Schinkel's Look towards India

By Mario Alexander Zadow

Publisher: Edition Axel Menges

Imprint: Edition Axel Menges

This book discusses a subject to which little attention has been paid to date: Schinkel's interest in Indian architecture and culture. At the royal court of Prussia, Lalla Rookh, based on Thomas Moore's romance, was celebrated in 1821 as an oriental festival. In 1822 the Indian-themed pageant Nurmahal was performed at the opera. For both productions Schinkel created enchantingly beautiful stage sets. His unrealised project for the summer palace Orianda on the Crimea, at the geographical interface of eastern and western culture, was Schinkel's convincing and timeless memorial to his dream of the unity of world cultures. The style of the exterior is classical, while that of the interior is Indian and Islamic. The work is characterized by the hall of caryatids that lies in front of the building and the museum of Caucasian antiquities, its counterpart in the interior of the palace.

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