Habsburgs, Italian Renaissance and the Czech Renaissance of the 19th century
Jan Bažant
Introduction
1. View of Prague (detail), 1562, Wroclav, Biblioteka Uniwersytecka no. 4858-A, (after Hlavsa 1972, pl. 2).
Everyone who visits Prague is entranced by the audacious curves of the roof of the Belvedere, which was undoubtedly the original intention of the builder[1]. The Prague Belvedere, including its surrounding garden, was the biggest architectural project of the Czech king and Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I (1503-1564)[2]. Ferdinand’s garden stretches out over an incline running parallel to the ridge upon which Prague castle was built and the sovereign evidently wanted the building to be visible from the center of the city and to be perceived as an integral part of the ancient castle of the Czech kings and Roman emperors. At the same time, however, his Belvedere was not meant to blend into the other castle buildings, which is why it was placed some distance from the eastern end of the PragueCastle[3]. The placement of the Prague Belvedere has essential significance for an understanding of the aims of its builder also because the low wooden fortress walls of the garden stand in sharp contrast to the high stone walls of the castle, which had a symbolic meaning[4]. The unprotected garden residence had already anticipated from afar the beginning of a new era, in which peace and prosperity would reign and Ferdinand’s subjects would feel safe throughout the entire country, even without castle walls. Though the panorama of the castle grounds was, by coincidence, not enriched in later centuries with any essentially new element, which could compete with the Belvedere, it remained the final revision of the concept of the Prague royal residence.
2. View of Prague (detail), 1562, Wroclav, Biblioteka Uniwersytecka no. 4858-A, detail (after Hlavsa 1972,pl. 2).
This building is exceptional in the context of European art history, as its architecture is one of the first echoes of the Italian renaissance in transalpine Europe. The arcade gallery, which is its most characteristic aspect after the roof, is in fact the oldest façade consisting entirely of loggias on this side of the Alps. The Prague Belvedere freed itself radically from medieval stereotypes through its functional specialization as well. It is typical for medieval palace architecture when residential buildings and even the rooms placed in them do not have an explicitly defined function. A further sign of the Belvedere’s pointing to the future is thus the clear definition of the function of the building, which through its placement and architectural form displayed the fact that it was designated for the pleasure of the monarch and his guests. This, of course, does not mean that the functions declared were those actually utilized - the placement of the building and its opening into the public space of the metropolis explicitly indicate to us that it was not meant to serve the private needs of the ruler exclusively. A further feature through which the Prague Belvedere radically distinguished itself from previous architectural traditions is the fact that all of its façades were done in a uniform manner. Similarly to ancient Greek temples, with which, however, the Belvedere does not have directly anything in common, the colonnade circles the entire building, which was set up on a foundation with the shape of an extended rectangle. Even the sculpture decoration, the richness of which has no parallel in residential buildings of the previous century, is done in a uniform manner. The decoration includes over one hundred figure reliefs and as many decorative ones, including an extraordinarily quality frieze, which is many times more than there typically was in Italian buildings of this type.
3. The western loggia of the Prague Belvedere.
The rich sculpture decoration of residential architecture and its resulting symmetrical arrangement along two axes crossing into a right angle are typical features of the new renaissance art inspired by classical antiquity. There is no equal to the Prague Belvedere in amount and intensity of links to ancient Greek and Roman culture in the entire transalpine renaissance, but the building is exceptional even in its ties to the northern European cultural tradition. This is explicitly indicated by the shape of the roof and the asymmetrical placement of the entrances on the north and west façades, which were repaired in accordance with Italian renaissance norms only during the reconstruction in the mid-19th century. A further northern element is the celebration of the Satyrs, for whom one-fourth of all figure reliefs was reserved. These beings have an ancient appearance, but the medieval tradition of wild men, which was typical for northern Europe and especially for the art of the court of Ferdinand’s predecessor on the imperial throne, Václav IV, survives within them.
Considering these extraordinary circumstances, we might expect the Prague Belvedere to be one of the key monuments in the discussion of the history and character of the northern renaissance. On this concrete monument, the ambitions of which are without a doubt European, it would be possible to show to the degree to which the cultural development in transalpine Europe is intertwined with Italy as concerns the relationship to ancient heritage and its utilization in royal propaganda. The building could contribute to the recognition of the influence of the patrons from this side of the Alps on the development of art in the 16th century, etc. However, no study of this type has been written and thus the Prague Belvedere is exceptional even in a negative sense – the lack of interest in this monument among historians is truly remarkable.
