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Foreign Correspondence

Foreign Correspondence image
Parent Issue
Day
19
Month
December
Year
1873
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Dresden, July 3, 1873. Friend Pond : In a city where palaoes aro so common as Berlín, we indulged in the traveler's excusable curiosity and one day made the formal tour of one to which admission is granted. It would be quite impossible to give in detail all that we saw ; but we romember well that one of the first things about 20 of us did, was to slip our feet (without removing our boots) into capacious thick feit slippers that soon beoame very hot. This was to prevent scratehing the highly polished inlaid floor, and to keep our feet inside required a sort of sliding moveinent which assumed a ludicrous aspect wheu the signal to move was given. We have bnt a vague impression üf passing through some 20 rooms, bright with gilted ceilings, splendid upholstering, brilliant niirrors, chandeliers, &c. The Wbito Saloon, as it is called over 100 feet long, 50 broad, and 40 high, seemed to be regarded as the finest of all, notwithstanding the absence of contrasting oolors in the room. White gilding, glass, crystal chandeliers, white marbles, fcc, relieved but slightly by the few frescoes seemed to créate an impression of being over pale and faded. By the light of lamps and with a gay company present all this would be inuch changed doubtless. The chapel, iarge enough to accommodate 1,500 persons (if crowded), was quite a beautiful room and in all respects well adapted to its purpose. The respective dignity of the worshippers was easily distinguished by the assorted arrangement of the sittings and the chair fittings - some being uncushioned for attendants, some softly upholstered for the nobler visitors, two very richly caparisoned for Eoyalty. The ceiling is 118 feet in height and is adorned with frescoes of scriptural subjects and portrait representations of the Eoyal family, &c. The picture gallery is a comparatively narrow hall, over 200 feet long, very elaboratoly adorned, and is only by courtesy to be called a picture gallery, for it contains little besides fine portraits ot Royal personages of the Prussian dynasty and other thrones of Europe rather sparsely scattered along upon either side at intervals several feet asunder. Among them however, we had the gratiBcation of secing thoso of Marie Theresa, Frederick the Great, Victoria and the celebrated one of Bonaparte crossing the St. Bernard, by David, and several others for whoiu we cared less. There is a legend connected with the palace and Eoyal family called the " White Lady," of which the purport is that the approaching death of a member of the House of Brandenburg is portended by this ghostly apparibion in the Palace some short timo prior to the event. Whether purely mythical or not, its belief must form a very cheerEul anticipation to the members of the family thus honored in time of sickness. The parks of Berlin are neithernumerOU9 nor Iarge, with the exception of the great Thiergarten, outside the Brandenburg gate, which is abdut two miles long by one-half a mile in width, lying upon each side o? the highway to Charlottenburg. It does not appear to have had any Iarge amount of labor or engineering skill expended upon it as yet, though some portions of the grounds are quite charming. There seems also to be a somewhat too tenacious euforcement of the rule excluding the children, and indeed all, from a free ramble through the shady wood. Taking the omnibus one day we extended our excursión through the park to the Chatean at Charlottenburg, three miles beyond the The ride through the Thiergarten, and the village of 1,200 inhabitantsadjoiningit, was in itself highly interesting and enjoyable, but the delightful grounds attached to the Chatean, with winding paths among the noble trees, fine shrubbery, and flowera, sheets of water and glimpses of lawn, wero a real treat. The chief object of particular interest, is the Mansoleum erected at some distance from the Chatean as the buiial place of Williain III, and of bis wife. It is quite a oapacious edifice, erected after the form of a temple, with open portio. Entering within, we are overpowered with tho horrid and intense blue colored light with which the chamber is filled from the stained glass intentionally placed above in the dome. Everybody and everything assumed a ghostly hue, and for some moments we looked at each other aa part of the spectacle. After becoraing a little accustomed to this order of things we found ourselves in a fine chamber, lined with marble and supported by corinthian columns, about 20 feet high. Centrally in the single room were the two monuments similar in size and constructiou, formed by two finely sculptured sarcophagi upon which, in vory easy roclining attidude were the statues of the Prince and of his consort, respectivoly executed by the masterly hand of Eauch. Both are excellent, but the figure of the queen is quite faultless as a work of art. At the side of the Prinoe stands a candelabrum, by Eauch about the standard of which are gráce fully entwined in expressive groupiug the three fates. On the side near the Princess is another of similar proportions and design, with the Horse grouped about the support ; this latter is the work of Tieck, and of both we can say they are works of lare beauty. The Chateau ertcted in 1596, is simply a fine specimen for actual royal residence rather than display. The Zoological Garden is near the Thiergarten and adjoining tho city, and is said to contain a good colloction of animáis and well arranged but our time was otherwise occupied and we did not visit it. These Zoological gardens are quite an institution in Europe and are to bo found attached to nearly all important cities. We iound them at Lyons, Paris, Brussels, werp, Amsterdam and hero at Berlin, as well as several other places last season. Were a person to devote to various collections at Berlin all the time needed for their careful and thorough iuspection ho would require months or even yoars for the purpose. No tra veler can do this, no savant even does more than to give ad_ ditional time to some particnlar department to which his studies may relate, yet such collections are of inestimable valué when they can be made so complete and be kept under such judicious regulations as are these at Berlin, whero nearly every field of Labor and Art and Science has appropriate depositories for its illustration and study. Thero are the great galleries of pictures and of sculpture in the Museum, and the casts, engravings, ethnological, historical, Egyptian, and other collections in the new Museums of Agriculture and of general Industry, Zoological and Botanie Gardens, the grand collections in the University, the splendid Royal Library, &c, with numberless smaller private galleries and collections, and all at stated times and upon easy conditions