Prince Elector Frederick William the Great
by SCHLÜTER, Andreas, Bronze, height 290 cm
This statue was cast in bronze by Johann Jakobi and inaugurated in 1703; the base (height 270 cm) was finished in 1708. Born in Hamburg, Schl�ter studied in Danzig, in Holland, Paris and Italy. Court sculptor first at Warsaw and then in Berlin, he fell into disgrace in 1706 and died in St. Petersburg. He was a born sculptor whose feeling for monumentality was developed to e high degree. This statue is one of the most spectacular performances of Baroque sculpture - the symbolic glorification of political absolutism.