New Year, New Sketchbook.....!

What better way to start a New Year is there as with a new sketchbook, and thank goodness fear of the empty page didn't come into play this time. 

A trip to Bamberg during the holidays provided ample inspiration to kick off, and here is the first sketch! 

This Baroque beauty is the famous Böttingerhaus in Bamberg, built by Johann Ignaz Matthias Böttinger in around 1713, unusual because it was not a clerical building, but a private house. 

Dr Böttinger, born in 1675, enjoyed a colourful life, studying in Bamberg, Würzburg and Prague while also taking the time to travel to Austria, Italy and France before completing his doctorate in Würzburg. Working as an advisor, envoy and privy councillor he furthered his career. In keeping with the famous Jane Austin quote ''It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife'' he married, whether he was in possession of a good fortune before he married is unknown, but afterwards he certainly was; he married Maria Franziska Appolonia Theresia, the only child of an extremely rich prince bishop's privy councillor with a considerable dowry. Nowadays we would see this as cold calculation, but in those days only the poor married for love; he seems to have been just as ambitious in his private life as in his career becoming a father of 10 children! Perhaps this was the reason for the huge house which is spectacular in a city famed for its beautiful buildings.

The problem then as today is that the house is built in a street which is very narrow and partially on a hill, the architect (unknown) was faced with multiple challenges; not only the incline but also presenting the magnificence of an Italian palazzo in a tiny side street and yet make the spectacular fassade visible, obviously no shrinking violet, Dr Böttinger was out to impress! The solution here was to keep the ground floor more basic and slap on more Baroque frippery with every floor, this you can see in my sketch, the gables on the top floor are also magnificent and apparently in the past the building had huge decorative chimneys, later removed because they were dangerous. The result being a building that could be admired from lots of vantage points around the city which obviously was Dr Böttinger's aim. Funnily enough after completion, which seems also to have only taken 3 years, he went on to put up another magnificent edifice, the Villa Concordia, another of Bamberg's famous buildings. 

My sketch reflects the difficulty of the site, hence the squinty perspective, which I quite liked. The Böttinger-Haus has special memories for me too, on my first visit to Germany my future hubby  took me out to a slap up meal in the magnificent restaurant that used to be in this building. Eating there was a culinary delight, beautiful rooms, a spectacular flight of stairs and an internal Italian garden on the first floor. Dining there (it was definitely dining and not eating out!) was like time travel, I was living the Baroque! Sadly, the restaurant is no longer there, instead there is a private art gallery in residence now, so no longer open to the public. However, standing outside you can still admire this spectacular building. 

If time machines ever exist, I would love to travel back to the Baroque and meet Dr. Böttinger. In the meantime however, thanks to you Dr.B and your love of artistic extravagance!