open to public use and curiosity. But a very brief notice of some of these can be given, and as we have given some account of the old let us cross to the new Museum, through the arcade which connects the two. In all thatpertains tothe embellisliment of its interior, this edifice far transcends the one we just left and indeed is said to be ono of the finest in Berlin. We very naturally hasten on and up the fine staircase to get a view of those celebiated mural paintings of Kaulbach, which adorn the walls of the lofty hall. These beautiful and much admired pictures are an ideal representation of various important events in History, and the cnaracter of these is indicated by the respective subjects of each : the fall of Babel, prosperity of Greecc, destruction of Jerusalem, battle of the Huns, the Crusaders before Jerusalem. and age of the Eeformation. Each constitutes a vey large work with life-size figures and are executed in the best style of the celebratod Artist. The battle of the Huns is generally thought to bo the finest work, though it struck us that this prefersnee arises partly from the happy uso the Artist has made of the old legend, according to which the fury of the coinbattants was such, as to cause those who had fallen during the day to rise again at night and continue their fight in the air. Rome, the supposed scène of this singular conflict, is pictured in the back ground. In the representation of the period of the Reformation portrait figures of some of the great agitators of reform in Religión and Art, Science and discovery are introduced in easy and effective groups. Luther upholding the Bible, surrounded by Melancthon, Z wingli, Calvin, and Bugenhagen, while Wickliff, Huss and others are sitting near. Queen Elizabeth, Gustavus Adolphus, and Coligne, the Huguenot, are seen at the right and lof't. Copernicus Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Columbus, are discussing their various specialties, and variously engaged at their vocations are Durer, Da Vinci, Holbein, Raphael, Gutenberg, Shakespear, Petrarch, and others. In all the series the artist has happily availed himself of both legend and historical incidents. Symbolic and Historical single figures are introduced between and over the large figures, while around the magnificent Hall extends a narrow frieze with humorous representations of the progress of Mankind - the whole constituting one of the richest specimens of this kind of decorativa Art which it has been our fortune to see. The ground floor of the Museum is occupied by the saloon of Northern Antiquities, very interesting to those who have a fondness for study or theorizing upon that uncertain epoch known as the " Flint Period," the succeeding "Bronze Period," and the still more recent Roman epoch. The variety of implements, weapons, ornaments, &c, is quite curious and interesting as well as extensive, and is derived principally from the so-called giants' graves and ancient tumuli ; the mural paintings, being made to illustrate some of the rarious myths and mythology of the North, in which Odin, the Walhalla, &c, are introduced. The Ethnological Collection follows, in which by a well defined geographical arrangement, the visitor is enabled to stuJy with considerable satisfaction the manners and habits of some of those nations with which ordinary travelers do not often come in contact. Besides the ordinary objects gathered togother for this purpose there are mimic representations in miniatura of modes of dress, building, street occupations, &c. But the most interesting deprrtment on this floor is the Egyytian Museum which, besides its fine collection pertaining to that ancient people, by a unique and admirable arrangement of the rooms and the use of original materials almost introduces the visitor into the very places end localities themselves. Thus the Entrance Court' surrounded by its pórtico with 1(5 inassive columns, presents to the eye a facsimili or reduced duplícate of the famous pórtico of the temple of Carnac. Egyptian eccnes adorn the walls ; in the court two sphynxs, and at the rear two collossal statues in porphyry of Rameses II, and of Sesostris I, as it is supposed, and though this gives a probable antiquity of some 2,000 years beforo our era their appear anee is as fresh as of yesterday - such is the indestructable nature of this ancient Porphyry. In the adjoining rooms are the numerous sarcophagi, mummies, papyrus rolls.Jdeities and statues, f&c, and in cabinets a large collection of smaller objects, amulets, ornaments, mummy cats, snakes, frogs, and similar petty things, We now enter the tomb chambers, constrncted of original fragments brought from the Necropolis at Memphis by Lepsius, put together in the original form, and exhibiting at a glance the form and arrangement of these old time plans of sepulture. It was almost like a walk through the remarkable Necropolis itself. Asoending to the first floor we had au opportunity, through the medium of the fine collection of oasts here arranged, to renew our acquaintanoe with the origináis we had met at Munich, Florence, Rome, Paris and elsewhere, extending through the Ancient Medieeval, and Modern periods, and forming altogether an illustrative history of Sculpture, adtnirably assisted by the beautiful frescoes which the best Germán Artists have traced on the walls. Upon the upper floor we find the extensivo collection of Engravings, 500,000 and 20,000 drawings, &c, where the student of Art as well as its mere admirer may spend days in the agreeable inspection of the productions of all times and all schools. The historical collection, &c, on same floor is principally interesting to those curious in the way of old furniture, ornaments, works in ivory, chrystal, &c, with the exception of one small room wherein were seated the life-like representations in wax of Fredeiick I, and Frederick the Great, arrayed in the costume worn by them when living, - the former a pompous, rotund personage, soated with stiff dignity in his ohair ; thelatter a small, spindle-legged, red-faced old general, seated in an easy attitude ready f or business. Froin this very hasty sketch yon may perhaps be able to form a faint idea of the many attractions contained in the new Museum. Of all the collections of Zoological specimens, both of birds and animáis through almost all their varieties, from all parts of creation, we have seen nothing so good as that arranged in the upper rooms of the Univer" sity, and of the Mineralogical cabinet, this remark is equally true, and to be able to go through collections so large, beiug amoug the largest on the continent and find cvery specimen artistically mounted in the best position for examination, and all legibly labeled and in good condition, seemed to justify a belief that much smaller collections nearer home' might and should be, as well ordored. Ever yours, J. M, WHEELER.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus