Güstrow Palace – ballroom

• 1570/1620

This representative hall from the residence was primarily a setting for courtly celebrations. With the red deer frieze created from coloured stucco by Christoph Parr around 1570, Duke Ulrich (1527-1603) introduced a grand type of decoration that spread from Güstrow across the Baltic Sea region to southern Germany. The behaviour of the animals is similar to that which could be observed in the nobility’s zoological gardens or in the wild: peacefully jumping, grazing or in groups. Deer and does were considered to be symbols of royal marriage. The frieze refers to the cartouches arranged in pairs, which bear the names of the Duke’s 16 highly noble ancestors.

This genealogical demonstration strengthened his position among the rulers.

Ulrich‘s successor, John Albert II. (1590-1636), arranged for the Mecklenburg plasterer, Daniel Anckermann, to create a spectacular coffered ceiling that was completed in 1620. Most of the depictions can be traced back to a sequence of hunting and animal fighting scenes from Johannes Stradanus (1523-1605), which spread across Europe via copper engravings from the Antwerp workshop of Philips Galles.