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The Amalienborg: A group of four lovely palaces around an octagonal piazza continue… April 24, 2008

Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Beach Resorts, Denmark, Paris , trackback

It was not until after the final front elevation for the palaces was ready that the sites were presented by the King in 1750 to four noblemen, but on the condition that the facades of the palaces should correspond exactly to Eigtved’s design, while the gentlemen were left free with regard to the interior. The four chosen persons were: Geheimeraad Joachim von Brockdorff, General Greve C. F. von Levetzau, Baron Severin Leopold Løvenskiold and Overhofmarskal Greve Adam Gottlob Moltke.

A. G. Moltke was the one among these four best qualified in every way as the owner of a house in building. Besides being very rich, he was one of the King’s closest friends and, in addition, unquestionably one of the most influential men in the country. He was, moreover, a man of wide culture and is rightly regarded as having been one of Denmark’s greatest personalities in the eighteenth century. His interest in art of every kind was intense, and he was actively engaged in the encouragement of art, for instance in his office of President of the Academy of Art. It is therefore easy to understand that such a man would do his utmost to make his winter abode in Copenhagen a model of an aristocratic residence. Moltke’s palace in Amalienborg Plads became, indeed, incomparably the most magnificent private residence in the country. The history of the creation of the palace is known in detail, thanks to the thorough research done by the Danish scholars Mario Krohn and Chr. Elling.

Travel GuidebookIn August 1750 the foundations of Moltke’s palace were already finished, and in the following summer the first storey was completed and the next storey begun. In March 1754 the palace was occupied for the first time. Three months later the architect Eigtved died. Although at this moment not everything in the interior was finished, Eigtved managed to supervise and to set the seal of his artistry on the whole of Moltke’s palace, apart from the dining-hall, which will be discussed afterwards.

Whereas the facade has been influenced by German rococo architecture, the distribution of rooms in the palace is altogether in keeping with the principles that had formed the basis of French civil architecture in the first half of the eighteenth century. It is also in keeping with French practice that the decoration of the rooms observed a certain etiquette. The entrance hall, for example, where the back wall was concave, from its classical pillars in blue-grey Norwegian marble acquired a more severe and imposing character than the large salon, where the rich, gilt rocaille decorations struck’a gay and festive note.

This large salon, Riddersalen (the Baronial Hall) as it is now called, is one of the two most magnificent rooms in the palace. Even by comparison with the best rococo halls it occupies a position of dignity in the hierarchy. The white panelled walls, like the doors, are embellished with richly carved and gilt ornaments. Exuberance is curbed by an almost rhythmical division of the space. Doors, windows and mirrors and two large fireplaces provide for that. In relation to corresponding French rooms the size and decoration of the hall, even so, are rather exaggerated. In particular, such heavy stucco decorations in the ceiling would not have found favour in Paris. The style of the Riddersalen is derived in large measure from German decorative style at that period. There are thus distinct points of similarity with decorative engravings by Francois de Cuvilliés, an artist active in Munich, by whom Eigtved had formerly been employed.

The stucco ceiling was the work of the Italian J. B. Fossati, the wood carvings were by the Frenchman Louis-Auguste Le Clerc. The life-size portraits, representing King Frederik V and Queen Juliane Marie, were painted by Louis Tocqué, while the pictures above the fireplaces and doors are by Francois Boucher. Also, in another room in the palace, there is a series of tapestries from cartoons by Boucher, which were woven in Beauvais.

One of the rooms that Eigtved did not live to achieve was the dining-hall beside the Riddersalen. It was carried out in the neoclassic style by the Frenchman Nicolas-Henri Jardin, who had come to Copenhagen in 1755, called in to submit a design for the proposed Frederikskirke. The dining-hall was begun and completed in 1757 and thus, with its free-standing, classical pillars, is a very early example of the reaction towards rococo. For the history of Danish architecture it would be gratifying if this piece of modern decoration could be dated as earlier than any French example. But there is no certainty of that. At all events more light will have to be thrown on the history of Parisian interior decoration in these critical years, especially as regards the interiors of the Palais Royal, before the dining-hall is pronounced number one in the line.

King Christian VII took over Moltke’s palace in 1794 and made it his residence. On that occasion some alterations to the interior were carried out under the direction of the architect C. F. Harsdorff. In addition, the low connecting portions between the main building and the pavilions were raised by one storey, and this was done also in the other three palaces. At the same time a colonnade in the Ionic style was erected as a link between Christian VII’s palace and the earlier Løvenskiold’s palace where the Crown Prince had now moved in.

The present King and Queen of Denmark live in the earlier Brockdorff palace, which only differs from the others externally in its possession of a clock high up on the facade.

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The Amalienborg: A group of four lovely palaces around an octagonal piazza continue…

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