Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister

The Dresden Art Gallery of the Old Masters (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister) is one of the most significant museums in the world of fine art. It is located in the Sempler’s Gallery building of the Zwinger Palace Ensemble in Dresden, the capital of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Currently, the gallery of old masters is part of the State Art Collections of Dresden.

Most of the paintings that today make up the collection of the Dresden Art Gallery were acquired within a short period of time – fifty years. The collection was based on paintings by German and Dutch artists, collected by the Saxon electors of the Vettin dynasty.

In the 17th century, the elector of Saxony and the Polish king Augustus the Strong (1670–1733), and, to an even greater extent, his son, Augustus III (1696–1763), began to expand the painting collection systematically. The Saxon court and its capital Dresden, at the request of the rulers, were to stand in one row not only with neighboring Berlin, but also with Paris or Vienna. Through their agents throughout Europe, electors actively bought canvases of the great masters of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Continue reading →