I, er, so, continuing with the theme of me being completely obsessed with Sanssouci and Fritz's burial choices...having written two fics on the subject, I have now proceeded to create what is probably the closest to fanart my inartistic self will ever come.
I.e., I discovered that Google sent someone to get lovely tourist-free images of the Sanssouci grounds on a clear day at sunrise before the park was open, so you can walk around the grounds without leaving your computer, and that's how I spent a good chunk of my evening.
Since you've both read "Pulvis et Umbra" and are now experts on the Antinous statue, I share with you this slideshow of captioned screenshots I compiled from Google street view, which, in full screen presentation mode, gives you pretty good visuals for that fic. You can see what's meant by things like "in the line of sight from my library."
Easter egg: the Antinous statue is extremely dark in these pictures (here's a link to a better picture, of the original), but you can just make out that it's facing the library window and raising both its arms. In "Pulvis et Umbra", I snuck in "a bronze statue of a naked young man, arms held aloft" in our introduction to the piece, followed by "Katte's hands were giving him no such problems. He raised both and waved easily to Friedrich" in Fritz's dream/near death experience.
If you look at the slideshow, you can visualize what I'm imagining: Fritz walks to his window, looks out, and sees Katte standing where the statue is, in a roughly similar pose. The dream also inserts a river in between the window and the statue/grave, which is, of course, less accurate and more symbolic. ;)
Thanks, Google!
I may or may not also have "driven" around the ruins of Kostrzyn today, I mean different parts than I usually drive around, WHAT? :P
On a less morbid note, I am intrigued by the staircases on the terraces. I didn't notice it while I was actually walking down them (walking up, I was sprinting all out because I was way late for my timed entry ticket to the palace, because I spent too long on the grounds), and it may simply be my own architectural ignorance and this may be way more common than I think, but this view looking up the hill reminded me of another staircase I climbed once...Michelangelo's famous one at the Laurentian Library. Fritz's isn't tripartite, of course, nor a close copy, but it's got that flowing effect, and the last three steps are rounded and overflow the horizontal boundaries in a way that seems very reminiscent of the most striking part in the center of Michelangelo's.
I know Fritz was obsessed with Italian architecture, paid people to go there looking for inspiration, picked Algarotti's brain, repeatedly used the Pantheon dome for inspiration in his commissioned structures, including here at Sanssouci, and so...I'm wondering if this is another instance of a specific inspiration. I can't find a link between the two staircases by googling, but given just how *famous* that Laurentian staircase is, and given Fritz's predilections, I'm going to hypothesize that there's a link, until and unless someone tells me that that staircase design was totally a rococo thing and was everywhere to be seen, no Renaissance inspiration needed.
Until then, "If you're afraid to go to Italy and risk your heart, you can always bring Italy to you (if your dad left you enough money)."
Man, I need to go back to Sanssouci now that I know stuff. Meanwhile, thanks, Google!
ETA: Oh, hopefully all the links work and you have permission to view them, but let me know if not.
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Sanssouci
Date: 2019-10-14 06:26 am (UTC)I.e., I discovered that Google sent someone to get lovely tourist-free images of the Sanssouci grounds on a clear day at sunrise before the park was open, so you can walk around the grounds without leaving your computer, and that's how I spent a good chunk of my evening.
Since you've both read "Pulvis et Umbra" and are now experts on the Antinous statue, I share with you this slideshow of captioned screenshots I compiled from Google street view, which, in full screen presentation mode, gives you pretty good visuals for that fic. You can see what's meant by things like "in the line of sight from my library."
Easter egg: the Antinous statue is extremely dark in these pictures (here's a link to a better picture, of the original), but you can just make out that it's facing the library window and raising both its arms. In "Pulvis et Umbra", I snuck in "a bronze statue of a naked young man, arms held aloft" in our introduction to the piece, followed by "Katte's hands were giving him no such problems. He raised both and waved easily to Friedrich" in Fritz's dream/near death experience.
If you look at the slideshow, you can visualize what I'm imagining: Fritz walks to his window, looks out, and sees Katte standing where the statue is, in a roughly similar pose. The dream also inserts a river in between the window and the statue/grave, which is, of course, less accurate and more symbolic. ;)
Thanks, Google!
I may or may not also have "driven" around the ruins of Kostrzyn today, I mean different parts than I usually drive around, WHAT? :P
On a less morbid note, I am intrigued by the staircases on the terraces. I didn't notice it while I was actually walking down them (walking up, I was sprinting all out because I was way late for my timed entry ticket to the palace, because I spent too long on the grounds), and it may simply be my own architectural ignorance and this may be way more common than I think, but this view looking up the hill reminded me of another staircase I climbed once...Michelangelo's famous one at the Laurentian Library. Fritz's isn't tripartite, of course, nor a close copy, but it's got that flowing effect, and the last three steps are rounded and overflow the horizontal boundaries in a way that seems very reminiscent of the most striking part in the center of Michelangelo's.
I know Fritz was obsessed with Italian architecture, paid people to go there looking for inspiration, picked Algarotti's brain, repeatedly used the Pantheon dome for inspiration in his commissioned structures, including here at Sanssouci, and so...I'm wondering if this is another instance of a specific inspiration. I can't find a link between the two staircases by googling, but given just how *famous* that Laurentian staircase is, and given Fritz's predilections, I'm going to hypothesize that there's a link, until and unless someone tells me that that staircase design was totally a rococo thing and was everywhere to be seen, no Renaissance inspiration needed.
Until then, "If you're afraid to go to Italy and risk your heart, you can always bring Italy to you (if your dad left you enough money)."
Man, I need to go back to Sanssouci now that I know stuff. Meanwhile, thanks, Google!
ETA: Oh, hopefully all the links work and you have permission to view them, but let me know if not.