{"id":105509,"date":"2025-10-30T06:32:27","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T06:32:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/105509\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T06:32:27","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T06:32:27","slug":"ten-essential-works-of-art-to-see-in-dresden-the-art-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/105509\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten essential works of art to see in Dresden – The Art Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before the Second World War, Dresden was commonly regarded as Germany\u2019s most beautiful city, marked by Baroque silhouettes and filled with cherished collections of the fine and applied arts. Then came the Allied air raids of February 1945, and Dresden underwent what could be described as a horrific rebrand\u2014becoming Germany\u2019s most decimated metropolis. Decades of rebuilding later, however, it is once again what Germans call a\u00a0Kunststadt\u2014a city of art.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0art there is overwhelmingly concentrated in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden\u00a0(SKD), comprising 15 museums that still largely reflect the tastes and tendencies of Saxony\u2019s House of Wettin, who reigned from the 15th\u00a0century until 1918. The city’s\u00a0golden age came in the 18th\u00a0century, when the Wettin ruler Augustus the Strong served as both the prince-elector in Saxony and the king of Poland, turning his Residenzstadt into one of Europe\u2019s most alluring and spendthrift courts. The splurging continued under his son, Frederick Augustus II, whose purchases brought many of Europe\u2019s most celebrated paintings to the city.<\/p>\n

These days, the core of Dresden\u2019s key collections are all within\u00a0walking\u00a0distance from one another, concentrated in the Zwinger, August the Strong\u2019s Baroque showpiece; the Residenzschloss, the recently rebuilt and re-imagined former royal palace; and the Albertinum, the late-19th\u00a0century museum building, originally meant to house sculpture and now displaying art made after 1800.<\/p>\n

1. Raphael\u2019s\u00a0Sistine Madonna\u00a0(1512\/13), Gem\u00e4ldegalerie Alte Meister, Zwinger (Semperbau)<\/p>\n

This High Renaissance masterpiece was originally commissioned by Pope Julius II, then hung in a church in Piacenza, northwest of Parma, before arriving in Dresden in 1754, after Frederick Augustus II paid a fortune for it.\u00a0The Madonna\u2014one of the artist\u2019s last\u2014has a grandeur reminiscent of classical antiquity; at the bottom, meanwhile, are two placid putti who have become famous in their own right.<\/p>\n

The painting, now an anchor work in the mid-19th-century building designed by Gottfried Semper\u2014arguably Europe’s\u00a0most talented historicist architect\u2014was another era\u2019s Mona Lisa.\u00a0It remains one of Raphael\u2019s most recognisable works.<\/p>\n

Admission\u00a0\u20ac16 (full price).\u00a0Directions here<\/a><\/p>\n

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Raphael, Die Sixtinische Madonna (Sistine Madonna) (1512-13)<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Gem\u00e4ldegalerie Alte Meister, SKD, Foto: Estel\/Klut<\/p>\n

2. Casper David Friedrich\u2019s\u00a0The Great Enclosure (1832), Galerie Neue Meister, Albertinum<\/p>\n

Born on the north German coast and educated in Denmark, Casper David Friedrich moved to Dresden in his early 20s, made his name as Germany’s Romantic painter ne plus ultra, then died there, age 65, in 1840, his earlier fame a fading memory.\u00a0A few years later, the director of Dresden\u2019s Royal Museums began collecting for a new \u201cModern\u201d department, as it was known, and by the end of the century, with Friedrich\u2019s reputation on the rise again, several of his works were among that collection\u2019s leading attractions.<\/p>\n

This late Saxon landscape\u2014both bleak and beautiful, with premonitions of the Modernist revolution to come\u2014was acquired in 1909. Along with the artist’s early and revelatory Tetschen Altar, it is now the stand-out Friedrich work in his longtime hometown.<\/p>\n

Admission\u00a0\u20ac16.\u00a0Directions here<\/a><\/p>\n

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Caspar David Friedrich, Das Gro\u00dfe Gehege bei Dresden (The Great Enclosure) (1831-32)<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Albertinum, Galerie Neue Meister, SKD, Foto: Elke Estel\/Hans-Peter Klut<\/p>\n

3. Cherry pit with 185 carved heads (just before 1589), Gr\u00fcnes Gew\u00f6lbe, Residenzschloss<\/p>\n

The richly decorated rooms of Dresden\u2019s Gr\u00fcnes Gew\u00f6lbe (named for the original green detailing) have been displaying Saxon treasures, which date back to the 16th century, since the time of Augustus the Strong. By turns extravagant, ingenious, and outright weird, the priceless objects here are among Dresden\u2019s\u2014indeed, Germany\u2019s\u2014leading attractions.<\/p>\n

