Prof. Rand Carter, Hamiolton College, Clinton, NewYork
Schinkel as TravellerThe numerous journeys that Schinkel undertook over a period of almost forty years served a variety of purposes and took him to almost every major country in Europe. As chief architect to the Prussian government he traveled throughout the Hohenzollern realm from Aachen to Könisgberg. His official duties also took him to England, Scotland and Wales. Late in life he traveled to various spas in hopes of restoring his ailing health. Most influential on his development as an architect, however, are the two extended trips he made to Italy.
His first Italian journey belongs to his Wanderjahre. Barely out of architecture school and with little practical experience as a practicing architect, the young northern European was especially susceptible to the magical spell of the Mediterranean South. Somewhat surprisingly, he did not focus on the classical ruins nor on the monuments of Renaissance and Baroque Italy. Although he made drawings of such ancient sites as Agrigento and Segesta, his most intriguing visual records are those ‘environmental’ drawings which show the buildings of Italy in their natural and urban setting. In most cases the context is accurate if panoramic in character. In some, he does not hesitate to ‘improve’ the setting, in one instance placing the Cathedral of Milan on the heights above Trieste. Since he had become conversant with the classical monuments in the classes of Aloys Hirt and others at the Berlin Bauakademie, he was more excited by the discovery of such unfamiliar works as the late mediaeval brick architecture of Bologna or the ‘Saracenic’ architecture of Sicily. It is illuminating to note what he chose to record in drawings and to observe which aspects of the buildings and their environment he emphasized. He sketched both high style villas and the rustic farmhouses of Capri and Sicily, chosing to draw those scenes that struck a responsive chord within his creative spirit. These would resonate in his later architecture.
By 1824 when Schinkel made his second Italian journey he was an acclaimed architect at the height of his powers. His drawings from this trip are less discoveries than analyses of the constituent elements of the buildings and their setting. This was the period of his two superb estates in the Potsdam area for the Crown Prince and Prince Karl. Although both Charlottenhof and Glienicke are labeled Schlösser, they are in fact more villa than palace.
Many critics have seen J.N.L. Durand as an important source for Schinkel. In many essential way, however, he differs from Durand’s rationalism and one can argue that a more pervasive and profound influence was the Italian vernacular. The influence was not simple and Schinkel did not replicate these buildings. Rather the experience of the Italian vernacular seems to have awakened ideas inherent in his own creative imagination and revealed to him their formal and environmental possibilities.