The art of Karl Friedrich Schinkel, 1781–1841
Cathedral Towering over a Town (1813).
Karl Friedrich Schinkel was a German painter and Neo-Classical architect. These paintings, produced early in his career, strongly resemble those of his contemporary Caspar David Friedrich, using landscape as a metaphor and with a similar attention to the quality of natural light. Apparently Schinkel thought too much of the resemblance; after seeing Friedrich’s Monk by the Sea he decided he could never equal Friedrich’s mastery and so concentrated solely on architecture. The picture below of the Queen of the Night is a design for Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Mercury Rev used the painting on the cover of their Secret for a Song single.
Morning (1813).
Medieval City on a River (1815).
The Queen of the Night (1816).
The Banks of the Spree near Stralau (1817).
4 Comments, Comment or Ping
#1 posted by Eroom Nala
Queen of the Night reminds me a bit of the torture chamber in Terry Gilliam’s Brazil.
http://www.trond.com/brazil/images/brazil48.jpg
Mar 1st, 2006
#2 posted by Eroom Nala
PS I got 8 right and 6 wrong in the Brazil Quiz
Mar 1st, 2006
#3 posted by Eroom Nala
http://www.trond.com/brazil/quiz.html
Mar 1st, 2006
#4 posted by John
Gilliam’s torture chamber was the interior of a British power station cooling chimney, I believe; very clever use of architecture. Those chimneys are open at the top though, not domed like Schinkel’s painting.
Mar 1st, 2006
Reply to ‘The art of Karl Friedrich Schinkel, 1781–1841’