A Stage Drawing for a Vast Interior with a Temple c. 1803 - 1805

Karl Friedrich Schinkel made this stage drawing for a vast interior with a temple using pen and gray ink with gray wash. Schinkel was a prominent Prussian architect, city planner, and designer. This work offers us insight into the cultural and political milieu of early 19th-century Germany. In his stage designs, Schinkel often used architectural settings to evoke intense emotional responses. The temple, a symbol of classical antiquity, may have alluded to an ideal past, a past often associated with purity, order, and reason. As you can see, the stage is set on a series of monumental steps, and at the bottom we see two figures entering this space. This staging resonates with the long-standing theatrical tradition that equates the stage with the world, and offers a place where the drama of human life unfolds. "Architecture is the extended arm of man," Schinkel said, and with that arm, he attempted to shape and elevate the human experience through beauty, drama, and order. It asks us to consider how spaces shape our experiences and our perceptions.