Monument for Alexander von der Mark

Alexander was the illegitimate favorite son of Friedrich Wilhelm II, King of Prussia. When the boy, eight and a half years old, suddenly died, many believed the child had been poisoned on the orders of the court clique surrounding the wife and legitimate children of Friedrich Wilhelm. The deceased child is depicted lying on a sarcophagus and a mattress, his head resting on a helmet and a cushion. His small sword has slipped from his hand. The relief on the sarcophagus shows how Chronos, god of time, pulls the struggling boy away from Athena, goddess of science and arts and military glory, and leads him to the underworld. In the upper zone the three Fates are depicted, with the old Atropos in the center, who determines the length of the thread of life.