Dresden--History, Stage, Gallery
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..'-•^#ij»'^"^''^''"™^*"=''''«i.rn!;;; '!^;!.r,^ K. /i^^^^C' — 32 »»ri fl^^hS I III:, kill iiBRARY u. mmm 3 U'^ DRESDEN HISTORY STAGE GALLERY BY MARY ENDELL ILLUSTRATED WITH TEN MEZZO- TINTS, AND BOOK-DECORATIONS BY FRITZ ENDELL •» DRESDEN JOHANNES SEIFERT, PUBLISHER 11, PRAGERSTRASSE. 19 8 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED TO THE FRIENDS AT HOME CONTENTS. A V/ORD WITH THE GENTLE READER. Part First. HISTORY OF THE CITY AND ITS BUILDINGS. CHAPTER I. PAGE The Middle Ages 1 CHAPTER II. The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries 20 CHAPTER III. August the Strong. "The Augustan Age of opulent Sump- tuosity" 37 CHAPTER IV. King August III., Count Briihl, and Friedrich the Great. The sober Closing of a luxurious Era .... 52 CHAPTER V. Friedrich August the Just and Napoleon 64 CHAPTER VI. The full Tide of the Nineteenth Century, and the rising Twentieth 70 IV CONTENTS. Part Second. THE ROYAL THEATRE. CHAPTER I. PAGE From the earliest Beginnings to the Time of Mozart and Schiller 79 CHAPTER II. Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden 85 CHAPTER III. Theatrical Powers 91 CHAPTER IV. Richard Wagner in Dresden 93 Part Third. THE GALLERY. CHAPTER I. Historical Outlines 105 CHAPTER II. The Old Masters 113 CHAPTER III. A Few Monographs of Modern Painters 192 INDEX 207 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Frontispiece: A WOOD-CUT, DESIGNED AND ENGRAVED BY FRITZ ENDELL. DRAWINGS: PAGE Putti on the Gate-Ways of the Taschenberg Palais . IV—VII The oldest City-Seal— of the year 1309 VIII Motive from the Castle-Garden at Pillnitz IX Meissen Porcelain Candle-Stick 36, 90 A Zwinger Fountain 40 Meissen Figures in the Johanneum 44, 45 Side Piece Ornament of the Johanneum Steps 51 Meissen Figure in the Johanneum 52 Meissen Figures in the Johanneum 58, 59 Meissen Plate 70 A Tanagra Figure in the Albertinum 78 Roman Relief in the Albertinum (No. 325) 93 VI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Bronze Head of Pan, in the Albertinum (No. 394) .... 104 Ivory Pin (Aphrodite) in the Albertinum 207 Various Decorative Designs by F. E., scattered through the Text. MEZZO -TINT ENGRAVINGS: facing page Zwinger Wall-Pavilion 38 View of the Altstadt— Canaletto 64 Children of Charles I. of England—Van Dyck 118 Portrait of an old Man—Rembrandt 122 Triptych—Jan Van Eyck 128 Christ on the Cross—Durer 132 Lady washing her Hands—Ter Borch 142 The Virgin and Child with four Saints—Titian 166 Venus sleeping— Giorgione 170 Sistine Madonna—Raphael 182 vn The Oldest Seal of the City 1309 VIII It is hoped that this little book will make itself useful. It attempts to give to an English-reading public a bird's- eye view of how Dresden came to look as it does, architecturally; of how it expanded musically, through the genius of a few men, to its present bloom; and it calls attention to certain permanent land-marks in art that make its Gallery the resort of those seeking lasting impressions. It is not precisely a manual ; but for those that avoid undue haste, it may be serviceable before this or that promenade, or after a visit to some object of interest. The information contained in this modest volume is based to a certain extent upon a large number of voluminous works; still, enough personal investigation underlies it, so that any errors may safely be charged to the author. This opportunity is taken to acknowledge the especial aid received in Dresden's narrative from the works of Cornelius Gurlitt, of Otto Richter, and of Lindau. IX , — Thanks are due in the theatrical chronicle to Prolss' de- tailed work,—an outgrowth of its forerunner by Weber's friend Fiirstenau. It goes almost without the saying, that Director Woermann's Gallery-work has been constantly in the hand for practical reference regarding Dresden paintings. It has been thought better to preserve, untranslated, the names of individuals mentioned in these pages. Not only does it seem a sort of infringement, to alter people's rightful names; but such alteration can hinder a rapid identification of a historical personage, and the memorials of him in his native land. Geographical nomenclatures, on the other hand, are sometimes in more than one form historically legitimate. So many people love Dresden—the charm of its pro- verbial politeness, the balm of its "Gemiitlichkeit", the chef- d'oeuvres of its pastry-cooks—that perchance a souvenir of its more solid attractions may not be superfluous. These leaves will not have been written unavailingly if, through their perusal, certain city-profiles—grown familiar across the stretches from Racknitz, or from the Wald- schlosschen as the sinking sun painted the River red are recalled pleasantly to the mind of the Gentle Reader, DREDSEN in the early Autumn, 1907. PART I. DRESDEN'S PAST and PRESENT. "Ich blickte von dem hohen Ufer herab iiber das herr- liche Elbthal; es lag da wie ein Gemalde von Claude Lorrain unter meinen Fussen."