This tiny, elaborate and bizarre cherry pit, with its manifold carvings and enamel-and-pearl decoration, is among the smallest of the collection\u2019s fanciful objects, but also one of the most celebrated. A magnifying glass installed in its vitrine allows you to appreciate the 4.5-cm work, made by an unnamed craftsman.<\/p>\n

Admission\u00a0\u20ac16.\u00a0Directions here<\/a><\/p>\n

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Cherry pit with 185 carved heads (just before 1589)<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Gr\u00fcnes Gew\u00f6lbe, SKD, Foto: J\u00fcrgen Karpinski<\/p>\n

4. Jan van Eyck\u2019s\u00a0Portrait of an Elderly Man\u00a0(around 1435\/40), Kupferstich-Kabinett, Residenzschloss<\/p>\n

Dresden\u2019s collection of prints and drawings features some 500,000 works dating back to the early 16th century. Represented are artists ranging from Albrecht D\u00fcrer and Michelangelo to Georg Baselitz, but perahps its best-known work is what scholars regard as the lone surviving drawing by Jan van Eyck.<\/p>\n

The 21-cm-high drawing is related to an oil-on-canvas portrait of an Italian diplomat-cardinal now in the collection of Vienna\u2019s Kunsthistorisches Museum, but is more lifelike\u2014and contains more pathos\u2014than that work.<\/p>\n

Admission\u00a0\u20ac6.\u00a0Directions here<\/a><\/p>\n

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Jan van Eyck, Portrait of an Elderly Man (1435-40)<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Kupferstich-Kabinett, SKD. Photo: Herbert Boswank<\/p>\n

5. Otto Dix\u2019s\u00a0The War (1929-32), Galerie Neue Meister, Albertinum<\/p>\n

Though known as a Baroque capital, Dresden later\u00a0became a testing ground for Modernism. The city\u2019s Academy of Fine Arts was arguably Germany\u2019s leading art school\u00a0in the years surrounding the First World War, helping to foster\u00a0both\u00a0Expressionism and the Weimar era\u2019s New Objectivity.\u00a0Otto Dix\u2014a native of the Thuringian city of Gera\u2014was both an alumnus and a professor here, before his scathing depictions of German society were denounced as \u201cdegenerate\u201d by the Nazis.<\/p>\n

Dix, an army veteran, created a number of anti-war works, but\u00a0The War, a triptych with a predella, may be his most powerful. It is inspired by Germany\u2019s Old Masters, notably Matthias Gr\u00fcnewald, and blends shocking hyperrealism with nightmarish fantasy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Admission\u00a0\u20ac14.\u00a0Directions here<\/a><\/p>\n

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Otto Dix, The War (1929-32)<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Albertinum, Galerie Neue Meister, SKD, Foto: Elke Estel\/Hans-Peter Klut \/ VG Bild-Kunst Bonn, 22025<\/p>\n

6. Ceremonial armour (1518\/19-1583), R\u00fcstkammer, Residenzschloss<\/p>\n

The SKD\u2019s R\u00fcstkammer is nominally an armoury, but the majority of its grandiose pieces, while suggesting actual conflict, were just for show. Its rare treasures include an enormous 17th-century Ottoman tent, but the museum gives pride of place to this complete set of supremely\u00a0detailed Swedish armour, made by an Antwerp goldsmith for a man and his horse.<\/p>\n

The armour was originally commissioned by a\u00a0Swedish king and then bought by a Saxon Elector (who paid a sum that could have bought him a whole castle). Its metalwork is decorated with chased floral tendrils, snakes, dolphins, sphinxes and griffins, as well as the deeds of Hercules.\u00a0It is the jewel in the R\u00fcstkammer\u2019s crown.<\/p>\n

Admission\u00a0\u20ac16.\u00a0Directions here<\/a><\/p>\n

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Ceremonial armour for a man and a horse (1563-1565). Made for King Erik XIV of Sweden; purchased by Elector Christian II of Saxony in 1606<\/p>\n

\u00a9 R\u00fcstkammer, SKD. Photo: J\u00fcrgen Karpinski<\/p>\n

7. Johannes Vermeer\u2019s\u00a0Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window\u00a0(around 1657-59), Gem\u00e4ldegalerie Alte Meister, Zwinger (Semperbau)<\/p>\n

Dresden made art-world headlines in 2021 when the SKD unveiled a painting-within-a-painting in this familiar Vermeer work. A Cupid figure, sequestered\u00a0behind\u00a0the centuries-old\u00a0surface, was first discovered back in 1979, apparently decorating a wall behind the mysterious, letter-bearing woman. <\/p>\n

