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Schleißheim New Palace

Staircase Hall

 

Henrico Zuccalli's Staircase Hall is architecturally the most important room in the palace. His arrangement of flights of stairs and landings within a high, wide hall soon became standard and the basic idea was applied later on by Balthasar Neumann when he designed the staircases of Brühl and Würzburg.

The dome fresco by Cosmas Damian Asam shows Venus in Vulcan's smithy, where weapons are being made for her son Aeneas. Aeneas, in baroque pose with an allonge wig, bears an unmistakable resemblance to Elector Max Emanuel. The picture is a reference to the patron's famous military exploits and is the first painting by the famous Bavarian fresco artist Asam with a secular theme. The theme is continued with scenes from the Trojan wars (after Virgil's "Aeneid") on the ceilings of the adjoining halls.