Court Culture in Dresden

H. Watanabe-O'Kelly

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2002
• Print ISBN:
  9780333984482
• eBook ISBN:
  9780230514492
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

This is the first cultural history of Baroque Dresden, the capital of Saxony and the most important Protestant territory in the Empire from the mid-sixteenth to the early eighteenth century. Helen Watanabe-O'Kelly shows how the art patronage of the Electors fits into the intellectual climate of the age and investigates its political and religious context. Lutheran church music and architecture, the influence of Italy, the cabinet of curiosities and the culture of collecting, alchemy, mining and early technology, official image-making and court theatre are some of the wealth of colourful subjects dealt with during the period 1553 to 1733.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Genealogical table
• Introduction
• 1 The Lutheran Legacy: The Albertine Electors and Protestant Court Culture
• 2 The Italian Ideal: The Sixteenth-Century Reception of Italian Culture
• 3 The Management of Knowledge: The Dresden Collections – Their Origin and Development
• 4 The Secrets of the Heavens and the Earth: Alchemy, Mining and Astrology at the Dresden Court
• 5 The Fabrication of an Image: Johann Georg II's Self-presentation
• 6 The 'Recreation of the Spirit': Theatre at the Dresden Court during the Seventeenth Century
• 7 The Saxon Hercules: August the Strong, Elector of Saxony, King of Poland
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index