Berlin, Wilhelmstrasse 65. Palace of Prince August of Prussia, Ballroom

In 1815, Prince August of Prussia, a nephew of Friedrich II, tasked Schinkel with an overhaul of several rooms on the first floor of the palace located at Wilhelmstrasse 65. The same building would in the latter half of the 19th century house the Imperial and Prussian ministries of justice. The picture shows the ballroom. For the narrow sides of the room, Schinkel created Pompeii-inspired wall decorations in the Second Style (comparable, for example, with the wall from the Villa of Boscoreale, held today at the Metropolitan Museum in New York). Schinkel replaced the painted views of landscapes and temple buildings with wall sections covered entirely in mirrors. Although the picture bears the prince’s mark of approval, the rooms when completed differed slightly from the design shown here.