Dresden from the right bank of the Elbe below the Augustus Bridge
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| Dresden from the right bank of the Elbe below the Augustus Bridge |
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| Bernardo Bellotto , 1748 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 133 × 237 cm |
| Old Masters Picture Gallery |
Dresden from the right bank of the Elbe below the Augustus Bridge is an oil painting by the painter Bernardo Bellotto , known as Canaletto , which he painted in Dresden in 1748 . It is located there in the Old Masters Picture Gallery and is listed in the gallery directory under gallery number 606. The view shown is world-famous as the Canaletto view . This term can also be found for the view of downtown Vienna .
Image description
“ View of Dresden. From the right bank of the Elbe below the Augustus Bridge. The Elbe flows down from the background on the left to the foreground on the right. On the right, on the other bank, the Catholic court church, the bridge, the dome of the Frauenkirche. Front left is a house next to a tree. In front of it, various staffage figures on the bank. "
With these dry words a painting is described in the catalog of the Royal Picture Gallery in Dresden from 1887, the effect and charisma of which made the described view into the world-famous silhouette for Dresden.
The painting, executed as a vedute , was created from a point of view on the Neustadt bank of the Elbe near today's Hotel Bellevue . It shows the quietly flowing Elbe in the foreground, which is animated by Elbe boaters with their vehicles. Some are loaded and unloaded on this side of the river. In addition to a stacking place for wood, load carriers and merchants are busy handling the goods. The families in the foreground are not involved in this hustle and bustle, an elegant gentleman next to them seems to be explaining the harbor square to his companion.
On the other side of the Elbe you can see the magnificent buildings of the residential city of Dresden, which are partially covered by the Augustus Bridge. In the foreground you can see the Sol Bastion of the Dresden fortifications with the houses of the Italian village behind . In this settlement lived the craftsmen and artists coming from Italy who had been brought to Dresden to build the Catholic Court Church .
At the time the painting was created in 1748, the tower of the court church was only completed down to the lower floor, so Bellotto made do with the construction plans for completing it in the painting. Scaffolding around the tower of the Hofkirche, indicated by horizontal and vertical lines, is intended to give the viewer a clear indication of the state of construction. In the final construction of the tower 1752–1754, which is still in existence today, the storeys and the crowning were considerably increased and also made slimmer. The same applies to the exterior color design of the nave shown in the picture in yellowish and white-blue tones, which was also not available at the time the vedute was created and was never executed later. It was probably included in the painting at the instigation of Chiaveri himself.
To the right behind the church you can see the Dresden Castle with the Hausmannsturm . To the left of the church you can see the Georgentor with the adjoining stable courtyard , the north wall of which is now adorned with the world-famous prince procession. The tower of the Kreuzkirche protrudes from behind these buildings . The building in front of the Stallhof is the Fürstenbergsche Haus, which was demolished in 1894 for the construction of the Ständehaus . In addition, you can see the Brühl's splendors , which were demolished in the 19th century : the palace, the library and the picture gallery. These buildings are enthroned by the mighty dome of the Frauenkirche .
Restorations
From September 2009 to 2011 the painting was completely restored in the restoration workshop of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden . The work was financed by donations. On August 26, 2011, the work was made accessible to the public again as part of a special exhibition. Particularly noticeable is the significantly cooler color of the painting after the restoration , which previously had a yellow tinge.
Furthermore, the following work has been carried out on the picture since it was created:
| time | occasion | Work |
| 1834 | probably establishment of a "gallery of patriotic prospectuses" | Framing |
| 1851 to March 1852 | Preparation of the opening of the Sempergalerie | Cladding |
| 1875, 1914, 1927 | cleaned and varnished | |
| 1957 | Preserved on the reverse, bulges on the doubling canvas laid down, missing parts retouched, tensioning edges attached and newly stretched on the stretcher, partly newly varnished | |
| 1963 | Exhibition in Warsaw and Krakow 1964 | Retouching of darkened or lightened retouches |
| 1966 | Exhibition in Essen 1966 | Retouching of darkened or lightened retouches |
| 1968 | Exhibition in Stockholm 1969 | Varnish removal, resignation upstanding Craqueléränder , retouching, varnish job |
| 1978 | Exhibition in Washington , New York and San Francisco 1978/79 | Retouching with acrylic paints in the sky parts, application of varnish |
| 1984 | last loan for exhibitions in Moscow and Leningrad in 1984 | Varnish decrease in the sky up to the city silhouette, putty with chalk ground, retouching with tempera paints , varnish application |
Further versions
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The Canaletto view is part of a cycle of 14 vedutas of the same format that were to depict Dresden on behalf of Elector Friedrich August II . Second versions of these paintings of the same size were created for Count Brühl , whereby these were purchased by Catherine II after the death of Brühl in 1765 and formed the basis of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg . Smaller versions were also created, one of which is 141 cm × 232 cm in size in a private collection in Madrid and an even smaller one measuring 51.5 cm × 84 cm in the National Gallery of Ireland . Another version from 1751/53 hangs today in the office of the Federal President in Bellevue Palace . The painting with the dimensions 95 cm × 165 cm is on loan from the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister and is listed in the gallery directory under gallery number 630. It used to be in Erich Honecker's office .
Web links
- Dresden from the right bank of the Elbe below the Augustus Bridge in the online collection of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
Individual evidence
- ↑ Harald Marx (ed.): Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister Dresden, Volume I The exhibited works , Cologne 2005
- ^ Canaletto view in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna . Retrieved June 3, 2015.
- ^ Karl Woermann : Catalog of the Royal Picture Gallery in Dresden , Dresden 1887, p. 205
- ↑ Eberhard Hempel , Fritz Löffler : The Catholic Court Church in Dresden . In: Fritz Löffler (ed.): The Catholic Court Church in Dresden. , Series Das christliche Denkmal , issue 32. 6th, revised edition, Union Verlag (VOB), Berlin, 1979, p. 13.
- ↑ after Marlies Giebe: On the history and restoration of Belotto's "Canaletto-Blick", in: Andreas Henning, Sebastian Oesinghaus, Sabine Bendfeldt (ed.): Bernardo Bellotto The Canaletto-Blick, exhibition catalog on the occasion of the cabinet exhibition on the restoration of the painting 2011, Staatliche Dresden Art Collections, Old Masters Picture Gallery
- ^ Andreas Henning, Sebastian Oesinghaus, Sabine Bendfeldt (eds.): Bernardo Bellotto The Canaletto View , exhibition catalog on the occasion of the cabinet exhibition on the restoration of the painting in 2011, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister
- ^ Dresden from the right bank of the Elbe below the Augustus Bridge , online catalog of the Dresden State Art Collections.
- ↑ Canaletto look back in the Dresden Zwinger , Focus-Online, August 25, 2011.
Coordinates: 51 ° 3 '26.3 " N , 13 ° 44' 18.7" E