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Residenz Museum

Reiche Zimmer (Ornate Rooms)

Elector Karl Albrecht had the Reiche Zimmer, one of the most sumptuous sequences of rooms in the entire Residenz designed and furnished from 1730 to 1733 by the architect François Cuvilliés. With these state apartments Karl Albrecht sought to substantiate his claim to the Imperial throne.

Cuvilliés designed not only the floor plan of the rooms, but also their furnishings, encompassing everything from the carved wall panelling and ceiling stucco to parts of the furniture. Drawing on the expertise of other court artists, he was able to create a unique series of interiors that are works of art in their own right and were augmented by expensive furniture from Paris and by precious textiles.

The rooms were destroyed in the Second World War, but most of the stucco, wall-hangings and panelling was subsequently reproduced in accordance with the originals. So today, the rooms can be enjoyed largely as they were in the 18th century.

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In the audience chamber of the Reiche Zimmer foreign envoys were granted audiences in the presence of the entire court. The Elector received his guest standing beneath a red velvet canopy and in front of a chair placed on a dais covered with a carpet.

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In the Grüne Galerie (Green Gallery) splendid gatherings took place on two evenings a week, when the Elector invited selected members of court to attend. On such occasions, the gallery and the other rooms in this sequence were brightly lit, the light from hundreds of candles increased by their reflection in the large mirrors and the gilding on the walls.

The Grüne Galerie, which takes its name from the wall hangings of green silk damask, was a gallery of mirrors used not only for festive gatherings, but also for displaying pictures.

The paintings in their elaborate gilt frames are arranged above one another in tiers of three alternating with tall mirrors. Elector Karl Albrecht chose the pictures from the extensive collections of the Wittelsbach family. They included works of the highest quality, but many of them were later moved, some to the Alte Pinakothek. So what is on display here today are not the unrivalled masterpieces of former times, but a selection of paintings from the 16th to the 18th century that are very fine in their own right.

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In the conference chamber of the Reiche Zimmer Elector Karl Albrecht conducted political or private conversations. Only persons of the highest rank or members of his immediate family were permitted to visit him in this "Secret Cabinet".

As in the other reception rooms in the Reiche Zimmer - the two antechambers and the audience chamber - the walls here are hung with Genoa silk, consisting of red relief decoration on a gold ground.

Because this room occupied a more important place in court etiquette than the other reception rooms in the Reiche Zimmer its stucco, carving and furnishings are even more ornate.

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As one early document reveals, the state bedroom in the Reiche Zimmer served "only display, not the comforts of relaxation". It was conceived solely in terms of display.

In this, Elector Karl Albrecht of Bavaria was following the lead of the French royal court, but he did not adopt another role of the state bedroom in French court etiquette. In France the monarch's rising in the morning and his retiring for the night took the form of public acts of state, known as the levee and the couchee respectively. On these occasions the court and guests assembled in the King's state bedroom.

As a mark of its importance, the state bedroom was furnished with particularly lavish and expensive items of furniture. Elector Karl Albrecht commissioned this lacquered furniture from the Paris cabinetmakers Bernard Vanrisamburgh and Antoine-Robert Gaudreaus.

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The architect François Cuvilliés followed French practice by adjoining two small rooms, or cabinets, to the state bedroom. The first was designed as a room for writing and relaxing, the second as a cabinet of mirrors and porcelain.

Large mirrors were among the most expensive luxury goods in the 18th century. The previous rooms in the Reiche Zimmer contain single mirrors of this kind, but in this cabinet virtually the entire wall space is covered with them. Their reflections offer constantly changing views of the lavish gilt carving and stucco in the room.

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This tiny room, the Miniaturenkabinett (Cabinet of Miniatures), is the last of the Reiche Zimmer. The large mirror on the rear wall has a counterpart at the opposite end, in the Grüne Galerie. The mirrors give the impression that the sequence of rooms stretches out indefinitely in both directions.

The decoration of the Miniaturenkabinett is particularly elaborate. The exceptionally fine carving, which is gilded throughout, appears against red japanning that was extremely difficult to produce. 129 miniatures by Dutch, French and German painters of the 16th to the 18th century are let into the panelling.

With the exception of the two sets of doors and the miniatures, the Miniaturenkabinett was completely destroyed in the Second World War. It took many years of painstaking work to reconstruct the stucco, the carving and the red japanning.

 

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