Gemäldegalerie (Berlin)

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Picture gallery of the State Museums in Berlin
Kulturforum 2015.JPG

View of the main entrance to the Kulturforum Berlin (2019)
Data
place Berlin Berlin-Tiergarten , Matthäikirchplatz
Art
architect New building: Hilmer & Sattler and Albrecht
opening 1830
management
Website
ISIL DE-MUS-017018
Gemäldegalerie Berlin, room III German painting, Cranach

The Gemäldegalerie is an art museum in Berlin . It is part of the Berlin State Museums . The picture gallery is located in its current building, which was completed in 1998 and is part of the Kulturforum .

The picture gallery houses holdings of old European paintings from the 13th to the 18th century. The collection includes masterpieces by artists such as Albrecht Dürer , Lucas Cranach , Hans Holbein , Rogier van der Weyden , Jan van Eyck , Raffael , Sandro Botticelli , Tizian , Caravaggio , Peter Paul Rubens , Rembrandt and Jan Vermeer. The picture gallery was opened in 1830. The collection in its current form is the result of an ambitious two-hundred-year collection policy, full of successes and painful cuts.

In 2019 the picture gallery recorded 310,000 visitors, not least thanks to the special exhibition Mantegna and Bellini. Masters of the Renaissance , which was the most successful special exhibition of 2019 with a total of 192,000 visitors.

The building

Central foyer in 2006 with a temporary exhibition of the sculpture collection

Since June 12, 1998, the Berlin Gemäldegalerie has been located in a museum building specially built for it at the Kulturforum , Sigismundstraße 4a. The building was built by the architects Hilmer & Sattler and Albrecht with the involvement of the villa of the publisher Paul Parey . It has an almost rectangular floor plan, the north facade of which has been pulled slightly outwards. The exterior facades themselves consist of tightly jointed terracotta panels, which were mounted over a high rustic plinth and thus convey an optical image that is reminiscent of both the Italian Renaissance and Prussian classicism. The core of the building is a foyer with two rows of columns, with flat vaulted ceilings and 32 clear glass domes, in the center of which is the fountain installation 5–7–9 series by the American conceptual artist Walter De Maria . The actual exhibition rooms, 18 halls and 41 cabinets are laid out in the shape of a horseshoe in two layers around the hall and are normally only illuminated by daylight (skylight). They cover an exhibition area of ​​around 7,000 square meters and offer space for around 900 paintings on a tour of around two kilometers with around 1,800 meters of hanging space. Around 400 additional pictures are shown in a study gallery comprising twelve rooms on the basement of the building. Since the opening of the Bode Museum in 2006, a further 150 paintings have been exhibited there in conjunction with the sculpture collection, in order to visually clarify the context of art history .

The tender for the new building goes back to 1986. Originally, the new building was only supposed to accommodate the pictures kept in Berlin-Dahlem . After the merger with the Gemäldegalerie on Museum Island in 1991, however, it became clear that the planned new building was far too small to be able to adequately exhibit the doubled stock of images. However, in order to be able to merge the two collections as quickly as possible, to avoid time-consuming and expensive new planning and not to allow already approved construction funds to expire, the gallery was nevertheless built in the planned form. So that the largest possible cross-section of the entire collection could be presented, it was decided to outsource the restoration workshops, which were to be housed in the basement, and to create a study gallery in the vacant rooms, based on the model of the National Gallery in London, in which alternating other important works of the collection can be shown.

History of the picture gallery

Planning and construction of the Berlin picture gallery

Friedrich Wilhelm III. laid the foundation for the picture gallery with the purchase of the Giustiniani collection
Edward Solly, whose large collection is still a core part of the Gemäldegalerie today
The Old Museum in Berlin around 1830 - the first home of the Berlin Gemäldegalerie
Floor plan of the picture gallery on the upper floor of the Altes Museum from 1830

It is the first collection of old European painting that was conceived from the outset according to strictly art-historical aspects. As early as 1797, the archaeologist Aloys Hirt had suggested the establishment of a public Berlin educational museum of European art history, which, in contrast to representative princely collections, should be strictly based on scientific principles and systematics. This idea met with a wide response and found well-known supporters in the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel and the scholar Carl Friedrich von Rumohr . But in contrast to Hirt, they were of the opinion that first and foremost the joy of art and only then the teaching should come. The idea that Friedrich Wilhelm III. was actively supported to put it into practice. The king was generously prepared to make numerous objects from his possession available to the new museum. When Aloys Hirt made an initial selection from the royal collection of paintings in 1812, he made a selection of around 650 paintings that he considered suitable for the planned museum. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars , numerous works of art that had been abducted from royal property by the French before the selection were returned to Prussia, so that Hirt was able to add another 113 pictures to the selection already made. Although the royal collection already contained a large number of pictures of high artistic standing, it did not meet the requirements that were expected of a collection built on scientific principles. The picture inventory was far from offering an encyclopedic overview of all European painting schools up to the 18th century. In order to meet this wish, numerous acquisitions had to be made.

In 1815 Paris offered the first opportunity for a significant expansion of the planned picture gallery. Friedrich Wilhelm III. discovered the 155 pictures from the Giustiniani collection offered by the Parisian art dealer Féréol Bonnemaison . By a happy coincidence, the monarch, otherwise known as stingy, was in good hands and acquired the Giustinani paintings for a sum of 540,000 francs. For a further 64,000 francs he bought 14 more paintings, also from Bonnemaison. By a happy coincidence, the king discovered two more pictures from the Giustiniani collection, also for sale, in Paris, which he was also able to acquire. In Berlin, the pictures, which were actually intended to enhance the quality of the royal collection, were first handed over to the academy, which presented them to the public in 1816. In the same year, the first voices were heard calling for the Giustinani paintings to be sent to the new museum immediately and not to be integrated into the royal collection.

To complement the Giustiniani collection, which with a few exceptions mainly contained works of the Italian early baroque, including works by Caravaggio , the Carracci and Guido Reni , the acquisition of the well-known Heidelberg Boisserée collection with its “patriotic art” was proposed. Despite serious efforts by the Prussian state, the negotiations failed. Instead, it was decided to purchase the much more important collection of paintings of the Berlin-based English merchant Edward Solly , who was a good friend of Hirt and Schinkel and was advised by them. His other advisors also included Rumohr and Gustav Friedrich Waagen . As early as 1819 he had pledged his collection of around 3,000 pictures for a loan to Prussia. Unable to repay this, through the mediation of Benjamin Wegner , friend and agent Sollys, negotiations began in 1820 about the purchase of the collection, which were concluded in 1821. The paintings went into Prussian ownership for 500,000 Reichstaler. This brought a large collection of Italian pictures from the 13th to 16th centuries, a significant number of Old Dutch and Old German pictures and a small number of works by other painting schools into the possession of the planned museum.

At around the same time, planning began for a representative museum building that would later house the collection. Initially, the idea of ​​permanently accommodating the pictures in the academy building was considered, but then the advocates of a new building prevailed. At its head was Schinkel, among others, who presented a concept for a magnificent museum building. His plans found a majority, so that on April 24, 1823, the final decision was made to build what is now known as the Altes Museum . At the same time, a commission of experts began its work, which was to make a selection of the pictures to be exhibited later. In addition to Schinkel and Hirt, she also belonged to Libra, initially as an assistant. In 1828 he became a permanent member. Due to discrepancies between Schinkel and Hirt, the question of whether education or enjoyment of the works of art should have priority, the commission was dissolved and replaced by a new one in 1829. In addition to Schinkel and Waagen, it now also included Wilhelm von Humboldt , Christian Daniel Rauch , Richard Dähling , Wilhelm Wach , Jakob Schlesinger and Friedrich Tieck . In charge of this was Humboldt, who was appointed chairman and who designed the future organizational structure of the museum. Gustav Friedrich Waagen was directly selected for the paintings to be exhibited, thus creating the prerequisite for being appointed first director of the painting department. He was supported by Carl Friedrich von Rumohr.

At the same time as the selection of the exhibits, about 110 additional pictures were purchased. A further review of the Royal Collection made a final selection for the museum, which, due to the numerous own additions, turned out to be fewer than Hirt had estimated. The gaps resulting from the removal were filled with pictures from the Giustiniani and Solly collections, which had not been rated as suitable for the museum.

On August 3, 1830, the museum was opened under the name Neues Museum and shortly thereafter renamed the Royal Museum . The painting collection at that time comprised 1198 paintings, which were exhibited on the upper floor of the Schinkel museum building. Of the paintings on display, 378 came from the Royal Collection, which had previously been scattered over numerous castles, 677 pictures from the Solly collection, 76 pictures from the Giustiniani collection and the rest from other acquisitions. The images were presented in three departments, which scales classified as follows:

  • First department. Italian schools and related arts. The academics.
  • Second division. The Dutch and German schools.
  • Third department. Antiquities and art historical curiosities.

