Andy's Germany Adventure: Day 5 - First day in Dresden

Saturday 15 January 2011.

It's stopped raining! I gave the car a rest and took the tram down from my guest house in the 'New Town', on a hill overlooking the Elbe, to the 'Old Town'. Despite damage caused by some unpleasantness in 1945, the old town has been largely restored to its glory days as the seat of the Electors of Saxony. I spent most of the day in the Zwinger palace, which now houses the Gemäldegalerie alte Meister (Paintings gallery of Old Masters), part of the Staatliche Kunstsammlung Dresden (State Art Collection Dresden), SKD (www.skd-dresden.de).

Well, I've been in seventh heaven! First, the special exhibition at the moment is a display of the SKD's extensive Cranach collection (the largest anywhere, I think). I am definitely becoming a Cranach fan! His full length portraits of Count Heinrich the pious and his wife, in which the count looks like a member of the local rugby team; his St Catherine, who looks at you with a "you can't touch me" look; his Adams and Eves (he did several) in which Eve, about to bite into the apple, seems to be saying "Wanna make something of it?". Less jolly are his Massacre of the Innocents, which is all too convincing, and Christ chasing the money lenders out of the temple, which looks like the tail end of a Medieval student protest. His portraits of Luther and court dignitaries are endearing and his Salome is a real bitch. I could go on (and on and on and on).

Other old German and Netherlandish art includes a beautiful little portable triptych by van Eyck and an outstanding portrait of Charles de Solier by Holbein.

Then you go upstairs and find Rafael's Sixtine Madonna, Giorgione's Slumbering Venus (which his mate Titian kindly finished off for him after he died of the plague) ... and many other Italian Renaissance pieces. Anatello da Messina's Saint Sebastian is particularly innovative (and there are plenty of other St Sebastians to compare it with).

Then you move through to the Netherlandish 17-18 century collection to find another wonderful selection, including a mind-blowing collection of large and small format works by Rubens, Bol, Jordaens, Hals, van Dyck ...

When I emerged at about 5 it was dusk already, but the weather was dry and fresh so I enjoyed a short walk around the centre before boarding the tram back to the centre. On the way I spotted the view from the Marienbrücke, and got off the tram at the next stop to take a picture (see below).

Tomorrow, I plan to move from the Old Masters to the New Masters in the Albertinium, on the lookout for some German Expressionism.