Let's take a look at a "god-level" jewelry piece
▼
The air was still sinking in the darkness and cold, and dawn seemed to come later than usual. At this time, the sleeping people of Dresden did not know that a "terrible robbery" was taking place in this ancient German city.
On November 25, 2019, between 4 and 5 a.m., a jewelry theft occurred at the Green Dome Museum in Dresden, Germany
Inside the famous Green Dome Treasure House, two thieves broke through windows and purposefully stole €1 billion worth of jewelry from the showroom.
Among the stolen jewels are jewelry made of diamonds, the Polish White Eagle Medal, military uniform epaulettes, and swords decorated with more than 770 diamonds, and the stolen collections are priceless from a historical and cultural point of view.
When the police arrived in a hurry, the thieves were long gone, and the treasures disappeared without a trace. / Green Dome Treasure House
The theft of the collection is regrettable, but unfortunately, the Two World-renowned Treasures of the Green Dome Treasure Hall have been spared. One is the famous diamond "Dresden Green Diamond", which escaped due to loan, and the other is the large Mughal royal celebration model, which is known as "the greatest work of European jewelry art".
Model of the Great Mughal Royal Celebration (Der Thron des Großmoguls Aureng-Zeb)
Today, we will take a look at why this most expensive "miniature model" in history, which took 8 years and was set with more than 5,000 diamonds, is called the first and the last.
1. The glorious century of hundreds of years ago
The night of Dresden was not always so silent, at least 300 years ago, when the lost treasures of the Green Dome were born, the city was lit up every night by the glorious lights of the king's court.
Augustus II, the "mighty king" who ascended to the throne of Poland in 1697, brought about a magnificent revolution in Dresden, where he lived. Passionate about pleasure, he not only made his court have a palatial comparable to Versailles, but also once built the entire city into an artistic and cultural mecca like Paris.
Augustus II, nicknamed "The Mighty King" and "Iron Fist" because of his large size and infinite strength.
Dresden Royal Castle
Under his rule, magnificent palaces rose from the ground, grand balls and celebrations kept the city awake all night, and Dresden's extraordinary splendor spread throughout Europe with the fame of Augustus II.
Augustus II sponsored many lavish court gatherings, games and garden celebrations. In his youth, he visited the Palace of Versailles, king of France, Louis XIV, and admired the magnificent pomp and circumstance of versailles and the absolute kingship of Louis XIV.
Because of the king's admiration for art and luxurious life, the city gradually gathered many literati artists, and the great European goldsmith John Melchio Dinglinger was one of them.
Johann· Melchior· Dinglinger shows in his portrait diana bath chalcedony wine glass / Portrait of DingLinger by Antoine Pesne / 1721
The picture shows the chalcedony wine glass of Diana's bath made by Ding Linger, depicting the story of Diana and Akteon in the Roman poet Ovid's "Metamorphosis".
In order to please Augustus II and to gain a foothold in Dresden, where the famous masters gathered, in 1701, the brainy Dinglinger decided, without being entrusted, to carry out a huge project of his own - he wanted to create a unique treasure that everyone could not reach.
The entire piece is 58 cm high, and the figures are placed on a staircase made of silver, silver gilded, and pure gold from far and near.
From raising funds and finding materials to conceiving and designing, polishing and carving, Ding Linger worked tirelessly to be personal. For six years, with the concerted efforts of the studio, an unparalleled miniature of the Grand Mughal Royal Celebration was born.
2. The embodiment of imperial ambition
Through extensive research on the materials of the Mughal dynasty's birthday banquets, Ding Linger used his imagination to build jade and pile gold, with a total of 5223 diamonds, 189 rubies, 175 emeralds, 53 pearls, 2 reliefs and 1 sapphire, depicting the European imagination of the carved walls of the Indian imperial palace.
In India, this court court meeting (darbar) was the main occasion for rulers to express and exercise their power, and it was also a place to deal with the affairs of the state, and courtiers and nobles were required to attend the court according to strict etiquette rules.
On this model, 132 miniature statues are arranged in layers. In the upper part, the protagonist of the feast, Aurangzeb, dressed in a magnificent costume and holding a scepter, is sitting proudly on the throne and looking down on the courtiers with a majestic gaze. At his side, the attendants stood solemnly aside, waiting for the king's orders.