While the first two sections followed the historical context of the schools according to their time of origin, the third section contained those works that had been singled out for various, mostly aesthetic or moral reasons and were only made available to selected visitors.

Admission to the museum was free, but initially had to be registered in advance.

The Gustav Friedrich Waagen era

Gustav Friedrich scales; First director of the Berlin Gemäldegalerie

Shortly after the opening, it was clear that the new museum would not be a complete collection. Wilhelm von Humboldt therefore asked for an annual budget for new acquisitions in order to be able to close the gaps that still exist. The king approved a budget of 20,000 thalers a year, of which, however, 1000 thalers each went to annual salary payments. This budget remained in place until 1872, but was occasionally topped up with special donations for important works of art. Nevertheless, the collecting activity stagnated. On the one hand, the budget was intended for the entire museum, i.e. also for the antiques department located on the ground floor, and on the other hand, other costs had to be paid, such as B. annuities for people who later offered the museum the prospect of their art collection, but whose objects then often did not correspond to the value of the payments actually made. Another obstacle was that purchases of more than 1,000 thalers each had to be approved by the king and later by the emperor. In order to still be able to make purchases, the painting collection had to repeatedly take out loans, some of which had to be repaid from the regular purchase budget over a period of years. The first loan of this kind was taken out in 1832 for the purchase of Titian's Girl with the Fruit Bowl and an altarpiece by Antonio Badile , then attributed to Pordenone .

A disadvantage for the Gemäldegalerie was, in addition to the inadequate purchase budget, the fact that Waagen had to fight against bureaucratism and the incompetence of the decision-making bodies during his entire term of office. Apart from the fact that significant sums of money e.g. If, for example, they were spent on casts of classical sculptures, the rapid price development on the international art market was also underestimated, so that the gallery seldom got a chance at the auctions of important private collections in London and Paris. Domestically, the company was more successful, but the material on offer was nowhere near the quality that could have been acquired through the major international auction houses. Another shortcoming it turned out after a short time was that modern art historiography was still developing and many works of art that were offered as works by great masters could not have been painted by them at all. In addition, it was not uncommon for it to be recognized after the purchase that the pictures were in poor condition. A typical example where the poor condition and incorrect attribution came together was the altarpiece with the Adoration of the Magi , known at the time as Raffael Ancaiani , which was considered to be one of Raphael's most important early works . In 1833 it was bought in Rome by borrowing for 22,705 marks and then, upon arrival in Berlin, turned out to be a ruin that could not possibly have been painted by Raphael. Today the picture is attributed to Giovanni di Pietro, known as Lo Spagna .

Gustav Friedrich von Waagen soon realized that it was impossible to close the gaps in the collection simply by making offers to the museum or purchases at auctions.

In 1841, for example, he developed plans for a trip to Italy in order to acquire works from churches and royal houses there. He found a sympathetic ear with the young King Friedrich Wilhelm IV and was able to go on a shopping trip to Italy that same year, endowed with a special budget of 100,000 thalers, which, although not quite the success it had hoped for, gave the museum some significant profits Brought in works of art. Waagen's acquisitions in Italy include works by Fra Bartolomeo , Domenico Veneziano , Lorenzo Lotto , Giovanni Battista Moroni , Palma il Vecchio , Raffael , Jacopo Tintoretto , Tizian and Paolo Veronese . But when he returned to Berlin, Waagen noticed that they were not very happy with their purchases. His expert opinion was questioned more and more, so that as a result his further design options for the collection were drastically restricted. Nobody took into account the fact that Waagen had often only made initial loose contacts and that possible providers wanted to be courted for a longer period of time. The Berlin museum also lacked a Europe-wide network of art agents who could keep an eye on important works and their availability. Because of such shortsightedness, the collecting activity came to a standstill and came to a complete standstill by the time the Empire was founded. The value that the collection possessed at that time is made clear by the fact that after Waagen's death in 1868 it was initially only looked after by temporary directors on an annual basis.

Despite the poor conditions, the Gemäldegalerie succeeded in acquiring more than 400 paintings during Waagen's time in office. In addition to numerous works by Italian artists, one of the highlights of his tenure was the further development of the collection of old Dutch pictures, which is now the most important in the world. The paintings acquired by these schools included works by Dierick Bouts , Petrus Christus , Joos van Cleve , Jan Gossaert , Hans Memling and Rogier van der Weyden .

The picture gallery from the founding of the empire to 1904

Wilhelm von Bode, the most important director of the Berlin Gemäldegalerie to this day

From the 1870s onwards, new times began for the Berlin museums and thus also for the Gemäldegalerie. At the beginning of the decade, there were massive political changes in Europe, which also left their mark on the art collections. As a result of the victory over France and the founding of the German Empire with Berlin as its capital, the former Prussian metropolis saw itself more than ever obliged to be able to compete with the other major European capitals. In order to assert oneself in the great prestige competition of the metropolises, diverse efforts were made to expand the Berlin museums into a collection that was comparable to those in London and Paris. Berlin had so far resigned itself to the fact that the most important German painting collections were located in Dresden and Munich, but now the ambition was to overtake these collections, which arose out of princely collecting zeal.

This wish went hand in hand with a simultaneous reorientation of the international art market. So far, the Gemäldegalerie had been in competition with the National Gallery in London, the Louvre in Paris, the Zarenhof in St. Petersburg and in the German-speaking area with the equally ambitious Städel Art Institute in Frankfurt am Main. But now numerous new competitors were added.

Inspired by the competition between museums for outstanding works of art, a new generation of private bourgeois collectors established themselves in the second half of the 19th century, often with considerable funds at their disposal, which often far exceeded the museum budget. As a result, the high market prices, which Berlin had previously only assessed as a temporary fad, continued to explode and thus presented all museums with considerable financial difficulties. However, this price development also meant that many old, predominantly aristocratic collectors were now ready to part with their treasures, so that now many more works of art came onto the market.

In this situation, Julius Meyer, a man who took over the management of the picture gallery, was again able to assert himself and was also ready to break new ground. From 1872 he was assisted by his new assistant Wilhelm von Bode . Both considered it their primary task to fill the gaps that still existed in the collection, although they both agreed that in the end it was more important to buy a significant work with the amount available, rather than many middle-class paintings, as it had mostly been the case so far. In order to put their plans into action, they applied for another shopping trip to Italy for the years 1872/73, which was also approved. Equipped with 100,000 thalers and, as they believed, better prepared than Libra, they set out on their journey and experienced a huge disappointment. The mass exports of Italian works of art in the last few decades had mobilized the local population and they began to organize against foreign buyers. Despite ongoing negotiations about the purchase of several church altarpieces, these had to be canceled due to massive protests. Only the purchase from private collections and through art dealers was still possible without any problems. However, it quickly became apparent that purchases from private collections were usually not possible without long preparations (sometimes they took several years) and that art dealers rarely offered the quality they were looking for. The yield for the Berlin Gemäldegalerie was correspondingly meager. After all, a few good pictures by artists such as Luca Signorelli , Giovanni Battista Tiepolo , Jacopo Tintoretto and Andrea del Verrocchio could be bought.

As a consequence of the rather disappointing trip, Meyer and Bode began working on a new concept for future acquisitions while in Italy. It was decided to set up a Europe-wide network of art agents who should keep an eye on the market in the service of the Berlin gallery and report upcoming sales in good time. In addition, long-term contacts with English art dealers began to be established, which was largely rejected in Waagen's time because of the allegedly excessive prices. These efforts soon bore their first fruits and brought the museum numerous first-rate paintings in the following years, for which, however, usually very high prices had to be paid.

Jan van Eyck: Madonna in the church. - Acquired from the Suermondt collection

Although the purchasing policy has now concentrated more on individual, outstanding works, the opportunity arose in 1874 to acquire the collection of the Aachen industrialist Barthold Suermondt , which was highly rated in the international press . He found himself in a difficult financial situation and was forced to part with his art collection, which was considered the largest collection of old masters in German possession and mainly contained works from northern European schools. After he was obviously unable to sell it on the international market, he offered it to Berlin and turned to the state, the museum experts immediately, who were ready to accept his offer immediately. Although Bode considered the collection as a whole to be overrated and would have liked to have acquired only individual pictures, after long negotiations the entire collection, including the drawings, was finally acquired for 350,000 thalers. The paintings acquired in this way included, for example, Jan van Eyck's Church Madonna and Jan Vermeer's Young Lady with a Pearl Necklace . Further works were by Frans Hals , Hans Holbein the Elder. J. , Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Steen . Furthermore, there were several works of Spanish painting in the collection, which, despite great efforts, had only been represented by a few pictures in Berlin, so that in the following period, the purchase of further paintings was at the top of the list of desired acquisitions . Despite numerous efforts and Bode's trip to Spain in 1881, only a few other Spanish paintings have come into the collection's possession to this day. Including just a handful of top works.

