Rembrandt-Titian-Bellotto
Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich, Aug 22nd to Nov 23rd
There must have been some tricky conversations at the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung in Munich as the curators worked out which three painters were worthy of a mention in the title of their next exhibition, “Rembrandt—Titian—Bellotto: Spirit and Splendour of the Dresden Picture Gallery”. The line-up is so strong that just about any of the artists on show would have been a knockout combo. Velázquez, van Dyck, Watteau, Lorrain—gentlemen, you were robbed.
The Dresden Picture Gallery is one of the seven wonders of the art world. It is home to perhaps the most extensive and sensational collection of Old Master paintings in all of Europe—thanks to Augustus II (1670-1733), elector of Saxony and king of Poland. Keen to elevate his status, he worked with his son, Augustus III (1696-1763), to expand the royal collection tenfold. A passionate collector with a keen eye for detail, he bought an abundance of Renaissance, Mannerist and Baroque paintings as well as important works by Dutch and Flemish masters. He gave the gallery a world-class reputation and put Dresden on the map.
“It was almost impossible to choose a selection,” says Dr Roger Diederen, director of the Kunsthalle. “I felt like a kid in a candy store.” After months of deliberating, around a hundred works have made the cut, each more impressive than the last—but “The Ruins of the Old Kreuzkirche in Dresden” (above) still stands out. Painted in 1765 by Bernardo Bellotto, Canaletto’s nephew, it is an unforgettable study of Dresden’s oldest medieval church, destroyed by the Prussians during the Seven Years War. The tower appears to be crashing and crumbling before our eyes; you can feel the powdery dust in the air as the rubble spills out into the foreground. The clean lines of the adjacent streets create a wonderful open perspective and the colouring, less obvious than Canaletto’s palette, is soft, subdued and full of atmosphere. The wreckage is fresh, the spirit of the scene so convincing that it feels as if we are watching a live stream of that moment in history—or another one, the destruction of Dresden by the Allies in the final chapter of the second world war.
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