DingLinger's carving of the scene is extremely luxurious, and the figures, animal figures, etc. are made of gold and decorated with enamel and jewelry.
Above the main hall at the foot of Aurangzeb, many princes and nobles who came to wish for the birthday knelt before the palace and respectfully presented elaborate congratulatory gifts.
Ding Linger designed a total of 32 various forms of pilgrimage on this work.
In the square outside the main hall, there was an endless stream of envoys from various countries. They are coming with rare treasures and blessings from afar to meet this legendary figure who ruled India with absolute power.
The exotic atmosphere of Egypt, Persia, Arabia and other regions comes together.
The figures in the model can be moved and disassembled, and they can be spelled out completely different looks and scenes.
Looking down, on the outermost edge of the square, you can not only see the orchestra carrying songs and dances, but also find that around a large scale, people are holding a very characteristic Mughal weighing ceremony, which shows the artist's intention to investigate exotic styles.
This aristocratic ceremony was often held on important occasions such as birthday celebrations to show the benevolence of the ruler. The ceremony begins with auspicious moments calculated by court astrologers, and then places the weighed person in a large scale with gold, silver or other precious metals to be given to the poor at the other end.
A miniature painting depicting the celebration of Prince Hlam's 15th birthday also documents such a weighing ceremony / 1607
From the carriages and horses decorated with precious fabrics, to the tents, to the utensils carefully carried by the servants, to the different dresses of the characters and even the patterns on the clothes, Dinglin did not miss the carving of every corner. Through his meticulous design, the viewer can see real and perceptible details everywhere they look.
Each character's appearance is different, and the lines on the objects held by people are very clearly drawn.
The walls of the palace are also cleverly mirrored to reflect the grand scene and the shining brilliance of the gemstones. Under the illumination of the lights, the work is even more imposing. From a distance, it is like seeing a bustling and beautiful city that never sleeps, and up close, the scene of the Mughal Dynasty's gongs and drums and the sound of people boiling thousands of years ago has come to life, making people feel as if they are in this grand ceremony of hanging lights.
Even the movements of the animals are vividly portrayed.
It is through these splendid buildings and a variety of treasures that Dinglinger perfectly represents the great wealth of the Mughal Empire - but why did he spend so much effort to create a three-dimensional model of the Indian king, which was clearly built for the king of Poland?
I have to say that in the point of speculating on the emperor's thoughts, Ding Linge really achieved the pinnacle of perfection.
In 1694, when Augustus had just become Elector of Saxony, aurangzeb's reputation as the "overlord of the world" in the East had already spread in all directions—his centralized rule was considered the epitome of absolute monarchy, and his wealth was immeasurable.
The Mughal Empire had by this time gained a legendary reputation, with power and wealth envied by European rulers... An admirable and wanted to imitate palatial fairy tale image was born.
—Dr. Larry Silver, Professor of Art History at the University of Pennsylvania
The depiction of India and its palaces in travelogues at that time was very prosperous, and Europeans were fascinated by it. This also gave DingLinger a reference/picture of a 17th-century Dutch etching, depicting the lively scene of the Mughal palace
As a ruler who also wanted to establish an absolute monarchy, Augustus II's lifelong goals coincided with aurangzeb's achievements. DingLinger's work, rather than depicting the prosperity of the Mughal court, firmly grasps the emperor's desire for power and wealth, and shows the glorious prosperity that Augustus longed for.
Dinglinger's "transplantation" and metaphor both catered to Augustus's preferences without being deliberate.
Not only that, but another element that DingLinger integrates into his works is what Makes Augustus fall in love with it and can't help himself.
3. Wonderful Chinese style
In the vast worship crowd of this work, there is a group of people and horses that is particularly eye-catching. They wore robes and horse coats and weft hats shaped like bucket hats, and when they looked closely, they were a team of envoys from China.
These Chinese emissaries held long fans with Chinese characters painted on them, which were very meticulous.
In fact, the Qing court, which had always accepted only tributes, had negligible communication with the Mughal Empire. The Mughals could not accept the qing empire's demands of three prostrations and nine prayers, and the Qing court did not hesitate to send emissaries to attend the birthday party of foreign monarchs.
