Statues - Hither & Thither

 

Description

Large throne (3½x1½x1.6 meter) of oak wood. The sculpture is part of the International Wood Sculptor Symposium "Gotha Adelt!", 30 June to 10 July 2011, at the occasion of the the 13th Thuringia Day in Gotha.
The initial idea was the snappy term 'European seedbank' for Gotha's aristocracy - most of the European royal houses have ancestors in the Ernestine line of the House of Wettin, that once ruled territories in the present-day German states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. From this, the idea has developed to create a monumental eye-catcher for an exposed place, which combines elements and symbols of 'Gotha and the nobility' to a central emblematic representation of monarchy and power: the throne. The fact that it is mountable and available to all people and that many people at the same time can 'climb' and 'own' it, the throne is democratized, so to speak.

The backrest contains a free representation of the Peace Kiss medallion on the north portal of Schloß Friedenstein. The motto of Friedenstein ('Peace Castle') is 'Friede Ernehret – Unfriede verzehret' (peace nourishes – strife destroys). Above the north gate this aforism is illustrated by a medaillon showung the kiss of peace: The goddesses Justice (left) and Peace (right) hug and kiss eachother and unite.

The other figures stand for the Ernestine lines Gotha, Coburg, Weimar, Eisenach, Hildburghausen, Meiningen and Altenburg.

St. Gotthard - Gotha	Mohr / Moor - Coburg
Landgräfin, mit Altenburger Kartenspiel / Landgravine with a deck of cards - Hildburghausen-Altenburg	Georg und der Drache / St. George and the dragon - Weimar-Eisenach

Sculptors

• Paul Brockhage (Zwickau 1962), German wood sculptor from Schwarzenberg/Erzgebirge (Website).
  
• Heinz Günther (1954), German wood sculptor from Hüpstedt/Eichsfeld (Website).
  
• Czesław Podleśny (Rybnik, Poland, 1959), Polish wood sculptor from Zakopane (Website – Wikipedia).
  
• Michael Steigerwald (1955), German wood sculptor (Website).

Sources & Information

• Lokalkompass, 3 x der Friedenskuss in Gotha - davon: der Thron auf dem Buttermarkt.

Tags

Locatie (N 50°56'57" - E 10°42'10") (Satellite view: Google Maps)

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