Location
Germany, Bavaria, Munich
Nymphenburg Palace, Marstall-Museum (Schloss Nymphenburg, Marstall Museum)
Artwork
Diana-Sledge in the Stables Museum of Nymphenburg Palace in Munich
Type
Sculptural decoration
Dimensions
Height: 252 cm, width: 194 cm
Critical History
Johann Caspar Lippert contribute in 1772, under no. 4 of J. B. Straubs most important works : "all Parade-Sledges and Parade-Carriages" in Nymphenburg Palace. 1 From archival documents we only know that Straub had to make a model for a carriage twice, and that he was payed 30 fl for the models on 20th April 1730. 2 The Hunting Sledge with Diana was sculpted around 1740, perhaps for the Archduchess Amalia Maria (1701–1756), wife of Karl Albrecht of Bavaria (1697–1745). The hunting goddess Diana poses in front of the seat (perhaps because of her lost attributes of quiver with arrows and bow), while the putto on top of the runners apex is blowing his horn. The seat and frame are decorated all over with ornaments, arms for the chase, lion heads and hunting trophies. The sledge was used in races for festivities of the court and for carnieval. 3
The inventory number is WAF B 3.
Construction / Execution
The frame and seat with figures, ornaments and polychromy are designed as a whole. In 1826, the frame was fitted with a pole and splinter bar to be drawn by a pair of horses. Until then the sledge had been drawn by one horse between two shafts. The sledge consists of different types of wood and metal. Further materials are leather, textiles, upholstery, bearskin, modeling paste.
1. Frame:
materials: beech wood, ash/elm, wrought iron, leather
techniques: body-making, wood carving
polychromy: blue lacquer, oil gilding and red glaze
2. Seat and apex sculpture
Materials: limewood, conifer, metal
Techniques: wood carving
Polychromy: oil paint, oil gilding and silvering, glazes of different colours.
Information by Hella Huber, BA in restoration, restoration workshop of the Bavarian Department of State-owned Palaces, Gardens and Lakes.
Components
- Carpentry
- Completed: 1740
- Technique(s): sawing
- Material(s): wood
- Whrought ironwork
- Completed: 1740
- Technique(s): forging
- Material(s): iron
- Sculpture
- Author: Johann Baptist Straub (Wiesensteig ca. 1704 – Munich 1784)
- Completed: 1740
- Technique(s): wood carving
- Material(s): wood
- Polychromy
- Completed: 1740
- Technique(s): oil, oil gilding
Comment
The sleidge was restored in the Stables Museum of the Bavarian Department of State-owned Palaces, Gardens and Lakes in 2014: fixing of the polychromy, removing overpainting, cleaning and retouching.
During several renovations the original polychromy was almost totally reduced. Perhaps the sledge was painted in red and silver with a green drapery in the first polychromy. The colour of the figures' clothes could have been changed, too.
Conservation-restoration
- 1828
Treatment Description
Gilding of the construction, blue painting layer and silver. Changes concerning the seats.
- 2014
Strategy: preserving one or several repolychromies, removing one or several historic repolychromies
Treatment Description
Fixing the polychromy, removing of overpainting, cleaning and retouching.
Images
- The Diana-Sledge in the Stables Museum of the Nymphenburg Palace., Munich (photo by Jens Bruchhaus, 2014)
Catalogue entry prepared by Rupert Karbacher
Recommended citation: Rupert Karbacher, Diana-Sledge in the Stables Museum of Nymphenburg Palace in Munich, in: TrArS – Tracing the Art of the Straub Family, 2018, (accessed 19/10/2025) URL