Chandelier

This large glass dome eight-light chandelier was designed by the royal architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel for the Palais of Prince August of Prussia in Berlin’s Wilhelmstrasse 65. A design drawing is preserved in the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin, published by Johann Sievers, Karl Friedrich Schinkel Lebenswerk Möbel, London, 1950. Smaller versions of this chandelier are preserved at Schloss Glienicke and at the Neuer Pavillon, Schloss Charlottenburg.

Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781-1841) was the foremost architect and designer to the Prussian court who was also an accomplished draughtsman and able to work in a remarkable variety of fields including architecture, furniture and porcelain design. He studied under the French architect David Gilly, through whom he was introduced to the rigourously neoclassical style of Charles Percier and Pierre Fontaine, made famous through their Recueil de Decoration interieure, 1812. In Berlin Schinkel’s interpretation of Neo-clacisism veered toward the Grecian, in part a reaction to the French more Roman inspired classicism. This Grecian influence is not only evident on his designs for buildings such as the Altes Museum and Neue Wache in Berlin but also in his designs for furniture and furnishings. The present chandelier is a good examples of this Prussian ’Greek’ neo-clacissism, with their strong anthemion’s and Grecian scrolled branches.