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in Copenhagen broke out. About 950 houses and numerous official buildings were
consumed by the flames. But the reconstruction was soon begun, and now it was
the neo-classicist works of C. F. Harsdorff, the Court architect, that served as
models. Soon, however, the building activities were stopped by European events:
Denmark was drawn into the Napoleonic Wars. 1801 the Battle of Copenhagen
was lost, and six years later Copenhagen was bombarded, resulting in the total
destruction of c. 300 buildings and the partial destruction of c. 1500 — especially
the neigbourhood around Frue Square was badly hit.
The 150 views exhibited here combine to reflect this development of Copenhagen
from the late medieval town as we see it in the engraving from 1587, and to the
Copenhagen of Frederik VI, depicted in Eckersberg's water colours. The purpose
of the exhibition "Views of Copenhagen 1587 - 1 8 0 7 " has been to get a general
presentation and analysis of the extensive and very important source material,
illustrating the topography and architecture of the capital inherent in the many
drawings, etchings, and engravings. O f course this material is not all unknown,
indeed, the major part of it has been published in various scientific and popular
works. An excellent outline can be found in "Danmarks gamle Hovedstad i Pro-
spekter fra Middelalderens Slutning til Voldene faldt" ("the old Danish Capital,
Rendered in Views from the End of the Middle Ages till the Fall of the Ramparts"),
a book which was published in 1912 by the historian W. Mollerup. 50 years ago
the Printroom at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts arranged an exhibition of their
topographical leafs with motifs from Copenhagen, but unfortunately it was not
accompanied by a catalogue.
The science of history has long used views and reportage engravings as illu
strations of general historical events, but earlier it was the custom that this pictorial
material mainly served as supplementary material in order to vitalize the text. It
is probably especially the fields of archaeology, cultural- and art history, and
topography that have seriously used views as
sources.
Historian experts have also
realized that this material is to be treated with the same amount of reservation
as the non-written sources - it must be subjected to critical tests. Did the artist
participate in the event depicted, or did he see the place which he describes? Did
he make sketches "on location" or is his reproduction based upon memories only?
Did he idealize reality etc. It goes without saying that there can be innumerable
reasons for depicting for example an act of war or a building differently from what
they actually looked like at the time.
In spite of the homogeneous material the exhibition contains numerous varia-
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