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37-521: The oldest part of the castle is in the west wing where the cabinet ( Kemenate ) of the Schultheiß has survived, a room which was built onto the old town wall in 1339. From the 9th to the early 11th centuries there was a Frankish royal court ( Königshof ) and a palace ( Pfalz ) in Forchheim (see the history of Forchheim ). Its exact location is, however, not known. In the late 19th century it

74-626: A studiolo . A studiolo would often have a Latin motto painted or inlaid round the frieze . Heraldry and personal devices and emblems would remind the occupant of his station in life. Series of portraits of exemplary figures were popular, whether the Nine Worthies or the classical philosophers, in imaginary ideal portrait heads. Perhaps the grandest studiolo was the Camerino ("little room") of Alfonso d'Este in Ferrara , for which

111-448: A chair; perhaps a footstool to lift the feet from the draughty floor; a portable desk with a slanted surface for writing; and a table, bearing a book-rest, perhaps with a weighted ribbon to hold a book open at a place, and a candlestick (to supplement the light from the window, which is often shuttered but also which often has a window seat in the depth of the wall). In Domenico Ghirlandaio's Saint Jerome in his Study , shelving runs around

148-523: A house might have at least two (his and hers) and often more. Names varied: cabinet, closet, study (from the Italian studiolo ), office, and a range of more specifically female equivalents, such as a boudoir . With its origins in requirements for increased privacy for reading and meditation engendered by the humanist avocation of many of the Italian noble and mercantile elite in the Quattrocento ,

185-571: A large assortment of cabinets en filade for the king located behind and adjacent to his formal bedchamber, the Petit appartement du roi . The cabinet is the male equivalent of a boudoir, and at Versailles and the baroque palaces and great country houses that echoed it, a parallel apartment would be provided for the royal or noble consort, at the Versailles the Petit appartement de la reine . Even in

222-571: A passageway led from here to St. Mary's Chapel. On the walls of the hall fragments of fresco-secco (painting on dry plaster) from the period around 1400 have survived, which are stylistically related to contemporary Bohemian art. A fragment shows the Biblical and historical figure of King David of ancient Israel . Like the murals in the other halls these paintings are among the most important Gothic murals in South Germany . The chapel

259-614: A piece of furniture is actually older in English than the meaning as a room, but originally meant more a strong-box or jewel-chest than a display-case. John Philip of Gebsattel Johann Philipp von Gebsattel (13 May 1555 – 26 June 1609) was the Prince-Bishop of Bamberg from 1599 to 1609. Johann Philipp von Gebsattel was born on 13 May 1555. He was elected Prince-Bishop of Bamberg on 4 February 1599, with Pope Clement VIII confirming his appointment on 19 July 1599. He

296-425: A similar, less secular purpose had been served by a private oratory . Such a room might be used as a study or office, or just a sitting room. Heating the main rooms in large palaces or mansions in the winter was difficult, and small rooms were more comfortable. They also offered more privacy from servants, other household members, and visitors. Typically such a room would be for the use of a single individual, so that

333-424: A simple, timber-framed style as far as the castle courtyard. In the middle of the 16th century the urban castle was remodelled. It was at that time that the picturesque, timber-framed walkways on the curtain walls were constructed. In 1603 work began on building an octagonal staircase tower in front of the four-storey main house. The mighty half-hipped roof of the main house dates to the 18th century. Originally

370-463: Is meant. The OED credits Francis Bacon in his Essays (1605) with the first use of "Cabinet council", where it is described as a foreign habit, of which he disapproves: "For which inconveniences, the doctrine of Italy, and practice of France, in some kings’ times, hath introduced cabinet counsels; a remedy worse than the disease." Charles I began a formal "Cabinet Council" from his accession in 1625, as his Privy Council , or "private council",

407-472: The Hochstift . A high medieval sculpture of a basilisk has been engraved into the south wall; it has been dated to the 12th century. The addition of a modern, steel and glass staircase and lift tower in the north of the east wing has been highly controversial. This feature was needed to turn the castle into a museum. The East Wing of the castle is divided into two parts by a transverse wall running

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444-499: The fortress at the northwest corner of the town was incorporated into the town fortifications . North of the castle, is the only surviving medieval town gate, the Saltor Tower ( Saltorturm ). In the 16th century a modern bastioned fortification, based on Italian designs, was constructed in front of the remains of the medieval town wall. North and west of the castle district, two large casemated "Old Italian" bastions escaped

