Jardin's Frederik's Church

The Church

This reconstruction applies to the church planned to have been built on the site near Amalienborg in Copenhagen, now occupied by the present church, the Frederik's Church (the 'Marble Church'). The present church built according to plans made by the architect Ferdinand Meldahl was finished in 1894, 145 years after the foundation stone to the church had been laid. At least 12 different architects had been involved in its construction, and twice as many proposals for its presentation had been submitted.

Pre-history

In these years, however, new trends in style made themselves felt. The Rococo was superseded by that of Neoclassicism, and, as the supposed symbol of what Denmark could achieve, the new church must comply with these trends. Advice was sought in France and the French king's (Louis XV) chief architect, Ange-Jacques Gabriel, duly submitted proposals as to how the church might be adapted to the new style. In the meantime a project made by Eigtved was sanctioned. A few weeks later the latter died, and the Danish Government now reverted to their earlier plan, viz to call in a French architect to function as a professor at the newly established Danish Academy of fine Arts, and, added to this, be responsible for the new church. This happened in 1754.

Building-history

Jardin and Saly had been holders of a scholarship at the French Academy in Rome at approximately the same time, 1744-48 and 1740-48 respectively. At the time Rome was on the point of becoming a true tourist magnet. It was a flourishing modern city of art, and at the same time also an inexhaustible source of common European history. Artists of all nationalities found inspiration in antique remnants and created a style as free of all older norms as these old works known from antiquity; a style that symbolised free societies in all future.

The choice of Jardin was not received with overall enthusiasm in Denmark. The master builder Lauritz de Thurah did, in all modesty, submit a few projects for a big cupola church, which might have been commendable, had they not been executed in the then quite old-fashioned style of Baroque.

Eigtved's assistant of many years' standing, Georg David Anthon, attempted some compromises, whereas Jardin himself added fuel to fire when his first draughts proved to be in a style that was so free that all details seemed to be at loggerheads. These plans were closely related to the comtemporary and quite alarming phantasmagoria by the Italian graphic designer and architect Giovanni Battista Piranesi and they caused the same sensation here. Jardin was forced to revise his ideas, and, with his next project, came up with a style that combined features from the French baroque classicism with a new - free - distribution and proportioning. These plans were accepted and by spring 1756 work started on Jardin's Frederik's Church.

The construction was expensive, though. This was irrelevant so long as Frederik V was king and his closest ministers and advisors saw art as the most distinguished expression of the country's capacity. Only when Christian VII ascended the throne after his father's death in 1766, were other view-points ventilated. First the grants were considerably reduced, and when, in 1770, the king's personal physician Johann Friedrich Struensee, possessed himself of supreme power the building proces was given up altogether. When, at the same time, problems arose at the Academy, Jardin quitted his job as a professor and in 1771 went back to France. He left behind a number of various projects, public as well as private, plus some young talented architects, each well able to carry on his style. It is no exaggeration that it was Jardin who introduced Neoclasisism in Denmark.

As to the church, the up to eight metres tall walls already built, were allowed to remain standing. Artists within all fields were inspired by the ruinous character of these walls, and there were many suggestions as to how they might be used. More than a hundred years after building had been given up, it was finally resumed. The church now standing incorporates the remnants of Jardin's outer walls, but the building itself is completely unlike Jardin's project.

Construction

The round church crowned by a cupola had been equipped with two main facades which complied with two sideturrets: 1. the facade facing the Frederik's Town, 2, the one facing the remaining city. Both facades were emphasized by a temple front with six columns spanning two floors, and pediments filled in with reliefs executed by the Danish sculptor Johannes Wiedewelt. Inside the building the main room was encircled by two rows of columns; the outer circle had twelve massive quadripartite columns supporting the gallery. The innermost circle had 24 slender round columns in two tiers with an encircling gallery in between. The cupola was to have been built as a double shell construction with a lower, panelled shell through which could be seen an indirectly lighted painting on the outer shell. Apart from the baptismal font which was probably to have been placed in the room under one of the turrets other essential pieces of inventory were placed closer together, with a pulpit altar with organ opposite the royal seat on the second galleried level. Out of regard to the outer orientation where the facade facing the Frederik's Town was the most important, the altar faced west instead of east as tradition would have it.

The building material was chiefly Norwegian Gjellebćk marble, a very fascinating building stone. Both this and the sandstone used as filling were available within the boundaries of the Danish-Norwegian double monarchy. The King and government were enthralled by the idea of being able to build so magnificently with domestic materials. What they did not foresee were the huge sums of money needed to quarry and transport the stones from the newly opened marble quarries in Norway. Ornaments, statues, reliefs and lists were to be made of Italien white marble and gilded.

Comments on the reconstruction.

