# Design for the Monument to Frederick the Great [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [GILLY, Friedrich David]() - Date: 1751-1800 - Technique: Watercolour ## Commentary Gilly's project for a monument to Frederick the Great \(1796\) consisted of a raised Greek Doric temple on a geometric substructure surrounded by obelisks and set in a vast open space. This caught the imagination of German architects as a symbol of Prussian nationhood during the humiliating occupation of Berlin by Napoleon in 1806-13. The design was exhibited at the academy exhibition in Berlin in 1796, where it aroused enormous interest with its monumental use of classical grammar. The Doric temple on a tall polygonal stone plinth inspired Leo von Klenze's design for Valhalla near Regensburg. ## Related artworks - [Design for the National Theatre in Berlin]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()