Court Culture in Dresden : From Renaissance to Baroque

This is the first cultural history of Baroque Dresden, the capital of Saxony and the most important Protestant territory in the Empire from the mid-sixteenth to the early eighteenth century. Helen Watanabe-O'Kelly shows how the art patronage of the Electors fits into the intellectual climate of the age and investigates its political and religious context. Lutheran church music and architecture, the influence of Italy, the cabinet of curiosities and the culture of collecting, alchemy, mining and early technology, official image-making and court theatre are some of the wealth of colourful subjects dealt with during the period 1553 to 1733. 'Professor Watanabe-O'Kelly's investigation - under the general rubric of court culture - offers far more than one might first expect. This is political history as well as art history, cultural history as well as intellectual history. Her text and pictures order the vast collections assembled over almost two hundred years and explain the varying logic behind how they were gathered and exhibited together. Yet her analysis never dulls the sense of amazement and wonderment these princes - and their servants - worked so hard to fashion...[F]ew have produced descriptions of the poetics of power that range so widely and probe so deeply.' - Professor Mary Lindemann, Carnegie Mellon University 'This new Publication can be seen as a milestone...The wealth of detail contained in Professor Watanabe-O'Kelly's survey will fascinate both the general reader and the cultural historian and open up a wide range of areas for further study.' - Jill Bepler, Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbuttel '...a scholarly, original, important and well-illustrated study...'- Tim Blanning, Times Literary Supplement Front Matter....Pages i-xv Introduction....Pages 1-4 The Lutheran Legacy: The Albertine Electors and Protestant Court Culture....Pages 5-36 The Italian Ideal: The Sixteenth-Century Reception of Italian Culture....Pages 37-70 The Management of Knowledge: The Dresden Collections — Their Origin and Development....Pages 71-99 The Secrets of the Heavens and the Earth: Alchemy, Mining and Astrology at the Dresden Court....Pages 100-129 The Fabrication of an Image: Johann Georg II’s Self-presentation....Pages 130-165 The ‘Recreation of the Spirit’: Theatre at the Dresden Court during the Seventeenth Century....Pages 166-192 The Saxon Hercules: August the Strong, Elector of Saxony, King of Poland....Pages 193-237 Conclusion....Pages 238-241 Back Matter....Pages 242-310 This is the first cultural history of Baroque Dresden, the capital of Saxony and the most important Protestant territory in the Empire from mid-sixteenth to early-eighteenth century. It shows how the art patronage of the Electors fits into the intellectual climate of the age and investigates its political and religious context. Lutheran church music and architecture, the influence of Italy, and alchemy are among the colorful subjects that come into play