The east room in the south wing of the picture gallery with works of the Dutch and Flemish schools of the 17th century

In the service of the museum, Bode himself developed into a manic collector who, in the years that followed, not only succeeded in expanding the collection, but also considerably increasing its quality. It is thanks to his skill that the Gemäldegalerie grew into one of the leading institutes of ancient European painting. His eagerness to collect gave Berlin one of the best collections of Italian Quattrocento paintings, one of the largest collections of Rembrandt's paintings and a well-developed and representative Rubens collection . As a result, the stock of pictures assumed proportions that could hardly be properly exhibited. Since the pictures were already hanging frame to frame on the walls, old pictures had to give way for new acquisitions. The separated pictures were taken to a temporary depot, which was located under the roof of the Altes Museum and was also hopelessly overcrowded. The pictures already stored there included more than 1000 pictures from the Solly collection that had not yet been systematically recorded and examined since the purchase. In order to cope with the lack of space, Meyer and Bode decided in 1886 to hand over a large part of these pictures from the collection. After a cursory examination, a selection of 1062 paintings was made, in addition to works from the Solly collection, presumably also some works that are no longer verifiable today, which were only purchased after 1830 and which included pictures that included Paris Bordone when they were acquired , Guercino , Titian, and Paolo Veronese . Unfortunately, the pictures were only given to the auction house Rudolph Lepke with poor descriptions such as "Italian, 14th century" or "Dutch, 15th century" without a precise description of the picture and dimensions , where they were auctioned in 1887, using the modest information taken over, so that today it is almost impossible to identify individual works in other collections.

It was these positive merits of Bode for the painting collection and the Berlin museums that prompted those responsible to appoint him director of the painting gallery and sculpture collection in 1890 .

Bode saw his most urgent task in the new office in finding a feasible way out of the acute lack of space in the collections he was in charge of, which incidentally affected all of Berlin's collections. As early as the 1870s, the lack of space in the Altes Museum had been overcome by extensive renovation work, including the installation of skylights. Nevertheless, it was clear to both Meyer and Bode that there would be no avoiding a new museum building in the long term. In 1880 at the latest, planning for one began. In doing so, they went back to an older idea of ​​General Director Guido von Usedom , who had the idea of ​​expanding the existing museum ensemble with another museum for casts of sculptures from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Based on this idea, first Meyer and then mainly Bode, from the 1890s onwards, developed the concept for a renaissance museum in which various art genres were to be presented in an integrative manner in common rooms.

Bode's intention was to present paintings, sculptures, selected furniture and tapestries side by side in rooms that were equipped with original wall cladding, ceilings, floors, portals, chimneys and cornices and thus should show an ideal overall picture of an era. In order to be able to implement his plan, against which there was much resistance, he sought the most prominent support possible. He had a good opportunity when, in 1896 , he redesigned the art collection of Empress Victoria in Friedrichshof Palace , precisely according to this concept, and thus obtained her goodwill and support from the Emperor. He gave his approval for the new building on March 6, 1896. In the following year, the money for the new building in the House of Representatives was approved. The contract for planning and construction went to the architect Ernst von Ihne . On the occasion of the reopening, the collection received a number of donations, of which the pictures donated by Adolph Thiem and James Simon stand out. On October 18, 1904, the museum, which was built in honor of Emperor Friedrich III. Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum was officially opened to the public. As with all royal museums, the entrance fee was only charged on two working days (1909 Wednesday and Thursday, 1914 Tuesday and Wednesday, 50 pfennigs ).

Support of private collectors and patrons in the service of the Gemäldegalerie

James Simon, to this day the most important patron of the Berlin museums

Since Bode's eagerness to collect was both financially and organizationally limited, he actively endeavored to place interesting works of art for the Gemäldegalerie, which it was currently not possible to acquire, into the hands of private collectors he was friends with, whom he actively supported and advised. With his help, one of the densest networks of financially strong art collectors in Berlin, who owned treasures of immeasurable value, was created. Bode's work in this area was not limited to Berlin and Germany, but also extended to some English and French private collections. With his commitment, he combined the hope that the collectors would one day donate their collections to the Berlin museums, as happened in many cases in the United States of America at the same time. This brought the picture gallery some growth over the next few decades, but not to the extent Bode had hoped for. Many German art collections, which he was instrumental in building up, were sold during the First World War or in the years after, when their owners usually sold them for American dollars or British pounds in order not to go bankrupt due to the consequences of the war or the consequences of inflation . And foreign art collectors, such as Alfred Beit , of German descent, who lives in England , could not dare to cede their property to a German museum through nationalistically whipped up press articles if they did not want to risk significant damage to the image of their company. The only exception was the industrialist James Simon, who donated numerous valuable works of art to the Berlin museums, including the Gemäldegalerie. But since his company was badly hit as a result of the war, he too had to sell part of his collection on the international art market from 1919. It was mainly his collection of Dutch pictures from the 17th century, which included pictures of Rembrandt , Frans Hals and Jan Vermeer's wife with a maid bringing a letter , now a major work in the Frick Collection in New York.

Much more successful were Bode's efforts to find powerful donors for a development association who could pre-finance important works for the collection. This was necessary because the required money was not always available immediately and because every acquisition over 5,000 marks had to be approved by the emperor. Another reason was because American collectors in particular were buying more and more important European works. The result of these efforts was the Kaiser Friedrich-Museums-Verein , founded in 1897 , whose donations were soon no longer limited to the mere provision of money, as they began to build up their own art collection, which the Gemäldegalerie made available on permanent loan free of charge stands.

Kaiser Friedrich Museum and Deutsches Museum until 1939

The Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum (today Bode-Museum) in Berlin
A typical exhibition room for Italian art of the 15th century in the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum around 1905–1907

With the opening of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, the collection presented itself in a completely new way. Essentially, the paintings were presented in the upper floor and the sculptures in the lower floor. Particularly in the Quattrocento area, however, there was that integrative mixing of the various genres of art that Bode had promoted so much in advance. This mix was something completely new for a public museum and also attracted a lot of international attention. Many North American museums in particular were so impressed with this concept that they also adopted it for their houses and coined the term Period Rooms for this form of presentation . In the areas of Dutch and Flemish painting, however, the pictures in the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum remained to themselves.

Although Bode's dream of a new house for the painting collection had come true, the lack of space was only remedied here for the beginning. Even now only a part of the existing pictures could be exhibited, so that the first major restructuring of the exhibition took place as early as 1910. In the same year, the first plans for another museum building began, the northern wing of which Bode provided for the establishment of the German Museum he was planning , in which, based on the example of the Italian Renaissance collection in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, he now also includes the German holdings in integrative showrooms wanted to present. In order to prepare for this plan in the long term, German works of art in particular were purchased on a large scale and this department was also expanded into one of the most important collections of its kind in the world.

With the beginning of the First World War , collecting began to stagnate again for the first time since the founding of the Reich. In 1920 there was a decisive first break in the holdings of the permanent collection. Due to the Treaty of Versailles, the museum was forced to surrender to the Belgian state all the panels from Jan van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece as well as The Prophet Elias in the Desert and The Celebration of the Passover by Dierick Bouts . With the submission of the important pictures, a renewed restructuring of the permanent collection went hand in hand.

Front view of the Pergamon Museum - the north wing (left in the picture) housed the German Museum

In the years that followed, Bode was only able to match the successes of the pre-war years to a limited extent. Due to a lack of financial resources, high-quality paintings are only occasionally acquired. At the same time, numerous important paintings in Germany were sold abroad, mainly to the United States of America.

In 1930, with the opening of the Deutsches Museum (in the north wing of today's Pergamon Museum, designed by Alfred Messel ), the German, Old Dutch and pre-Baroque French paintings were moved from the Kaiser Friedrich Museum and transferred to the new museum building together with the sculptures at the same time.

In 1936 the gallery grew again through the ministerial transfer of the old master paintings stored in the Dresdner Bank deposit, the majority of which were sold again in the following year, so that only about half of the pictures remained in the collection. In addition, the museum had to part with the only painting by Duccio di Buoninsegna in the collection . The proceeds were used to purchase the “German” painting Portrait of a Man with Lute by Hans Holbein the Elder, which is considered important . J. financed from an English collection.

With the beginning of the Second World War in 1939, the picture gallery and all other museums on Museum Island were closed.