481-462: The architect Le Vau contrived a jewel-like private cabinet for the king's minister of finance Nicolas Fouquet that was entirely hung with panels of Venetian looking-glass; later, Louis XIV 's Grand Cabinet at Versailles (swept away in 18th-century revisions in the name of even more private royal spaces) was similarly mirror-lined: "the king's self-directed gaze was at once religious and narcissistic" as Orest Ranum has observed. Versailles has

518-474: The background of the Bellini to match his own works better. Dosso Dossi , Alphonso's court painter, completed the room with a large painting (now lost) and ten small oblong subjects to go as a frieze above the others. In Elizabethan England, such a private retreat would most likely be termed a closet , the most recent in a series of developments in which people of means found ways to withdraw by degrees from

555-455: The castle is the so-called Great Cabinet ( Große Kemenate ), the former residence, which was built in the east of the castle from 1391. In the cabinet an extensive stone chamber forced-air heating system has survived. Of great art-historical significance are the Gothic murals, some of which are even by Bohemian masters. The almost square castle site is surrounded by moats . Until around 1550

592-436: The character of the pursuits of the cabinet. For Ferdinando Gonzaga 's studiolo at Mantua , in about 1619, Domenico Fetti painted a series of New Testament parables , suitable for private contemplation; they proved very popular, and Fetti and his studio, and Fetti's imitators, repeated them for other similar retreats. Isabella d'Este called her room with paintings commissioned from Andrea Mantegna , Perugino and others

629-417: The cramped confines of a London house, Samuel Pepys and his wife each had a bedchamber and a "closet"; with a common sitting room, or " drawing room ", these were the minimum that genteel baroque arrangements required. The meaning of "cabinet" began to be extended to the contents of the cabinet; thus we see the 16th-century cabinet of curiosities , often combined with a library . The sense of cabinet as

666-418: The direct predecessor to the episcopal castle. And the castle still retains the name of Kaiserpfalz , a name which has been adopted for decades and is used as the official name of the castle. From the late 14th century the bishops of Bamberg, especially Bishop Lambert of Buren , built an urban castle that became their most important residence outside of the immunity of Bamberg Cathedral . The centrepiece of

703-746: The early 18th century, is at Ham House in Richmond, London, England. It is less than 10 feet (3 m) square, and leads off from the Long Gallery , which is well over 100 feet (30 m) long by 20 feet (6 m) wide, giving a rather startling change in scale and atmosphere. As is often the case (at Chatsworth House , for example), it has an excellent view of the front entrance to the house, so that comings and goings can be discreetly observed. Most surviving large houses or palaces, especially from before 1700, have such rooms, but (again as at Chatsworth) they are very often not displayed to visitors. Since

740-408: The east wing was covered by a gable roof with crow-stepped gables . Since 1768–69 a sandstone bridge has spanned the moat in front of the gateway on the south side. Previously access had been protected by a drawbridge . Next to it, a rectangular Renaissance oriel with a shed roof enhances the architectural impression. The rather austere south front of the ensemble is brought to life mainly by

777-401: The fate of demolition that other parts of Forchheim Fortress suffered in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Large parts of the main house and the courtyard buildings go back to the 14th century. The eastern part of the main house is joined to the courtyard buildings on the west side by walls and timber-framed passageways . The two upper storeys of the northwest wing have also been executed in

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814-587: The greatest painters of the day were commissioned from about 1512-1525 to paint mythological canvases, very large by the standards of the time. Fra Bartolommeo died before starting work, and Raphael got no further than a drawing, but Giovanni Bellini completed The Feast of the Gods ( NGA, Washington ) in 1514. Titian was then brought in and added three of his finest works: Bacchus and Ariadne ( National Gallery, London ), The Andrians and The Worship of Venus (both Prado , Madrid ), as well as repainting

851-422: The last in the standardised series of rooms that constituted a Baroque apartment, the walls would be hung with rich textiles as a background for cabinet pictures , those small works, often on copper or wood panel, that required intimate study for appreciation, among which would also be devotional pictures. Especially wealthy or aristocratic people may have had a series of cabinets in a suite. At Vaux-le-Vicomte ,

888-471: The model of Bamberg Cathedral (drawn in 1599, south wall). The third floor was conceived as a storage area and currently serves as a museum depot. The old staircase tower hides a stone circular staircase which opens into the northern part of the east wing. The West Wing, the former side wing, acts as offices for the castle museums. No significant historical interior features have survived here. Cabinet (room) A cabinet (also known by other terms)

925-511: The public life of the household as it was lived in the late medieval great hall . This sense of "closet" has continued use in the term " closet drama ", which is a literary work in the form of theatre, intended not to be mounted nor publicly presented, but to be read and visualised in privacy. Two people in intimate private conversation were until recently said to be "closetted". In his closet at Christ Church, Oxford, Robert Burton wrote The Anatomie of Melancholy (1621). Cabinet in English

