Spirit and Splendour of the Dresden Picture Gallery at the Winter Palace

Rembrandt – Titian – Bellotto: 

Spirit & Splendour of the Dresden Picture Gallery at the Winter Palace

at Belvedere

When: Jun 11, 2015 - Nov 8, 2015

From 11 June to 8 November, the exhibition Rembrandt – Titian – Bellotto: Spirit and Splendour of the Dresden Picture Gallery at the Winter Palace will showcase approximately one hundred masterpieces by famous artists including Rembrandt, Titian, Bernardo Bellotto, Guido Reni, Anthony van Dyck, and Antoine Watteau. The foundation and development of the Dresden Gemäldegalerie [Picture Gallery] in the eighteenth century will be divided into seven chapters, tracing its evolution into a centre of education and exchange between artists and art historians. Important history paintings, landscapes, still lifes, and portraits clearly convey the prestige of this royal collection. And they also shed light on the collecting practices of the electors of Saxony and kings of Poland, Augustus II, called “the Strong”, and his son Augustus III. 

Their reigns marked an economic and cultural heyday that has been dubbed the Augustan Age, a time when many buildings and the royal collections demonstrated the new power of the Dresden court. Dresden’s Picture Gallery dates back to the days of Augustus the Strong. The outstanding quality of this collection is largely thanks to the efforts of art experts and agents, who assembled a large gallery of international acclaim. In addition, important artists like Bernardo Bellotto, were called to the court of Saxony, transforming Dresden into one of Europe’s great centres of art.