The Second World War and its consequences for the picture gallery

Caravaggio: Portrait of a young woman - was one of the works of art stored in the Flakturm Friedrichshain and was probably burned there in 1945

Immediately at the beginning of the Second World War, fear of air raids began to move the paintings to the museum cellars. After it was realized that the works of art stored there were not safe from Allied air raids on the city, in September 1941 they began to move the pictures from the Gemäldegalerie (1659 in total) with holdings from the other collections in the control tower of the flak bunker in Friedrichshain to store. For this purpose, the museums were given the entire first floor and then rooms on the second and third floors. This outsourcing was essentially complete after a year. As the eastern front approached in 1945, the decision was made on March 6th to relocate the works of art stored in Friedrichshain again, as experience in Normandy had shown that the bunkers were not necessarily bombproof. On March 11th, a truck brought holdings from the painting gallery to the Ransbach shaft; Due to its high temperature, however, it was completely unsuitable for holding works of art. On March 19, two trucks brought holdings from the painting gallery and the sculpture collection to the Kaiseroda salt mine near Merkers . A day later, two trucks brought paintings, sculptures and objects from the Kupferstichkabinett there again. On March 22nd, the last pictures from the picture gallery were brought to safety. As far as we know today, 434 old master paintings remained, especially many large formats. But they too survived the last days of the war unscathed and were handed over to the Red Army on May 2nd . When experts from the Berlin museums were given access to the flak tower on May 4th and 5th, they found the 1st and 2nd floors intact. However, the rooms on the 3rd floor had been broken into. For reasons that have not yet been clarified, the entire first floor burned out on May 6th. During an inspection by the management of the Berlin museums on May 7, it was found that the access to the 2nd and 3rd floors was intact. The depot rooms on the 2nd floor were still completely intact. However, numerous clearings had been carried out on the third floor. You could also see that the bunker was unguarded. Numerous civilians had been seen entering the bunker unhindered. Then it burned again between May 14th and 18th. This time the flames spread to the entire structure, which burned out completely. The stored works of art were largely destroyed.

To date, there has only been speculation about the causes of the fire. It is also unknown whether and to what extent works of art were salvaged from the fires by the Red Army and later brought to the Soviet Union. In the exhibition “Archeology of War” carried out by the Pushkin Museum in Moscow in 2005 , a total of 25 antique vases from the Berlin Collection of Antiquities were shown, some of which had also been stored in the Friedrichshain flak tower, so that there is perhaps a small hope that individual paintings will also be shown may have survived the disaster. 59 statues of the Bode Museum stored in the Flakturm Friedrichshain were discovered in 2016 in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow .

In addition, the Gemäldegalerie lost 118 other paintings that were on loan from other institutions. A few of these pictures have been confiscated by the Allies and illegally auctioned. In addition, there are 15 pictures that were probably lost before 1945 and three pictures that were destroyed in the museum itself as a result of the direct effects of the war. Three paintings were stolen in 1947, one of which was shortly thereafter returned irreparably destroyed.

The approximately 1000 paintings stored in the museum cellars themselves remained almost undamaged; more than 200 of them were seized and transferred to the Soviet Union.

The shared collection

As early as autumn 1945, the entire Berlin magistrate had tried to repatriate all the relocated Berlin museum collections, but this failed initially due to the lack of suitable premises and, from 1947, mainly due to the allegedly unresolved question of who the former Prussian art collections actually belonged to. In the period that followed, at the same time as Germany was divided into two parts, almost all of the art collections in the Berlin State Museums were separated. Depending on where they were kept, the holdings were either returned to Museum Island over the next few years or placed in the care of the West Berlin Senate, which transferred them to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation .

The picture gallery on Museum Island

Jan Gossaert: Neptune and Amphitrite. - One of the most prominent pictures on Museum Island

The most urgent task with the paintings that remained on the Museum Island after 1945 was their conservation care. An immediate exhibition was out of the question due to the damage to the building. Only a few pictures were presented in small exhibitions in the following years. In 1958 230 pictures transferred to the Soviet Union returned to East Berlin and some of them were presented alongside art treasures from other collections in the exhibition “Treasures of World Culture - Saved by the Soviet Union” in the main building of the Berlin National Gallery. Then they were deposited again. It was not until 1963 that the picture gallery returned to its last parent house, the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, which now bore the name of its real founder, Wilhelm von Bode. Initially, the collection only had ten rooms in which 91 pictures could be shown. In the following years the number of rooms was continuously increased so that more pictures could be shown. In preparation for the 750th anniversary of Berlin in 1987, the Bode Museum underwent its first major renovation, after which 26 rooms were available for the Gemäldegalerie. The number of pictures exhibited was now around 350, not counting the miniatures, which could be presented in a separate cabinet from 1979 onwards.

Many art lovers wrongly assumed that the pictures left behind on Museum Island were only works of the second and third category, while the selection of the holdings was in Berlin-Dahlem. But this is not true. Because of their size, many large-format pictures were stored in the cellars of Museum Island, including numerous altar panels from the Italian Renaissance. Many of the pictures on Museum Island were in the exhibition collections until 1939 and were even world-famous, including the architectural vedute attributed to Francesco di Giorgio Martini , The Resurrection of Christ , which was started by Domenico Ghirlandaio and then completed by his sons, St. Barbara by Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio , the Resurrection of Christ , which was then still attributed to the Leonardo School and which is now considered a joint work by Boltraffio and Marco d'Oggiono , Vertumnus and Pomona by Leonardo student Francesco Melzi , the fresco cycle of Europe by Bernardino Luini , Neptune and Amphitrite and The Fall of Man by Jan Gossaert , the epitaph image Christ gives Peter the keys to heaven , which none other than Peter Paul Rubens for the grave of Pieter Bruegel the Elder . Ä. painted, the first self-portrait by Nicolas Poussin and numerous other works. The main focus of the exhibition was paintings by Italian, Old Dutch and Dutch painters.

In addition, despite its decoupling from the international art market, the collection succeeded in acquiring around 100 new pictures, including works by Jan van Bijlert , Francesco Botticini , Giovanni Cariani , Thomas Gainsborough and Jean Marc Nattier , up until it was merged with the Dahlem holdings in 1992 .

The picture gallery in Dahlem

The museum complex in Dahlem - Former exhibition space of the Gemäldegalerie in West Berlin

By 1949 at the latest, it was clear that the pictures in the Berlin Gemäldegalerie in Wiesbaden would not return to Museum Island anytime soon. But now the West Berlin Senate hoped to get these pictures. In order to have suitable premises available , the former Asian Museum , built between 1912 and 1916 by Bruno Paul in Dahlem , was expanded, where a selection of 149 Berlin paintings was shown in 1950. When the federal state of Hesse, which wanted to keep the Berlin treasures, demanded the return of the pictures in the following year, citing allied occupation law, the Kaiser Friedrich-Museums-Verein, to which some of the exhibited pictures belonged, initiated a test case in which the state Hessen was asked to return the painting The Man with the Gold Helmet , which was then still attributed to Rembrandt . After the federal government intervened in the dispute, the association was granted its ownership right, so that all works of art in West Germany were transferred from its possession to West Berlin in 1953.

Following this decision, the question of what to do with the other Berlin art treasures that were also located in West Germany began to be dealt with. On January 27, 1955, at a meeting of the Bundestag, it was unanimously decided to combine these works of art in a Foundation for Prussian Cultural Heritage , which was yet to be established and which should have its seat in West Berlin. In the same year the paintings were transferred to West Berlin, where they were exhibited in the museum building in Dahlem from 1956. In the following year, the law for the “establishment of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation” was finally passed by the Bundestag.

Albrecht Dürer: Portrait of a young woman. - Acquired in 1977

The pictures, which were located in West Berlin in 1225, now moved into their third house, which, however, soon turned out to be unsuitable for a picture museum due to the poor lighting conditions. The situation in Dahlem improved significantly when the Dahlem Museum Center, based on a design by Fritz Bornemann , was able to go into use with large new buildings from 1966–1970 , which also benefited the Gemäldegalerie. But already in the 1960s there were considerations to build a new museum building on the southern edge of the zoo, in the Kulturforum Berlin , for the holdings . However, these plans dragged on over the next few decades, so that the planned new building could only be opened to the public in 1998.

Right from the start, the Gemäldegalerie was made available with extensive funds in order to at least partially compensate for the gaps left by the war and the division. Through the connection to the international art market, around one hundred pictures could be acquired by 1991. In addition, there were a number of new acquisitions by the Kaiser Friedrich-Museums-Verein as well as several pictures on permanent loan from the Federal Republic of Germany, the still-preserved pictures from the Streit Foundation, which had previously belonged to the Gray Monastery high school that was destroyed during the war , and several permanent loans from private collections .