The shape of the costumes worn by officials, the color of the tops, the number of people carrying the palanquins, and the decorations of the palanquins refer to many Chinese travelogues and paintings
However, Ding Linger's "fabricated" move is not a mistake. On the one hand, he wants to further exaggerate the strength and riches of that distant country, and on the other hand, this arrangement is a reflection of early European Chinese fashion.
In the 1610s, the French tapestry "The Emperor's Story: Nautical Charts" depicted the luxurious life of the Chinese emperor imagined by Europeans.
For Augustus at that time, if he could accept the worship of envoys from the eastern powers at the birthday banquet as Ding Linger depicted, and receive congratulatory gifts from the Qianlong Emperor, his dream of dominating Europe was just around the corner.
Augustus lived at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries, which was the period when Chinese style was rising in Europe. At that time, not only porcelain, silk and other goods from China were exported overseas, they were very popular with European aristocrats, and the Qing Dynasty, which was in its heyday, was also the object of friendship between various countries.
The interior of the trading house depicted by the Dutch at the end of the 17th century shows the popularity of Chinese artifacts
In this work, from the architectural form to the totem ornamentation, Ding Linge refers to all the Chinese elements available at that time, and even the Mughal Emperor's throne is engraved with lines of Chinese characters.
The arrangement of the palace's city walls and arches and the central axis of the entire palace is also inspired by the Forbidden City. Ding Linger's act of infiltrating the imagination in realism makes the work full of romantic color.
The niches of the roof, the circular canopy, the shape of the dragon holding the curtain on both sides of the canopy, and the round arch above the canopy are all taken from Chinese style elements.
In addition, Augustus II himself was a fascinated admirer of Chinese porcelain, he bought countless Chinese porcelain in his lifetime, and later in order to get 151 pieces of early Kangxi porcelain from the Prussian Emperor William I, he even did not hesitate to exchange his 600 brave dragoons.
Treasures of augustus Zwinger Palace
What made the "Powerful King" particularly moved was that Ding Linger tried his best to imitate the lustrous texture of Oriental porcelain with precious materials such as enamel on various utensils, making this porcelain feverish and friendly better than an eye addiction.
At the time Dinglinger created this work, Augustus was locking up alchemists and scientists in a small dark room studying the secrets of oriental porcelain
In fact, DingLinger did not make this attempt for the first time, he also racked his brains in 1697 to make a porcelain-like shiny surface on the cup with enamel and painted Chinese pottery figurines when he made a coffee cup set for Augustus. Despite this operation, Augustus was deeply captured.
In the model, Ding Linger also quoted this piece of his own
The picture shows a part of Augustus making a coffee cup kit, which looks like a Chinese kung fu teacup
Not only "rounding" Augustus II's dream of hegemony, but also giving his "porcelain disease" a little comfort, this glittering miniature model was destined to be acquired by him from the moment it appeared in front of the Powerful King. Even though Augustus bought it for 58,485 Taylors, the huge sum was not paid off until 1713, 6 years later, due to frequent wars.
At the time, the money was more than enough to rebuild a Moritzburg. /Pictured is Moritzburg
If the extensive use of Chinese style elements made DingLinger's model jewelry the first representative of "Saxon Chinese style", then the rich European court fashion embodied in it made it a symbol of "Dresden Baroque style".
As for Ding Linger, who created this incomparable treasure, he has since won the eyes of Augustus and served the royal family for life, and his name has also been recorded in the annals of history, becoming a mountain that countless descendants want to climb.
It is worth mentioning that in October 1707, when Dinglinger presented this powerful work to Augustus II, his dream of unlimited power seemed far away. Because of the Swedish invasion, he had to temporarily relinquish the Polish throne.
However, in that year, under the impetus of Augustus II, the alchemist finally cracked the secret recipe of porcelain and fired the exquisite "Chinese porcelain", and Ding Linger and other goldsmiths no longer had to bother to exhaust all the recipes to "imitate" the appearance of Chinese porcelain.
Botgel shows the secrets of fired porcelain to the Powerful King/ Painted by the German painter Paul Kisling
Porcelain from augustus' collection
Although Augustus did not become the emperor he expected throughout the ages, those glittering visions and the era of infinite possibilities were inscribed in the brilliance of the treasures he left in the world, forever bright and bright.
Editor | glacier
Collect information and organize reports