Magnificent Gilt Armchair

Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781–1841) was already the most influential architect and interior designer in Germany when he received the commission to remodel Prince Charles of Prussia’s (1801–1883) Berlin Palace on the occasion of the latter’s wedding. Schinkel designed an opulent set of gilded furniture for the reception hall, including two benches and eight armchairs. Images of this chair were already published in 1835 in a collection of Schinkel’s famous furniture designs. It stands as an exceptional witness to the creative appropriation of antiquity in Neoclassical Berlin. This can be seen in the form of the armchair with its two fully sculptural sphinxes, which is based on a chair known from Pompeian wall frescos, and also in the delicate ornaments decorating the piece.