The exterior of the building has, at the same time, ever since the time when Ferdinand’s craftsmen stopped working on it, changed only unsubstantially. It can only be proven that there was any manipulation with the reliefs in the case of the balustrade columns with putti[5]. The only large intervention which acknowledged the reliefs at that time was the systematic attack on the depiction of naked human figures, some of the first in transalpine monument art[6]. Rich archival documentation regarding the process of the building of the Belvedere has been preserved, so we know that it was built during the years 1537-1563 by Paolo della Stella and Bonifac Wolmut[7]. The interest of researchers has been directed primarily toward the first builder of the Belvedere, to whom the design of the ground floor with the colonnade gallery is attributed. Ferdinand I hired Stella in Genoa, but researchers have not been able to agree on what he was doing prior to his arrival in Prague. It was not thus possible to associate the Prague Belvedere with any of the renowned Italian workshops and, due to the atypical nature of its architectural conception, it was not possible to place it in the context of the development of European renaissance architecture, not even on the basis of formal analysis. This was likely the main reason why art historians lost interest in this unique building during the second half of the 20th century.
Every book about Prague or transalpine art of the 16th century mentions the Belvedere, but none examines it in depth. The building was never described systematically and has thus far never been integrated into either a European or a Czech cultural/historical context. There are only two monographic works on the building and its decoration, Balšánek’s study from 1897 and Mihulka’s from 1939. The first was not written by an art historian, but by a practicing architect and was intended to serve primarily as a model for neo-renaissance creations, hence most of the study is made up of drawings, the aim of which was not precise documentation[8]. The second monograph was an attempt at art history analysis, but as we reveal below, it is necessary to adopt a very guarded approach to the author’s information[9].
This book will be devoted primarily to the question of what Ferdinand wanted to say to Prague and to the world through this building, what he wanted it to reveal to future generations about him and his time. We know that Ferdinand cultivated very intense social contacts and liked to discuss any topic at any time. He undoubtedly also explained what exactly he meant by his Prague Belvedere. No such information has been preserved, but it would not be in any way uncommon. During Ferdinand’s time, the French king François I had the greatest interest in architecture and made drawings of buildings that he liked. These drawings then served as a point of departure for his own projects. François also became famous for leading well-known guests on tours of his buildings and explaining them in detail. “Seeing your constructions without you, they are dead bodies, and perusing your buildings and not hearing you explain how you conceive of them, is like reading in Hebrew”, wrote Margaret of Navarra to her royal brother in 1531[10].
This book can be understood as preparation for the reconstruction of what the builder of the Belvedere would say about it. The dominant role of the patron explains why artistic work does not develop in a linear manner and why artists change their style from one commission to another. Historians of art around the year 1900 had already discovered the importance of patrons, but it was not until a century later that their attention began to turn to the 16th century[11]. It is hence not strange that they key role of the builder during the formation of the Prague Belvedere has been thus far ignored and all attention has been centered around Paolo della Stella and Bonifac Wolmut, to whom the innovations which this building brought forth were attributed. In this book, we attempt to prove that the appearance of the Prague Belvedere was primarily the result of the assignments by Ferdinand I. The aim of this research has not merely been to reconstruct the original significance of one of the monuments from the 16th century, but also to clarify the mechanisms which determined the appearance of building projects in the transalpine renaissance[12].
Ferdinand’s Belvedere
The first step toward the building of the Prague Belvedere was mentioned in a letter dated November 13, 1534, which Ferdinand I sent from Vienna to Prague to the château administrator, George from Gersdorf. In it is written that the king had closed a contract with the Italian masters and masons, on the basis of which material for the construction of the RoyalGarden was to be prepared and the necessary terrain alterations were to be completed by winter of that year. In the letter, he asks how the work on the bridge over the Deer Moat, which separated the hill with the Prague Castle from the ridge running parallel, on which the Royal Garden was to be built, was progressing[13]. Though the first steps toward building the Belvedere were not taken until 1537, the garden evidently took precedence and the project was only later expanded to include the construction of the summer palace.
Gardens had been a royal attribute since the middle ages and even at that time looked basically the same as they do today, i.e. with a grove, small pools, shaded alleys, arbors covered with grapevines, summer houses and other elements serving to increase the gracefulness and comfort of the owner and his guests[14]. The prestigious character of the Prague royal garden is emphasized by a poem through which Villaticus honored it in 1538 – the garden was meant primarily for the king, the queen and their children[15]. In order to enhance the concealed nature of the gardens, the residential buildings were separated from them by walls, which was the case even in Prague. Oldřich Austalis (Ulrich de Vastiosa) worked on the richly architecturally equipped wall with stairs, niches, cornices and doors during the year 1559[16] In 1563, however, this wall was still not finished and on this occasion we discover that the windows in it were covered with bars[17]. The decorative wall can be seen quite well on the engraving in the work of Barretus, which, according to the attached label, depicts the Belvedere in the year 1600, when it served as an astronomic observatory for Tycho de Brahe[18].