The reunification of the picture gallery

As early as November 1989, with a view to the imminent reunification of the two halves of the city, initial talks began about merging the holdings of the Gemäldegalerie from East and West Berlin, which officially came into force on January 1, 1992. At the same time, there were fierce debates about the future location of the collection, in which the traditionalists, who advocated returning the pictures to their original location in today's Bode Museum, initially lost out. Decisive for this were, among other things, the already well advanced planning for a new building of the picture gallery at the Kulturforum, for which the financial means were already available. In contrast, the Bode Museum was far too small for the entire inventory and a new building would have delayed a direct consolidation of the holdings even further. However, it turned out to be a drawback that the size of the new building was only designed for the West Berlin holdings, so that the new domicile for the collection was again much too small. In order to still be able to show a larger number of pictures, the rooms in the basement, which were supposed to accommodate restoration workshops, were converted into a study gallery, so that the picture gallery is now able to show almost half of its total inventory.

Only with the gradual amalgamation of the holdings was it possible to scientifically record the entire holdings and to draw up a final catalog of the actual war losses, which turned out to be much higher than previously feared. In its end result was the documentation of the losses , which appeared in 1995 and listed the losses in 5 categories:

  • I. Paintings probably burned in the flak tower
  • II. Missing old loans
  • III. Paintings transferred to the Soviet Union in 1945/46 and not returned
  • IV. Various previously undocumented losses before 1945
  • V. Other stolen and destroyed paintings

A current whereabouts could be determined for several missing images. Today, among other things, a picture by Francesco Fontebasso that was believed to have been destroyed in Friedrichshain , St. Francis of Padua in German private ownership and two old loan pictures by Jacopo del Sellaio and Paris Bordone are in the National Museum in Warsaw. 19 other pictures, including works by Jan Gossaert and Guercino , are known to have been confiscated by the Soviet military after 1945 and not returned later. In April 2006, this documentation made it possible for the first time to rediscover a portrait of Eleonora of Toledo , which had been missing since 1944 and attributed to Alessandro Allori , and to return it to the Gemäldegalerie, and it is currently part of the permanent collection in the Bode Museum. In February 2012 the State Museums reported the repatriation of a Maria with the child , who is listed in old inventories as a work by Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio ; This is one of the pictures that were verifiably stored in the Friedrichshain flak tower and were considered to be burned.

In 1996 a complete directory of the Gemäldegalerie was published, in which all the pictures available in the gallery up to 1995 are listed. A year later, a CD of the entire collection followed, which is essentially based on the print catalog of the previous year, but in some cases already takes into account a large number of new assignments of individual works.

In January 2006 the portrait of the actor Anton Huck was acquired by Johann Georg Edlinger (after 1785). In 2011, the Art Gallery acquired with the Virgin and Child with St. Bruno , a prominent picture of Jusepe de Ribera (Inv No .: 2011.1) and the portrait of a young man from a Nuremberg painter from around 1480/85 (Inv .-No .: 2011.3).

Moving plans

The Museum Island master plan provides for the painting gallery to be brought back to the Museum Island in the long term, which makes it necessary to move the painting collection from its current location to a new building to be built there. This new building is planned on the former barracks area opposite the Bode Museum and was named by the incumbent President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, Hermann Parzinger , as an urgent task to complete the entire Museum Island ensemble. The plans, which were becoming more specific, provided for all paintings and sculptures from the southern schools to be exhibited in the Bode Museum and all other works from the two collections in the new building. The current headquarters at the Kulturforum would then have been connected to the National Gallery and would have presented modern art in the future. In June 2012, this plan was suddenly about to be implemented, when a surprising 10 million euros were released from the federal budget for a move of the collection and a renovation of the previous building of the Gemäldegalerie. However, there was international criticism of the planned temporary storage of the collection during the construction period (because of the incalculable costs and completion), which is why the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning checked the overall planning. In August 2013, it presented a feasibility study that advocated dropping the new building at the Bodemuseum and instead building a significantly more cost-effective new building for a Museum der Moderne Berlin next to the Neue Nationalgalerie at the Kulturforum . The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation has approved this solution; so the location of the picture gallery will remain in the previous building at the Kulturforum in the medium term.

Directors

The collection

The Gemäldegalerie currently holds more than 3,500 paintings (of which around 2,900 are its own stock) and a further 3,000 historical frames, which are now organizationally divided into a total of ten departments:

  • German painting from the 13th to 16th centuries
  • German painting of the 17th and 18th centuries
  • Dutch painting of the 14th to 16th centuries
  • 17th century Flemish painting
  • Dutch painting of the 17th century
  • Italian painting of the 13th to 16th centuries
  • Italian painting of the 17th and 18th centuries
  • Spanish painting of the 15th to 18th centuries
  • French painting of the 15th to 18th centuries
  • 18th century English painting

Your own stocks

German painting from the 13th to 16th centuries

Interior of room I with the earliest German panel painting

This section of the Gemäldegalerie houses one of the most important collections of old German painting in the world, in which all schools and styles of the time are presented almost completely. The highlights of the collection include the “ wings of the Wurzacher Altar ”, which is one of the few paintings by Hans Multscher , who otherwise works as a sculptor , two pictures by Konrad Witz , two pictures by the master of the house book , one Martin Schongauer , two pictures by Hans Holbein the Elder Ä. , seven pictures each by Albrecht Dürer , Hans Baldung and Albrecht Altdorfer , 22 pictures by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Ä. and five pictures by Hans Holbein the Elder J.

German painting of the 17th and 18th centuries

In this area, the collection partially overlaps with the holdings of the Berlin National Gallery . It is not quite as extensive as the area of ​​older German painting, but is still one of the more important of its kind. The inventory includes painters such as Daniel Chodowiecki , Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich , Johann Georg Edlinger , Adam Elsheimer , Anton Graff , Angelika Kauffmann , and Christian Bernhardt Rode and Johann Rottenhammer , who are represented with mostly larger work complexes.

For organizational reasons, the two departments of German painting are also assigned the pictures by Austrian and Swiss painters.

Dutch painting of the 14th to 16th centuries

In this area, the Berlin collection is considered one of the most important in the world. It provides an almost complete overview from its beginnings to the end of the Renaissance and presents the main masters with numerous major works of their art. The beginning of the collection is marked by three works by Jan van Eyck , which are among the best of his oeuvre. This is followed by four pictures of Petrus Christ , two pictures by Robert Campin and pictures by his students Jacques Daret and Rogier van der Weyden . With three altars, two individual panels and a number of other works from the workshop, the latter is as present in no other collection as in Berlin. In addition, the collection has the only undisputed picture by Aelbert van Ouwater , two pictures each by Dierick Bouts , Gerard David and Geertgen tot Sint Jans , three pictures by Hugo van der Goes , three pictures by Hans Memling , six pictures by Jan Gossaert and again two pictures by Pieter Bruegel the Elder Ä. This is followed by pictures by Hieronymus Bosch , Lucas van Leyden , Quinten Massys , Marinus van Reymerswaele .

17th century Flemish painting

Interior room VIII: Rubens room

This section offers an exemplary overview of the Flemish painting of this epoch, the focus of which is Peter Paul Rubens with seventeen pictures, Anthonis van Dyck with seven, Jacob Jordaens with three and David Teniers the Elder. J. stand with eight pictures. More than two hundred other pictures are grouped around this core, offering a good overview of Flemish painting of that time. Among them are pictures by Adriaen Brouwer , Jan Brueghel the Elder. Ä. , Jan Brueghel the Elder J. , Pieter Brueghel the Elder J. , Gonzales Coques , Jan Fyt , Jan Davidsz. de Heem and Frans Snyders .

Dutch painting of the 17th century

The Dutch section is one of the best collections ever and offers an excellent overview of this art era. At the center of the collection is Rembrandt , of whose pictures the collection currently has 16 generally recognized works, making it one of the largest individual collections by this master. In addition to an excellent collection of works from his circle and his successors ( Gerard Dou , Govaert Flinck , Aert de Gelder and Philips de Koninck ), the collection offers a comprehensive overview of Dutch painting from this era as a whole. The painters, some of whom are present with larger groups of works, include Willem van Aelst , Jan Asselijn , Nicolaes Pietersz , among others . Berchem , Gerard ter Borch , Hendrick ter Brugghen , Pieter Claesz , Aelbert Cuyp , Jan van Goyen , Frans Hals , Gerrit van Honthorst , Pieter de Hooch , Willem Kalf , Pieter Lastman , Adriaen van Ostade , Isack van Ostade , Paulus Potter , Jacob van Ruisdael and Jan Steen , Jan Vermeer and Emanuel de Witte .