The last statement is, however, one of many where the reconstruction has given rise to questions involving a search for inspiration elsewhere. Although the engravings show the finished church there are still loose ends, both because of the technical aspects of the presentation and because, at the time when the engravings were made, quite a few details still awaited their solution. Thus the engravings leave window and door frames as dark spots. What kind of flooring had Jardin had in mind, both inside the church and outside? There are sketches of figures in the tripartite reliefs above the temple fronts, on the outer cupola shell, on the organ, the pulpit and the altar, but these are but sketches and difficult to copy. Et cetera.

Questions like these had to find an answer before it was possible to continue. They involved looking for inspiration in contemporary works and, characteristically, resulted in simplifications. Since it was very uncertain what the altarpiece should have been, it seemed natural to supplant it with a traditional arrangement - a crucifix and two candlesticks.

Any preferred solution has of course been synonymous with both rejections and, in some cases, maybe even mistakes. Even so there can be no doubt that this reconstruction gives an impression of Jardin's church: it has come alive as never before - except perhaps in Jardin's mind.

The Model

The model is based on a set of copper engravings published by Jardin in 1765(69) as "Plans, coupes et élévations de l'Eglise royale de Fréderic V". As the title says, the book consists of plan, section and elevation drawings of the church.

Exterior

There is only one elevation drawing, but since the plan drawings show that the building is symetrical along both axis, at least on the exterior parts, the one elevation combined with the sections gave enough information to make the model.

I have had to leave out the various reliefs at the entrance, most noticeably the large triangular ones on the pediments, and simplify some of the decorative elements. Thanks to the help of a 3DStudio user, I was able to include some statues (one of which is a slightly modified Athena from www.3dup.com ).

The two enclosing collonades are only shown on a plan drawing of the whole area around Amalienborg and the church. They are also included sketchily in the background of a perspective drawing, likewise of the whole area. Because the columns in the collonades have the same footprint on the plan drawing as the columns on the lower parts of the church, I have chosen to make them the same size, although the perspective drawing may indicate, that they should have been somewhat smaller.

Interior

The section drawings and the plans shows the main structure of the interior quite well, but the details like the altar, the pulpit and the organ are quite fuzzy. What can be seen shows plenty of angels, cloud formations, draperies and other stuff, that is beyond my capabilities to model. Instead of leaving out these important parts of a church, I have chosen to make some simplified versions, based on what I have found of pictures from churches of the same period.

The altar's overall size and shape is based on the drawings, but the details are taken from the altar in the existing church. The pulpit is based loosely on the pulpit in Vor Frelsers Kirke, Christianshavn ( The Church of Our Saviour, Copenhagen ). The organ is based on various baroque church organs, I found pictures of on the net, simplified to a level, where I was able to model it.

Materials and colours

While the drawings show the shape of the building in sufficient detail to make a reasonable precise model, they do not reveal anything about the materials or colours used. We know that Norwegian marble was used for the stonework, and some source says that the domed ceiling should have coffers with gilded rosettes on lapis lazuli blue background, but that's about it.

The Norwegian marble can still be seen on the existing church, and I have done my best to simulate its appearance with Pov-Ray's marble texture. On the exterior parts I have made it with a matt finish, but on the interior parts I have tried to give it a polished look.

A description of a wood model of the church, that was made around 1760, tells us, that the domed roof would have been covered with copper plates. I have added some gold embellishments, like there is on the existing church. (The wood model has sadly been lost, presumably in a fire in 1794.)

Architectural drawings from the 1700s never show windows and doors as more than black areas, so we have had to find inspiration elsewhere. The windows have been left as simple rectangular leaded panes of clear glass. The doors are primarily based on the door of another of Jardin's buildings: " Det gule Palæ " (The Yellow Palace). The colour is taken from the doors of Amalienborg Castle, that have recently been restored to their original colour.

Large parts of the interior walls and ceilings should have been covered with reliefs and paintings, but since I have no way of simulating that, I have settled for marking the areas with gilded frames. The exeption is the painting on the outer shell of the double ceiling dome. The best ceiling painting, I could find, to resemble what can be seen on the drawings, are Corregio's " Assumption of the Virgin " from the Cathedral of Parma, so I have used that.

Jardin's drawings give no clue to what the floors should have looked like, so we have taken inspiration from the floors in the Panthéon in Paris . The pattern is well suited for a circular room, and I chose to integrate the bases of the columns with the pattern. The pattern around the altar is in part based on the same floor area in the existing church.

Illumination

Scale

Stats

File size:	535 KiB or 13400+ lines of CSG (excl. Poser figures and statues)
Frame level objects:	100700+
Peak memory used:	550 MiB (Pov-Ray 3.1g)