4. View of the RoyalGarden and the Belvedere, close up (after Barretus 1672, 58).
Renaissance gardens differed from their medieval predecessors in that they were arranged along a main axis, which had an especially significant function in Prague. The axis of the garden ran parallel to the axis of the PragueCastle, so they were mutually intertwined. In addition, the main entrance to the Belvedere was placed on the axis, making it exclusively subjugated to the building placed at its end. Visible on the engraving by Barretus is a fountain placed on the axis of the garden, on which it was like a small gate leading to the terrace in front of the west façade of the Belvedere, hence the main entrance to the summer palace.
The trees casting the shade, the meadow suggesting recreation, and the spring or brook providing refreshment had already been the main attributes of the garden since the time of Ancient Rome, altogether making up a “locus amoenus”, a graceful place[19]. A fountain, often richly decorated, served to enhance the water element in the gardens[20]. The oldest preserved bronze fountains are from the thirties of the 16th century and starting in the sixties, Ferdinand I and his sons Maxmilian II and Ferdinand II of Tyrol built such fountains in Prague, Innsbruck, and Vienna. In front of the Prague Belvedere, a bronze fountain was built in the year 1571, designed by Francisco Terzio, with wooden models (Hans Preisser, Nuremburg) casted by Tomáš Jaroš and the cast chased by Antonio Brocco[21]. The fountain was decorated with fauns and a captured deer, youths representing ancient shepherds and on top, a boy playing the bagpipes.
5. Bronze fountain in front of the Prague Belvedere, 1571.
6. Faun from the bronze fountain in front of the Prague Belvedere,
1571.
7. Shepherd from the bronze fountain in front of the Prague Belvedere, 1571.
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The history of the Belvedere’s construction begins in the year 1537[22]. Paolo della Stella, in his bookkeeping from the year 1540, lists that on December 15, 1537, King Ferdinand ordered a model of the building (“den form des lusthaus”), on which Stella then worked for the following three months[23]. Models of the residential buildings began to appear in the 15th century and, as an analogy to the model of the Belvedere, it is possible to compare, for example, the model of the hunting lodge in Chambord, which François I had built, with consideration given not only to the building’s exterior appearance, but also to the organization of its interior. Their further function was to act as a substitute for building plans. These models, built to actual scale, on the basis of which it was possible to determine the form of the entire building, were, however, quite expensive[24]. The model of the Belvedere which was not preserved undoubtedly belonged to this highest category, because the building process could be begun immediately using it as a guide. A report from the Czech chamber from August 3, 1538 states that Spazio, who began the construction process, understood the model well[25]. In addition, in the autumn of that year, Paolo della Stella himself maintained that one of Spazio’s masters, Zuan (Juan) Maria, understood it as well as Spazio did[26].
All we know about Stella is that he was “de Mileto” and that he died in Prague in 1552, as no attempts up to now by researchers to identify further works by the model-builder have met with general agreement, but we shall return to this question[27]. Some researchers tried to classify Stella as one of the Northern Italian architects famous at the time, for example, according to Mihulka, the author of the ground level of the Belvedere came from the circle of Michele Sanmicheli[28]. However, one of Sansovino’s pupils is listed as the building’s architect, a conclusion which the author of this book has also reached[29]. According to Šamánková, this person is, conversely, a representative of the Genoa-Milan school, differing from Michele Sanmicheli and Sansovino[30]. The problems regarding Stella’s past yield only one indisputable conclusion – Ferdinand did not engage any of the already renowned craftsmen, which could create space for creative initiative on the part of the builder.
As concerns villas, the participation of Lorenzo de’Medici in the appearance of his famous villa in Poggio a Caiano, built by Giuliano de Sangallo after 1485, is generally well known[31]. Lorenzo’s design, which Giorgio Vasari calls “capriccio”, formed the basis for the conception of Poggio a Caiano. Lorenzo also acted as an advisor during the construction of Poggio Reale, the villa of the Neapolitan king, which was performed by Giuliano da Maiano. We know that Ferdinand was actively interested in architecture and not only closely followed the construction of the Prague Belvedere, but also instructed the builder in a detailed manner. Less than a year before his death, when he was gravely ill, his specialized interest in architecture, which was otherwise generally expected of the rulers of the time, did not abandon him. When, in 1563, in the company of the margrave Georg Friedrich Bitten, he looked over the new fortifications of Bamberg and united the plan with its realization and found several building errors in it which had escaped even the builder[32]. Ferdinand’s interest in architecture was shared by his son, the archduke Ferdinand, who was demonstrably an amateur architect, his most famous project being the Prague Star Hunting Lodge[33].