Italian painting of the 13th to 16th centuries

Interior room XVII with large-format pictures of the Italian High Renaissance

This area is the most extensive section and offers a comprehensive overview of the Italian painting of this period. At the beginning of the Trecento collection are two of the few handwritten panel paintings by Giotto di Bondone , which include important paintings by Maso di Banco , Agnolo Gaddi , Taddeo Gaddi , Lippo Memmi , Bernardo Daddi , Pietro Lorenzetti , Simone Martini , Lorenzo Monaco and Gentile da Fabriano connect. The Quattrocento collection is preceded by the largest collection of individual panels by Masaccio . This is followed by a picture by Piero della Francesca , five pictures by Fra Angelico , two pictures by Domenico Veneziano , one picture by Antonio del Pollaiuolo , two by his brother Piero del Pollaiuolo , three pictures by Fra Filippo Lippi , three pictures by his son Filippino Lippi , three pictures by Sandro Botticelli , four pictures by Luca Signorelli , seven pictures by Giovanni Bellini , two pictures by Domenico Ghirlandaio , three pictures by Andrea Mantegna and pictures by Gentile Bellini , Piero di Cosimo , Antonello da Messina and one of the few undisputed panels by Andrea del Verrocchio . The Cinquecento presents itself with important works by Giorgione , Tizian , Palma il Veccio , Lorenzo Lotto , Sebastiano del Piombo , Agnolo Bronzino , Paris Bordone , Paolo Veronese , Jacopo Tintoretto , Giovanni Battista Moroni , Antonio da Correggio and Parmigianino .

Italian painting of the 17th and 18th centuries

Far less closed, but the later Italians present themselves with excellent examples. In addition to several works by the Carracci family, the collection presents works by Jacopo Amigoni , Pompeo Girolamo Batoni , Canaletto , Caravaggio , Giuseppe Maria Crespi , Carlo Dolci , Orazio Gentileschi , Luca Giordano , Giovanni Antonio Guardi , Francesco Guardi , Sebastiano Ricci , Guercino , Giovanni Battista Pittoni , Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo .

Spanish painting of the 15th to 18th centuries

In terms of numbers, the Spanish department is one of the larger collections in Germany. With a few exceptions, the existing works are considered to be second to third class, so that currently only a few works are publicly shown within the presentation of Spanish masters of the 17th and 18th centuries. The few significant pictures include works by Bartolomé Bermejo , Pedro Berruguete , Bartolomé Esteban Murillo , Luis de Morales , Diego Velázquez and Francisco de Zurbarán . A few more examples of early Spanish painting have also been exhibited in the sculpture collection in the Bode Museum since 2006. With a few exceptions (e.g. a sketch by Francisco de Goya and works by Alonso Cano and Mateo Cerezo ) the works not on display are works by rather unknown masters, school or workshop pictures and copies.

French painting of the 15th to 18th centuries

The French section offers a small overview of ancient French painting, which includes a number of excellent works. The works of Simon Marmion and Jean Fouquet are among the early beacons of French painting in general . In Berlin there is also the only painting by Georges de La Tour in a public collection in Germany. This is followed by works by Jean-Baptiste Greuze , Nicolas de Largillière , Eustache Le Sueur , Claude Lorrain , Jean Baptiste Chardin , Nicolas Poussin , Antoine Watteau , Antoine Pesne , Hubert Robert and François Boucher .

18th century English painting

Although English painting is numerically the smallest department in the Berlin Gemäldegalerie, it is still the largest collection of its kind in a German museum. The focus is on a total of five pictures by Thomas Gainsborough . This is followed by three pictures by Joshua Reynolds , two each by John Hoppner and Henry Raeburn, and one by Thomas Lawrence .

The loans

In addition to its own holdings, the Gemäldegalerie also manages a large number of loans (not listed above) , of which the pictures from the collection of the Kaiser Friedrich-Museums-Verein ( Hans Baldung , François Boucher , Gerard Dou , Albrecht Dürer , Giotto di Bondone , Giovanni Antonio Guardi , Hans Memling , Rembrandt van Rijn , Peter Paul Rubens ) makes up the most important collection. Other significant loans come from the Streitschen Foundation ( Jacopo Amigoni , Canaletto ), the Lipperheide Collection ( Wolf Huber ) belonging to the Art Library , the Federal Republic of Germany ( Paris Bordone , Peter Paul Rubens, Sebastiano Ricci , Antoine Watteau ), the State Library ( Lucas Cranach the Elder ) . Ä. ).

In addition, the gallery also presents a number of loans from unnamed private collectors, some of which have been shown in the permanent collection for many years. Especially since the reopening of the picture gallery at the Kulturforum, numerous private loans have been exhibited there, including works by Hendrick ter Brugghen and Willem Pietersz. Buytewech , Jacob van Ruisdael , Adriaen van der Werff , Philips Wouwerman , Jean-Baptiste Pater and currently (2008) an early panel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder with a landscape with the apparition of Christ to the apostles on the Sea of ​​Galilee . Ä .

The presentation in the Bode Museum

Alvise Vivarini: Pentecost Altar. One of the works of the Gemäldegalerie exhibited in the Bode Museum

In addition to the pictures exhibited at the Kulturforum, the picture gallery has also been present in the Bode Museum with a more extensive collection since October 2006 . The works integrated there in the permanent exhibition of the sculpture collection also offer a small, albeit incomplete, overview of the history of Western painting. For this purpose, the collection put down several, previously mostly deposited pictures from its entire inventory. Only a few works had previously been on view at the Kulturforum in the exhibition and study collections. Some were specially restored for the presentation, including pictures that had belonged to the permanent collection of the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum and had not been presented to the public since 1939.

As in the main collection, the focus of the exhibits is on Italian, Old Dutch and Old German painting. The highlight of the presentation are the Tiepolo frescoes from Villa Panigai, which are probably a joint work by Giovanni Battista and Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo . Next to them was a stand of Italian works Paolo Uccello attributed to Mary with the child , a Lamentation of Giovanni Bellini , the Pentecostal altar of Alvise Vivarini , the Hercules at the Crossroads of Niccolò Soggi , several portraits of Alessandro Allori , one each altarpiece by Francesco Vecellio and Girolamo dai Libri , the portrait of Benedetto de 'Medici by Giorgio Vasari , The Prophet Balaam on the Journey by Luca Giordano and the Drunkenness of Noah by Andrea Sacchi . In terms of old Dutch painting, the collection mainly presents works by lesser-known or anonymous artists, several of which are represented by Michiel Coxcie, who is known for his copies of great masters . There are also works by Aelbert Bouts and Goswijn van der Weyden . The most important works of the old German school are an Adam and Eve panel by Lucas Cranach the Elder . Ä. , two portraits by Georg Pencz and a gentleman's portrait by Joachim Martin Falbe . Well-known painters from other schools include Ferdinand Bol , Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem and Hubert Robert .

In addition to pictures from its own collection, some paintings from the possession of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum Association are also on display in the Bode Museum .