—HEINRICH VON KLEiST. CHAPTER I. MIDDLE AGES. Already a millennium before the birth of Christ, human beings dwelled in the landscape where Dresden now lies. This we are taught by the excavations made at various spots in the vicinity of the city, which have brought to light signs of dwelling-places belonging to the so-called "younger stone-age". The subsequent "bronze-age" is represented by relics of this epoch that have been found on the burial-places : funeral urns and all sorts of decorative and useful objects; such have also been found inside the city— especially between the Reit- bahnstrasse and the Grosse Plauenschestrasse, and on the Platz between the Leipziger Bahnhof and the Schlesischer Bahnhof. Traces of "grave-fields" (burying-grounds) be- longing to the "iron-age" have been found in the neigh- borhood of the Pfotenhauerstrasse, among other places. Since all the articles discovered correspond with those of similar epochs found in other parts of Germany, 1 NEUSTADT MARKET-PLACE we may assume that the earliest inhabitants of this Elbe region were ancient Germans. It is supposed that they belonged to the Suevic tribe of the Semnons, and that they voluntarily gave up their abode at the time of the migration of nations. Then a Slavic tribe, the Sorbs, —now commonly known as the "Wends"—moved into this territory, which lay forsaken and for a time propably without a proprietor. The Sorbs were people that industriously cultivated the low-lands and raised live-stock, and that were fairly skil- ful in various crafts: especially noteworthy is it, that they employed the turning-wheel for making pottery. Dresden, then, is to be numbered among those villages of the Elbe valley settled by the Sorbs during the second half of the sixth century after Christ. As they came from the east, they built at first on the right bank of the Elbe, grouping their low huts around a ring- formed village-place. Their gable-fronted little houses stood close together around such a circular place, which had only one open way leading into it. This method of building was for convenience in securing their flocks at night. The Neustadter Markt of to-day is the site of the old Wendish village market-place. But soon a part of the immigrants settled along the left bank of the Elbe, on account of the better fishing there, building their huts upon piles along the river in rather boggy overgrown ground. Hence they were called by their compatriots "the inhabitants of the swampy woods" (Slavic "dresjan" from "dresga", swampy woods). Various local names of to-day suggest the former v/etness of this region, amounting at certain points to little lakes: "Seestrasse", for instance, is such a reminder. A ferry is believed to have in time connected the original village on the east side with this line of fishing-huts nov/ built along the left river bank. The preferance of the Sorbs — THE V/ENDS for low lands is easily explained by their taste for fishing and for agriculture, in which latter occupation their tools and methods were too primitive to allow the tilling of high or obstinate ground. Thus alluvial soil, where too their herds easily found water as well as succulent pasturage, responded to their leading employments. The same predilection for river land may be still remarked among the descendants of the Sorbs existing to-day in the picturesque Wendish settlement at Bautzen, a few hours by rail from Dresden. It is a pretty sight to see the little dark-haired, fine-featured Wendish women spread- ing their snowy linen to dry on the flat verdant patches bordering the Spree. Or how can one transport oneself more easily to another epoch, to a younger civilization, than to be p:\ddled by a wire-muscled Wend through the labyrinthine water-v/ays of the Spreewald, a few hours up the river, from Berlin. This "dresga" is verily a sylvan idyl of an almost extinct people. But to pick up the thread of our history. After some centuries of quiet living, the Sorbs v/ere disturbed in their peaceful existence by an invasion of the Germans from the west, who came with sword and cross to subdue the pagan Sorbs, and to convert them to the Christian faith. About the year 928, King Heinrich I. founded the fortress of Meissen, the first of a series of strongholds for protecting his military and religious undertakings. A bishop was installed at Meissen as early as 968. The process of Christianizing the Slavic inhabitants of Dresden began in the fishing-community on the left bank of the Elbe, not far down the river from which, the Germans had founded another fortress, called Briessnitz.