:''This article is about a museum in Berlin. For other museums with the same name, see
Gemäldegalerie (disambiguation)''
 Main hall with sculptures |
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 One of the rooms with German medieval sacred art |
The 'Gemäldegalerie' is an art gallery in
Berlin,
Germany. It holds one of the world's leading collections of
European art from the
13th through
18th centuries. It is located on
Kulturforum west of
Potsdamer Platz. Its collection includes masterpieces from such artists as
Albrecht Dürer,
Lucas Cranach,
Raphael,
Titian,
Caravaggio,
Peter Paul Rubens, and
Rembrandt. It was first opened in
1830, and was rebuilt in
1998.
The collection
The Gemäldegalerie prides itself on its scientific methodology in collecting and displaying art. Each room can be taken in as a single statement about one to five artists in a certain period or following a certain style. Especially notable rooms include the octagonal
Rembrandt room and a room containing five different
Madonnas by
Raphael.
Other notable experiences include
Flemish moralistic paintings which stretch across the north side of the museum, showing an interplay between the religious motives of the artists' patrons and the often sensual inspirations of the artists. In the
Renaissance section, for example,
Caravaggio's ''
Amor Victorious'' is displayed alongside
Giovanni Baglione's ''Sacred Love Versus Profane Love''. The two paintings are historically connected; after hearing of the scandalous portrayal of the theme "love conquers all" in Carvaggio's work, a Roman bishop commissioned Baglionne's reply, which mimics Carvaggio's style, including the features of ''Amor''.
The tour
The collection is more or less chronological starting from the entrance and moving toward the farthest wall. Following the rooms as they are numbered takes the visitor first forward, then backward, in time. The numbering system starting on the north side of the museum yields mostly Northern European art, then British portrait art. A visitor following along the southern side will go through mostly Italian and Southern European art. The gallery contains 1200 works, with around 400 more downstairs. Complementary audio guides in
English,
French, and
German are available.
Architecture and layout
The gallery sits in the southwest corner of the
Kulturforum, a modern-styled answer to
East Berlin's
Museumsinsel (Museum Island) which was inaccessible to
West Berliners when the city was divided by the
Berlin Wall from
1961 through
1989. The gallery was designed by
Munich architects Heinz Hilmer and
Christoph Sattler. The building consists of 72 rooms providing a two-kilometer (1.25 mi) floor. Upstairs the rooms flow around a center hall the size of a
football (soccer) field; the hall sometimes displays sculpture. There are also works downstairs, a gallery devoted to frames, and a digital gallery.
History
The collection was first located in the Royal Museum located near
Lustgarten on
Unter den Linden, a famous Berlin street. The collection began largely with the collection of
Frederick the Great. The gallery's first director was
Gustav Friedrich Waagen.
Berlin's premier name in museum direction,
Wilhelm von Bode, served the gallery from
1890 to
1929. His leadership marked the rise of the Gemäldegalerie to international prominence.
In
1904 the Gemäldegalerie was largely a collection of Renaissance art when it moved to the newly built
Kaiser Friedrich Museum, later known as the
Bode Museum.
The museum was badly damaged during
World War II, with 400 art pieces destroyed. The rest of the collection was divided between East Berlin (mostly at the Bode Museum on Museumsinsel) and West Berlin in
Berlin-Dahlem.
Looted art
★ In June 2006 a painting missing since 1944 by
Alessandro Allori was returned by the
British journalist
Charles Wheeler.
[1]
External links
★
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin | Gemäldegalerie
★
Kaiser-Friedrich-Museums-Verein Association of the friends of the ''Gemäldegalerie''
★
www.kulturforum-berlin.com Information about all cultural institutions at the "Kulturforum" in Berlin
★
Review of Gemäldegalerie
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