forming the centrepiece of the newly constructed city quarter ‘New King’s Town’.（ill. 2）The number of rooms was doubled to 35. The first floor served as representation floor, containing a gallery, audience chamber, parade bedroom and chapel, and all furnished with European Meissen porcelain. The Asian porcelain objects were placed in the rooms of the ground floor. From its function the palace still was a pleasure palace, but from its décor and setting it resembled more an official secondary residence. The death of August the Strong in February 1733 marked a break. His son Friedrich August II. / August III. king of Poland（1696-1763）proceeded construction as requested, but nevertheless significantly simplified. The interior decoration above all suffered from falling interest and lack of finances. In the end the Seven Year‘s War（1756-63）caused the final stop. Thereafter the idea of a porcelain palace had withered away. Instead the sculpture collection and the royal library were installed and finally the first museum was opened here in 1785. At the date of acquisition and reconstruction of the Dutch Palace there existed already a 70-year-old tradition of porcelain collecting on a large scale. Starting from mid-17th century and initiated by female members of the Dutch House of Orange small cabinet rooms in Chinoiserie style emerged. ４） The interior decoration in Asian look provided a suitable framework for the presentation of East Asian porcelain. The use of both original imported as well as imitated Asian objects – especially laquerware and textiles – and the attachment of mirrors created the impression of an extremely splendid exotic ambience. The idea of exhibiting Oriental porcelains in such rooms － 135 －立命館言語文化研究30巻 3 号 called Indiaanse Cabinet（Indian cabinet）was developped in Northern Netherlands.（ill. 3）The required imported products in 17th century were almost exclusively traded via Holland, and the cheaper copies of Chinese porcelain, the local faience ware, was produced in Holland as well. All Chinoiserie cabinet rooms created in German castles before 1685 were based on the Netherlandish pattern, since their female patrons were influenced by dynastic relations to the Dutch House of Orange. ５） The now lost lacquer room created in about 1654 at Huis ten Bosch by Amalia van Solms-Braunfels（1602–1675）, wife of Stadholder Frederick Henry（1584- 3） Daniel Marot, Design for a chimneypiece in 1687）is considered the earliest attested Chinoiserie style, from “Nouvelles Cheminées faites porcelain room, or Asian cabinet, as it en plusieur en droits de la Hollande et autres Provinces de du Dessein de D. Marot”, Amsterdam formed a unified whole, in which the wall 1712, etching and engraving, Rijksmuseum coverings, furnishings and porcelain Amsterdan, inv. no. RP-P-OB-6366 were all in an Asian style. Her four Photo: Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, public domain daughters all were married to German princes. They as well as Mary Stuart II., the wife of her grandson William III. of Orange, established porcelain rooms according to Amalia’s model in many Dutch, German, and English summer palaces. Over the course of the 17th century other types of rooms decorated with porcelain and faience came into being: not only the Chinoiserie cabinet, part of the state apartments, but also the grand kitchen, the grand bathroom and the porcelain grotto or summer refectory. The walls of those rooms usually were decorated in the ‘Dutch manner’, that is lined with blue-and- white Delft faience tiles, produced in the Netherlands, and soon they became as indispensable in palaces as porcelain cabinets.（ill. 4）As the amount of Asian objects grew, it was obviously more and more frequently aimed at establishing entire sequences of rooms, building wings or even whole castles in Asian style. Until about 1700, all those porcelain rooms had female connotations. Almost all of them had been built by women or for women. As interior design was regarded as a woman’s domain during the － 136 － The ‘Japanese Palace’ in Dresden（BISCHOFF） 17th and 18th centuries, complementary to the princes’ task of governing, the princesses created interiors which represented their political and dynastic interests, a development that can be observed at all European courts. Court ceremonial defined women’s apartments as communication spaces that were accessible to a broader circle of courtly society. Since it was usually there that diplomats and visitors were received, meals were eaten and courtly entertainment took place, it was therefore necessary to fit out the princesses’ rooms with the most opulent and up-to-date symbols of high status.

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