It was long thought that Vermeer himself had covered it up after changing his mind. Then, during a 2017 treatment, conservators realised that a later hand\u2014notably not Vermeer\u2019s\u2014had done the obscuring, and the SKD decided to restore the sumptuous element to what had seemed a decidedly minimalist setting.<\/p>\n

Today visitors can enjoy the restored work, with Cupid, in an intimate side cabinet\u2014alongside other works by Vermeer’s fellow Dutch masters.<\/p>\n

Admission\u00a0\u20ac16.\u00a0Directions here<\/a><\/p>\n

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Johannes Vermeer, Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window (around 1657-59) after its restoration<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Gem\u00e4ldegalerie Alte Meister, SKD, Photo: Wolfgang Kreische<\/p>\n

8. Lantern (Kangxi period, early 18th\u00a0century), Porcelain Collection, Zwinger Palace<\/p>\n

Germans distinguish between people who are merely interested in porcelain and people who are obsessed with it\u2014sufferers, in a word, of\u00a0Porzellankranheit,\u00a0or \u201cporcelain-disease\u201d.\u00a0Among history\u2019s afflicted\u00a0was Augustus the Strong, who just about bankrupted his realms in order to amass tens of thousands of pieces of near-priceless East Asian porcelain.<\/p>\n

He later established Europe\u2019s first porcelain manufactory,\u00a0in the former Saxon capital of\u00a0Meissen, and the SKD\u2019s Porcelain Collection is rich in these sculptural works. They sit in the company of Augustus\u2019 earlier purchases, such as this rare, paper-thin Chinese lantern, whose delicacy Meissen\u2019s masters tried and failed to replicate.<\/p>\n

Admission\u00a0\u20ac16.\u00a0Directions here<\/a><\/p>\n

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Lantern, Kangxi (early 18th century)<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Porzellansammlung, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden<\/p>\n

9. Gerhard Richter,\u00a0Secretary\u00a0(1963), Galerie Neue Meister, Albertinum<\/p>\n

Germany\u2019s best-known living painter put down roots in West Germany\u2019s Rhineland but was born in Dresden in 1932. Richter was a product of the city\u2019s communist-era art academy, while also strongly influenced by the\u00a0Gem\u00e4ldegalerie’s\u00a0Old Masters holdings.<\/p>\n

He fled west in 1961, however his longstanding affection for his hometown\u2019s cultural heritage was reaffirmed in 2006, when he set up the Gerhard Richter Archive, under the auspices of the SKD, in the Albertinum. That building\u2019s Galerie Neue Meister is now also home to a noteworthy and comprehensive display of more than 70 Richter works, including this early photographic painting, inspired by a lurid tabloid story about a secretary, her boss and his wife, whom the boss murdered. Richter designed the display himself.<\/p>\n

Admission\u00a0\u20ac14.\u00a0Directions here<\/a><\/p>\n

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Gerhard Richter, Secretary (1963)<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Gerhard Richter 2025 (02092025). Photo: Elke Estel und Hans-Peter Klut | Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden<\/p>\n

10. Rosalba Carriera\u2019s\u00a0Self-Portrait as Winter\u00a0(1730\/31), Gem\u00e4ldegalerie Alte Meister, Zwinger (Semperbau)<\/p>\n

In\u00a0its\u00a018th-century prime, Dresden had an affinity for the Republic of Venice, then in its twilight years. As a result the Saxon capital\u2019s Old\u00a0Masters collection is\u00a0a prime repository of Venetian pastel portraits by Carriera, who found willing buyers in Europe\u2019s luxury-loving courts.<\/p>\n

Trained as a lace maker, before switching to painting snuff boxes, Carriera subsequently emerged as the leading woman artist of her day, and her steady output helped foster a trend for pastels, as well as a grand stylistic shift from the Baroque to the Rococo. This self-portrait, made when she was in her late 50s, is a seasonal allegory. It has less of the frippery and jauntiness that she was known for, with intimations of aging and even death.<\/p>\n

Admission\u00a0\u20ac16.\u00a0Directions here<\/a><\/p>\n

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Rosalba Carriere, Self-Portrait as \u201cWinter\u201d (1731)<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Gem\u00e4ldegalerie Alte Meister, SKD. Photo: Hans-Peter Klut<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before the Second World War, Dresden was commonly regarded as Germany\u2019s most beautiful city, marked by Baroque silhouettes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[437,434,435,436,438,69268,146,69267,53010,85,46,11785,32759],"class_list":{"0":"post-105509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-dresden","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-essential-artworks","16":"tag-gerhard-richter","17":"tag-il","18":"tag-israel","19":"tag-johannes-vermeer","20":"tag-raphael"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}