Special and changing exhibitions

  • "Pictures in focus". The "Little Ice Age" - Dutch Landscape Painting in the 17th Century (September 12, 2001 - January 6, 2002)
  • Christian Contemplations of Images (January 2, 2002 - December 31, 2002)
  • In Rembrandt's workshop. The master in original, copy and study (April 19, 2002 - July 21, 2002)
  • "Pictures in focus". View of the Grand Canal - Venice and the collection of the Berlin merchant Sigismund Streit (September 6, 2002 - February 9, 2003)
  • "Pictures in focus". Beautiful frames - From the holdings of the Gemäldegalerie (November 15, 2002 - February 23, 2003)
  • STATUA. Sculptures in the Gemäldegalerie (March 20, 2003 - February 26, 2006)
  • Andorra Romànica. Catalan and Western European Wall Paintings of the 12th Century (March 29, 2003 - August 31, 2003)
  • Splendor and pathos. Masterpieces of Baroque painting from the Palazzo Bianco in Genoa (October 24, 2003 - January 25, 2004)
  • Flapping wings. Angels in Art (December 5, 2003 - April 12, 2004)
  • "Pictures in focus". Antoine Pesne (1683-1757) - The works of the Prussian court painter in the Gemäldegalerie (December 19, 2003 - May 31, 2004)
  • Tulips and early bloomers in the Gemäldegalerie (March 22, 2005 - May 16, 2005)
  • David Schutter. Afterpaintings - Recollected Works from the Gemäldegalerie (June 1, 2006 - July 9, 2006)
  • Rembrandt. A virtuoso of printmaking (August 4, 2006 - November 5, 2006)
  • Rembrandt. Genius in Search (August 4, 2006 - November 5, 2006)
  • Albrecht Dürer: Two Sisters (January 26, 2007 - March 25, 2007)
  • Paris Bordon's Berlin Altarpiece in Context (April 5, 2007 - July 8, 2007)
  • An architect frames pictures. Karl Friedrich Schinkel and the Berlin Picture Gallery (May 4, 2007 - July 31, 2007)
  • Arnold Dreyblatt. "The Wunderblock", 2000 (July 24, 2007 - July 29, 2007)
  • A look through the pictures: X-rayed old masters (August 31, 2007 - December 2, 2007)
  • "Fantasy and Craft". Cennino Cennini and the tradition of Tuscan painting from Giotto to Lorenzo Monaco (January 10, 2008 - April 13, 2008)
  • Raphael's grace - Michelangelo's furor. Sebastiano del Piombo (Venice 1485 - Rome 1547) (June 28, 2008 - September 28, 2008)
  • Rothko / Giotto (February 6, 2009 - May 3, 2009)
  • The handsome Martin ... - Martin Schongauer (September 1, 2009 - November 29, 2009)
  • Portrait, figure, sketch. 18th Century English Drawings (December 1, 2009 - March 28, 2010)
  • Draftsman from the Caravaggio area (October 12, 2010 - February 13, 2011)
  • Homage to Caravaggio 1610/2010 (November 12, 2010 - May 1, 2011)
  • Hans Baldung, called Grien. Master of the Dürer period (February 15, 2011 - May 15, 2011)
  • Light structure. Light painting course (March 8, 2011 - May 8, 2011)
  • Vasari's Century. Cinquecento Florentine Draftsman (May 17, 2011 - August 21, 2011)
  • Early portraits of the north. Drawings and prints from the Kupferstichkabinett (23 August 2011 - 20 November 2011)
  • Albrecht Altdorfer (around 1480-1538). Drawings and prints from the Kupferstichkabinett (November 22, 2011 - February 19, 2012)
  • Change of look. Painting in the medium of 19th century printmaking (February 21, 2012 - June 24, 2012)
  • Elegance and rough manners. Cornelis Bega - A 17th century painter from Haarlem (June 29, 2012 - September 30, 2012)
  • Golden bars. Schinkel frames pictures (September 4, 2012 - January 6, 2013)
  • Georg Pencz, who does not know his own kind in the art of drawing (January 8, 2013 - April 7, 2013)
  • Grace and gallantry. French Rococo Color Engravings (July 9, 2013 - October 6, 2013)
  • Heinrich Aldegrever - Westphalian Little Master of the Renaissance (October 8, 2013 - January 19, 2014)
  • Ave Eve. A rediscovered major work by the Renaissance master Guillaume de Marcillat (December 8, 2013 - May 11, 2014)
  • Dürer. 500 years of master tricks (January 21, 2014 - March 23, 2014)
  • Plaisante places. Arcadia in Holland (March 25, 2014 - June 10, 2014)
  • Joseph and Zulaikha. Relationship stories between India, Persia and Europe (June 11, 2014 - September 7, 2014)
  • The Ghent Altarpiece by the van Eyck brothers in Berlin. 1820-1920 (September 4, 2014 - April 26, 2015)
  • Cranach's heroes. From Lucretia to Luther - drawings and prints from the Kupferstichkabinett (September 9, 2014 - November 16, 2014)
  • Pop up Cranach. Alice - Museum for Children at the Old Masters (September 26, 2014 - April 12, 2015)
  • Julia Oschatz - grueBel (November 21, 2014 - February 22, 2015)
  • Rembrandt's Berlin Susanna and the two old men. The creation of a masterpiece (March 3, 2015 - May 31, 2015)
  • Hanns Kunitzberger visits the Gemäldegalerie (May 5, 2015 - July 31, 2016)
  • As if cut off the face. Van Dyck and the graphic portrait in Antwerp with an intervention by Yoshihiro Suda (June 4, 2015 - October 18, 2015)
  • The Botticelli Renaissance (September 24, 2015 - January 24, 2016)
  • Botticelli in repro chic. 19th Century Prints (October 20, 2015 - January 31, 2016)
  • Family on the run. A picture motif in prints from Claude Lorrain to Giandomenico Tiepolo (February 2, 2016 - April 24, 2016)
  • Fiesta in Seville. A series of illustrations from the Golden Age of Spain (April 26, 2016 - July 17, 2016)
  • El Siglo de Oro. The Velázquez Era (July 1, 2016 - October 30, 2016)
  • José de Ribera - The printmaking. He was young and needed the money (July 19, 2016 - November 6, 2016)
  • Hieronymus Bosch and his world of images in the 16th and 17th centuries (November 11, 2016 - March 19, 2017)
  • The charm of the little one. Nature Studies in Holland's Golden Century (March 21, 2017 - June 25, 2017)
  • Of art and connoisseurship. In memory of the Berlin museum man Max J. Friedländer (June 27, 2017 - September 24, 2017)
  • Jean Fouquet. The Melun Diptych (September 15, 2017 - January 7, 2018)
  • Luther pictures. Prints and drawings from the Kupferstichkabinett (September 26, 2017 - January 14, 2018)
  • Jacopo de 'Barbari - An Italian and the Renaissance in the North (January 16, 2018 - March 11, 2018)
  • Lake views. Dutch drawings from the Barthold Suermondt Collection (March 14, 2018 - July 8, 2018)
  • Pictures from the Thirty Years War. Prints from the Kupferstichkabinett (July 10, 2018 - November 11, 2018)
  • Star over Bethlehem. New Testament pictorial narratives by Hendrick Goltzius and his contemporaries (November 13, 2018 - February 24, 2019)
  • Bellini plus. Research and Restoration (October 14, 2018 - July 21, 2019)
  • Mantegna and Goethe. The "Caesar's Triumphal Procession" from Weimar's perspective (February 26, 2019 - June 30, 2019)
  • MANTEGNA and BELLINI. Masters of the Renaissance (March 1, 2019 - June 30, 2019)

literature

  • Wilhelm von Bode : My life , 2 volumes, Berlin, 1930
  • Ludwig Scheibler , Julius Meyer and Wilhelm von Bode: Catalog of the Royal Painting Gallery in Berlin , 2nd edition, Weidmann, Berlin 1883
  • Descriptive directory of the paintings in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum and Deutsches Museum , 9th edition, Berlin 1931
  • Irene Geismeier : Dutch and Flemish paintings of the seventeenth century in the Bode Museum . Catalog. Vol. 1, Berlin 1976
  • Irene Geismeier, Hannelore Vorteilmann (Ed.): Painting 14. – 18. Century in the Bode Museum . 3. Edition. Berlin 1978
  • Gerhard and Ursula Stelzer (eds.): Picture handbook of the art collections in the GDR , Leipzig 1984
  • Irene Geismeier: Picture gallery . In: World treasures of art - preserving humanity. Exhibition on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the victory over Hitler fascism and the liberation of the German people . Exhibition catalog, Berlin 1985
  • Gemäldegalerie Berlin complete directory . Berlin 1986, ISBN 0-297-78946-5 .
  • Miklós Boskovits : Early Italian Painting . Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-7861-1156-1 , pp. 185 f.
  • Picture gallery. Painting 13. – 18. Century in the Bode Museum . Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-362-00486-5 .
  • Christoph Martin Vogtherr : Between Norm and Art History. Wilhelm von Humboldt's memorandum from 1829 for hanging in the Berlin Gemäldegalerie . In: Yearbook of the Berlin museums . Neue Episode 34, 1992, pp. 53-64
  • Rainer Michaelis: Documentation of the losses Volume I - Gemäldegalerie , Berlin 1995. ISBN 3-88609-329-8
  • Wilhelm von Bode. Museum director and patron , Berlin 1995. ISBN 3-88609-410-3
  • Wilhelm von Bode as a contemporary of art , Berlin 1995. ISBN 3-88609-390-5
  • Gemäldegalerie Berlin Complete Directory , Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-88609-290-9 (museum edition), ISBN 3-87584-984-1 (book trade edition)
  • Colin Eisler : Masterpieces in Berlin , Cologne 1996, ISBN 3-7701-3235-1 .
  • Christoph Martin Vogtherr: The Royal Museum in Berlin. Planning and conception of the first Berlin art museum . Supplement to the: Yearbook of the Berlin Museums . New series 39, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-7861-1972-4 .
  • 100 years of patronage - the works of art of the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museums-Verein Berlin , Berlin 1997
  • Prestel museum guide. Gemäldegalerie-Berlin . Munich / New York 1998
  • Tilmann von Stockhausen : Gemäldegalerie Berlin - The history of their acquisition policy 1830–1904 , Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-87584-769-0 .
  • Bénédicte Savoy, Philippa Sissis (ed.): The Berlin Museum Island: Impressions of international visitors (1830-1990). An anthology. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2012, ISBN 978-3-412-20991-9 .
  • Elsa van Wezel, The Concepts of the Old and New Museum in Berlin and the Changing Historical Consciousness . Supplement to the yearbook of the Berlin museums . New series 43, 2001, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-7861-2443-4 .
  • Silvia Danesi Aquarzina (Ed.): Caravaggio in Prussia. The Giustiniani Collection and the Berlin Picture Gallery . Milan 2001, ISBN 88-435-7984-3
  • Carl Weickert: Report on the salvage measures of the antiquities department and also on those of the totality of the state museums . In: Documentation of the losses Volume V.1 - Sculptures, vases, ivory and bones, gold jewelry, gems and cameos . Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-88609-522-3 , p. 21 ff.
  • Christoph Martin Vogtherr: The selection of paintings from the Prussian royal palaces for the Berlin Gemäldegalerie in 1829 . In: Yearbook of the Berlin museums . New series 47, 2005, pp. 46-105

