The richly figural ceiling painting by painter Pietro Scotti is a remnant of the Baroque decor. The room received its elegant Classical style under King Friedrich I von Württemberg. Portraits still hang here, reminding visitors of the room's original function.
Scene from the story of the Trojan War.
The long hall that acts as the connecting structure between the new central building and the west cavalier building was designed by architect Donato Giuseppe Frisoni to compliment the ancestral portrait gallery. At the express wish of Duke Eberhard Ludwig, Italian painter Pietro Scotti dedicated the ceiling fresco in the painting gallery to the history of the Trojan War. The Baroque decor was completed between 1731 and 1732.
Ruler as collector at the center of the painting gallery.
As of 1803, when he was still prince-elector, before becoming king, Friedrich I had the painting gallery redecorated to Classical tastes by Nikolaus Friedrich von Thouret. The many windows, which were originally of a similar size to those in the ancestral portrait gallery, were walled up to oval openings. This is how Thouret created additional wall space for displaying the art in the gallery. A stylish marble fireplace with a portrait medal of Friedrich by Philipp Jakob Scheffauer marks the center of the long room.
The painting gallery is still full of paintings today, covering the most varied topics and formats and hung quite closely to each other. This is the way in which paintings were displayed from the late Renaissance on. They covered the wall all the way to the ceiling. Unlike museums today, such collections were not grouped for the enjoyment of a single masterpiece or in honor of such a work. Rather, the large number of paintings was intended to impress, as they indicated knowledge of art as well as the ruler's wealth in the form of a collection.
