Design for The Magic Flute: The Hall of Stars in the Palace of the Queen of the Night, Act 1, Scene 6

Karl Friedrich Thiele|Karl Friedrich Schinkel|Ludwig Wilhelm Wittich

1847–49 · Aquatint printed in color and hand colored · Drawings and Prints

Schinkel, the most prominent and prolific German architect of the nineteenth century, also worked for Berlin’s major theatrical stages. His designs for a 1816 production of Mozart’s opera Die Zauberflöte remain his best known. Inspired by the Masonic themes incorporated in the opera’s libretto, most of Schinkel’s sets are in a resolutely Egyptian style.The pair shown here at left evokes the land reigned over by the evil Queen of the Night; the two at right are for the opera’s second act, when the princely pair Tamino and Pamina progress through the realm of Sarastro. A selection of thirty-two designs was published several times from 1819 on; the Museum’s impressions appear to be from the first edition. Great care was taken in the publication of the plates, which were finished by hand.

Artist

Karl Friedrich Thiele|Karl Friedrich Schinkel|Ludwig Wilhelm Wittich

Date

1847–49

Medium

Aquatint printed in color and hand colored

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1954