Johann Friedrich Drake: plinth relief on the monument to Wilhelm Malte I, Prince of Putbus

• 1854-1859;
  reproduced as a plaster cast;
  height: 116.5 cm

Following the death of her husband in 1854, Princess Luise commissioned Johann Friedrich Drake, a sculptor from Berlin, to create a monument in honour of the deceased. One of the four plinth reliefs depicts Karl Friedrich Schinkel in front of a plan of the Granitz hunting lodge. He holds a writing implement as if he is just completing his design of the central tower. At his side is the painter Carl Wilhelm Kolbe the Younger, clasping a palette and brushes as signs of his profession. To the right is the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, holding a hammer and chisel. On the one hand, these three figures are important artists who all worked for the prince of Putbus. On the other, though, they are illustrious contemporary representatives of the triumvirate disciplines of architecture, painting and sculpture. The plinth relief therefore presents Wilhelm Malte of Putbus as a patron of the arts. The three other reliefs commemorate the foundation of the Pädagogium in Putbus, the participation by the prince in the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig and the elevation of Wilhelm Malte I to the rank of a prince. The original marble plinth is located in the Putbus Palace park.