Web links

Commons : Paintings in the Berlin Gemäldegalerie  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Nicola Kuhn: Gemäldegalerie opens Raphael anniversary. In: Tagesspiegel. December 16, 2019, accessed May 6, 2020 .
  2. ^ Tilmann von Stockhausen: Gemäldegalerie Berlin - The history of their acquisition policy 1830-1904 .
  3. a b Tilmann von Stockhausen: Gemäldegalerie Berlin , p. 207 f.
  4. Wilhelm von Bode: Mein Leben , vol. 2, p. 103 f.
  5. a b Henning Bock: Foreword . In: Miklós Boskovits: Early Italian Painting , p. VII f.
  6. a b Rainer Michaelis: Documentation of the losses , Volume I - Gemäldegalerie
  7. ↑ The Berlin State Museums counted more than 4 million visitors in 2019. January 31, 2020, accessed July 19, 2020 .
  8. ↑ The rays of the sun let the pictures "live". In: Berliner Zeitung , June 13, 1998
  9. Jan Kelch: Introduction . In: Prestel Museum Guide. Gemäldegalerie Berlin , p. 11
  10. Wolf-Dieter Dube: Foreword . In: Colin Eisler: Masterpieces in Berlin , S. XII
  11. a b Jan Kelch: Introduction . In: Prestel Museum Guide. Gemäldegalerie Berlin . P. 4
  12. a b Tilmann von Stockhausen: Gemäldegalerie Berlin , p. 17
  13. ^ Gerd Bartoschek: The paintings from the Giustiniani collection in the Prussian castles . In: Caravaggio in Prussia , p. 151
  14. ^ Christoph M. Vogtherr: The acquisitions of Friedrich Wilhelm III. for the Berlin museums and the royal collections . In: Caravaggio in Prussia , p. 139 f.
  15. ^ Christoph M. Vogtherr: The acquisitions of Friedrich Wilhelm III. , P. 142
  16. ^ Wilhelm H. Köhler: The Solly collection, characteristics and characteristics of their pictures . In: Miklos Boskovits: Early Italian Painting , p. 185
  17. ^ Colin Eisler: Masterpieces in Berlin , p. 11
  18. Colin Eisler: Masterpieces in Berlin , p. 3
  19. a b c d e f g h i j k l m Gemäldegalerie Berlin. Complete directory
  20. Gerd Bartoschek: The paintings from the Giustiniani collection in the Prussian castles , p. 151 ff.
  21. ^ Rainer Michaelis: The Giustiniani Collection in the Mirror of Gustav Friedrich Waagens Gallery Directory . In: Caravaggio in Prussia , p. 146
  22. ^ Tilmann von Stockhausen: Gemäldegalerie , p. 19.
  23. ^ Tilmann von Stockhausen: Gemäldegalerie Berlin , p. 19 ff.
  24. ^ Tilmann von Stockhausen: Gemäldegalerie Berlin , p. 203
  25. ^ Tilmann von Stockhausen: Gemäldegalerie , pp. 70 ff.
  26. a b Tilmann von Stockhausen: Gemäldegalerie Berlin , p. 72
  27. Tilmann von Stockhausen: Gemäldegalerie Berlin , p. 50. f., P. 70, p. 79 ff, etc.
  28. ^ Tilmann von Stockhausen: Gemäldegalerie Berlin , p. 82 ff. Etc.
  29. ^ Tilmann von Stockhausen: Gemäldegalerie Berlin , p. 76 f.
  30. ^ Tilmann von Stockhausen: Gemäldegalerie Berlin , p. 60 f.
  31. ^ Tilmann von Stockhausen: Gemäldegalerie Berlin , p. 83 f.
  32. ^ Tilmann von Stockhausen: Gemäldegalerie Berlin , p. 82 ff.
  33. ^ Tilmann von Stockhausen: Gemäldegalerie Berlin , p. 219 ff.
  34. ^ Tilmann von Stockhausen: Gemäldegalerie Berlin , p. 102 ff.
  35. a b Tilmann von Stockhausen: Gemäldegalerie Berlin , p. 129 ff.
  36. a b Tilmann von Stockhausen: Gemäldegalerie Berlin , p. 136 ff.
  37. ^ Tilmann von Stockhausen: Gemäldegalerie Berlin , pp. 55 ff. Etc.
  38. ^ Tilmann von Stockhausen: Gemäldegalerie Berlin , p. 142 ff.
  39. ^ Tilmann von Stockhausen: Gemäldegalerie Berlin , p. 133 ff.
  40. Wilhelm Bode: Mein Leben , vol. 1, p. 91
  41. ^ Tilmann von Stockhausen: Gemäldegalerie Berlin , p. 97 ff.
  42. ^ Tilmann von Stockhausen: Gemäldegalerie Berlin , p. 149 ff.
  43. Information from contemporary Baedeker travel guides
  44. ^ Sigrid Otto: Wilhelm von Bode - Journal of an active life . In: Wilhelm von Bode. Museum director and patron , p. 42
  45. ^ Tilmann von Stockhausen: Gemäldegalerie Berlin , p. 139
  46. ^ Tilmann von Stockhausen: Gemäldegalerie Berlin , p. 139 ff.
  47. 100 years of patronage - the works of art of the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museums-Verein Berlin , Berlin 1997
  48. Gemäldegalerie Berlin. Complete directory, p. 589
  49. Gemäldegalerie Berlin. Complete directory, p. 590
  50. Carl Weickert: Report on the salvage measures of the antiquities department and also on those of the totality of the state museums . In: Collection of Antiquities. Documentation of losses . Volume V.1, p. 21 ff.
  51. Martin Miller: Collection of Antiquities. Documentation of losses . Volume V.1, p. 327
  52. ^ Sculptures from Berlin appeared in Moscow. In: welt.de , May 18, 2016
  53. Irene Geismeier: Berlin. State museums, picture gallery . In: Gerhard and Ursula Stelzer (eds.): Picture handbook of the art collections in the GDR
  54. Irene Geismeier: Gemäldegalerie . In: Weltschätze der Kunst - Der Menschheit preserves , p. 108 f.
  55. ^ Rainer Michaelis: Documentation of the losses , Volume I - Gemäldegalerie , p. 31
  56. ^ Rainer Michaelis: Documentation of the losses , Volume I - Gemäldegalerie , pp. 82 and 94
  57. Rainer Michaelis: Documentation of the losses , Volume I - Gemäldegalerie , p. 100 ff.
  58. Uta Baier: Eleonora of Toledo will never travel again . In: Berliner Morgenpost , June 1, 2006
  59. Missing Maria returns to Berlin . In: Berliner Zeitung , February 10, 2012, p. 17
  60. Exhibited in the current permanent collection
  61. Christina Tilmann, The trace of the cap ( Memento from June 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  62. Exhibited in the current permanent collection
  63. ^ Monika Grütters : Dispute over the Berlin picture gallery. Kulturkampf with a difference. In: Cicero , July 9, 2012.
  64. Andreas Kilb: No move of the Berlin picture gallery. In the end, what was feasible was also reasonable. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , August 21, 2013.
  65. Michael Eissenhauer in an interview: Rembrandt is not banished to the depot In: Der Tagesspiegel , August 8, 2012; Nicola Kuhn: Museum of Modernity for Berlin. The old masters stay in the picture gallery. In: Der Tagesspiegel , August 22, 2013.
  66. 100 years of patronage - the works of art of the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museums-Verein Berlin .
  67. current collection of the picture gallery
  68. a b current exhibition in the Bode Museum

Coordinates: 52 ° 30 ′ 31 ″  N , 13 ° 21 ′ 53 ″  E