Leseprobe

4 ‘The Royal Picture Gallery in Dresden is undoubtedly a trove of art treasures by the greatest masters that perhaps surpasses all the galleries of the world’ – these were the words Johann Joachim Winckelmann wrote in 1755. 1 Even before that, in 1749, he had told his friend Konrad Friedrich Uden how impressed he was, stating: ‘The Royal Picture Gallery is [...] the most beautiful in the world.’ 2 By the second half of the 18th century, Dresden’s Gemäldegalerie was al- ready a famous attraction that drew artists, intellectuals, and cultured travellers from all over Europe. Indeed, within a short period of time, its reputation had become legendary. This is all the more striking, as the collection, with its breath- taking quality, was essentially the result of only around 50 years of intense col- lecting activity that would continue to reverberate for centuries. The beginnings of the ‘Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister’, as we know and admire it today, have their roots in the Kunstkammer of Elector August I of Saxony, who, in 1560, started collecting remarkable objects – curiosities – from the natural world, from the arts, the decorative arts, and from the sciences, specifically technical in- struments. ‘He was intently practical and prudent, enterprising – to the point of being brutally so – and very diligent in extending and consolidating his position of power. There was virtually nothing artistic about his character. […] With the result that his Kunstkammer was mainly intended to be an institution that, with its riches and great variety, could represent glory and power in an impressive fashion.’ 3 This idea continued to motivate the successive electors in their collecting activities. They, too, sought to increase the eminence of their dynasty (the Alber- tine line of the House of Wettin), and substantiate the Wettin’s claim to power in the melee of European princes through the splendour of their precious collections. The most important paintings in this early Kunstkammer were works by Hans Bol, Lucas Cranach (both Elder and Younger), and Albrecht Dürer. Although some important paintings were acquired under the electors of the 17th century, it was Friedrich August I, Saxon elector from 1694 and – as August II (or rather ‘Augustus the Strong’) – King of Poland from 1697, who intensified the collection activities to an unprecedented degree. This king, who became known as ‘the Strong’ on account of his physical strength, purchased Roman antiquities, East- Asian porcelain, masterpieces of treasury art, and precious paintings, procured for him in Italy, Flanders, and the Netherlands on a grand scale. For example, Sleeping Venus, painted by Giorgione with the assistance of the young Titian, was just one of the fifteen paintings that the art dealer Charles Le Roy from Amster- dam delivered to the electoral Kunstkammer in 1699. ‘Such magnificence left me bewildered’ Dresden’s Gemäldegalerie Stephan Koja