Artibus et Historiae no. 58 (XXIX)

2008, ISSN 0391-9064

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GISELA HAASE - A Baroque Dresden "Audience Chair" with Coats of Arms of the Electorate of Saxony and the Kingdom of Poland

The coronation of Frederick August I, Elector of Saxony as King of Poland (Augustus II the Strong) in 1697 started an over sixty-year-long period of close political, economical and artistic relations between Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Saxony. Augustus II the Strong (1670/95—1733) reigned in Warsaw and Dresden — as King of Poland and Elector of Saxony. After his death (on 1 February 1733), his son and heir, Frederick August II succeeded his father as Elector of Saxony and then, on 17 January 1734, was crowned as King of Poland (Augustus III; 1696/17—33—1763). The personal union of Poland and Saxony ended with his death in 1763. The political union of the two countries was also mirrored in the iconography of works of art commissioned by the royal court of the Wettins, among them, a richly carved, gilt audience throne of c. 1720, bearing coats of arms of the Republic of Poland and of Saxony. The throne was made in the royal Dresden workshop by the court cabinetmaker — pupil of the famous Balthasar Permoser (1651—1732) — Johann Benjamin Thomae (1682—1751), active at the decoration of the Zwinger palace in Dresden. Sculptural decoration of the throne under discussion shows close affinities with the style of such of Thomae's works as his altarpiece for the Three Magi Church in Dresden-Neustadt (1738—1740), decoration of the Zwinger, as well as with numerous pieces of furniture done by him, now at the Kunstgewerbemuseum, Dresden.
The arms were carved in gesso priming at the rear of the throne's back, probably several years after the throne's manufacture. The reason for decorating the throne anew with combined arms of the two states may have been the coronation of Augustus III in 1734. Contemporary sources (iconographic, as well as written ones, e.g. inventories of the castles in Warsaw and Dresden) testify to the fact that such stately thrones or "audience chairs" (of which only very few have survived) were an indispensable element of the courtly ceremonial. Our throne may have been destined either for Dresden or for the royal castle in Warsaw. It is known that the court commissioned also folding "audience chairs", to be used during the King's long travels between Warsaw and Dresden, none of which has been preserved.