962-496: The reign of King George I , the Cabinet – derived from the room – has been the principal executive group of British government, and the term has been adopted in most English-speaking countries. Phrases such as "cabinet counsel", meaning advice given in private to the monarch, occur from the late 16th century, and, given the non-standardized spelling of the day, it is often hard to distinguish whether "council" or "counsel"

999-522: The room at the level of the frieze , on it are curious objects, containers of various types, and large volumes lying on their sides. Studioli entirely inlaid in intarsia for the ducal palaces of Urbino (in situ) and Gubbio (remounted at the Metropolitan Museum of Art ) with simulated shelves and built-in cabinets filled with books, scientific instruments and examples of geometric solids, all rendered in striking trompe-l'œil evoke

1036-432: The second floor of the northern end of the wing is also a twin-aisled, flat-ceiling hall with a wooden centre beam. The architectural paintings were done by Jakob Ziegler in the years 1559–60. The south room is likewise a two-aisled hall. The flat ceiling is supported on an octagonal centre frame. The murals, of various themes, were also created by Jakob Ziegler. One of the paintings shows Saints Henry II and Cunigunde with

1073-531: The studiolo provided a retreat often reachable only through the, comparatively public, bedroom. This was true for the elaborate Studiolo of Francesco I de' Medici located in Palazzo Vecchio , Florence. The standard fittings of the late medieval and early modern study can be inventoried among the conventional trappings in portrayals of Saint Jerome in illuminated manuscripts , in paintings, or in engravings like those of Albrecht Dürer ( illustration ):

1110-437: The timber framing ( Sichtfachwerk ) above the gateway. A typical Franconian motif is the frieze made of numerous, small curved St. Andrew's crosses underneath the window area. On the east façade of the main wing are three reliefs depicting coats of arms . On the second storey is the official coat of arms of Prince-Bishop John Philip of Gebsattel . The third storey bears the coat of arms of Bishop Lamprecht of Brunn and

1147-536: The weak king, Wenceslaus . The paintings were clearly done by different masters. The Adoration of the Magi, again, appears to be derived from the field of Bohemian art. The Last Judgement, by contrast, is in the latest Forchheim style, which was derived from the Nuremberg art of the early 15th century. The northern hall, like that on the ground floor, is covered by a flat ceiling which, however, rests on wooden beams. On

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1184-442: The width of the building. The north part is somewhat larger than the south part. The barrel-roofed cellar goes back to the 14th century. The ceilings of the two halls on the ground floor are borne on sandstone columns. The flat ceiling of the north room rests on a round column and a wooden beam. The south part was vaulted later, resulting in a twin-aisled hall comprising four bays that are covered by cross vaults . In former times

1221-554: Was a private room in the houses and palaces of early modern Europe serving as a study or retreat, usually for a man. The cabinet would be furnished with books and works of art, and sited adjacent to his bedchamber, the equivalent of the Italian Renaissance studiolo . In the Late Medieval period, such newly perceived requirements for privacy had been served by the solar of the English gentry house, and

1258-502: Was evidently not private enough, and the first recorded use of "cabinet" by itself for such a body comes from 1644, and is again hostile and associates the term with dubious foreign practices. The process has repeated itself in recent times, as leaders have felt the need to have a Kitchen Cabinet . Figurative uses of Closet have developed in a different direction . In the cabinet as it evolved in French Baroque architecture ,

1295-450: Was often used for strongrooms, or treasure-stores - the tiny but exquisite Elizabethan tower strongroom at Lacock Abbey might have been so called - but also in the wider sense. David Rizzio was murdered when dining with his putative lover Mary, Queen of Scots in "a cabinet abowte xii footes square, in the same a little low reposinge bedde, and a table". A rare surviving cabinet, or closet, with its contents probably little changed since

1332-648: Was originally located in the southern part of the first floor. The vaulting was done in the early modern period ; and the hall was divided by an internal dividing wall. The murals of the old chapel have survived and indicate its original function and arrangement. It includes depictions of the prophets , the Adoration of the Magi , the Annunciation and the Last Judgement . Two paintings with secular content have been interpreted by H. Kehrer as referring to

1369-466: Was thought to be on the site of the episcopal urban castle, which was also referred to as the Pfalz ("palace") or Kaiserpfalz ("imperial palace"). However, archaeological investigations carried out during the renovation of the castle from 1998 to 2004 uncovered no remains of an early medieval settlement at all. Nevertheless, even in recent literature by Tillman Kohnert (2008), the Pfalz is still seen as

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