Italian Masters in German Galleries, a Critical Essay, Tr. by L.M. Richter (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1883 edition. Excerpt: ... iii. berlin. hile the Pinacotheca of Munich excites our full V V admiration, from the number of important pictures that it possesses of the German and Flemish schools of painting, the magnificent rooms of the Dresden Gallery impress us with the fact that for the general art-loving public, there is no other picture collection in the world that can rival it in attractive beauty. It is not only wonderfully rich in masterpieces of the best periods of almost all the schools of painting, but in Raphael's "Madonna of S. Sisto" it possesses, perhaps, the most beautiful picture in Christendom. Its Correggios, Titians, Paolos, its Palmas and Bonifazios, its Ruysdaels, Rembrandts, Rubenses, and Wouvermans, its Adrian van der Veldes, its Heydens, and especially its Metzus, are celebrated all over the world, and in fact rank among the finest productions of modern art. And while the Dresden collection has an indescribable absorbing charm for the amateur, it further possesses a special attraction for the general art-loving public, which is not much given to thoughtful examination of a picture, but is more disposed to lose itself in a dreamy enthusiasm as it lolls on the comfortable cushions of the gallery. The Berlin collection is of later origin than the two just named; little more than half a century has elapsed since its foundation. After the fall of Napoleon I., when Reaction raised its head all over Europe, there was also a revulsion in matters of artistic taste. The shape in which it asserted itself was, that the Quattrocentists, hitherto quite neglected, came to be more or less valued again. From that time, in judging works of art, men began at least to take into consideration the age that gave them birth, and thus unconsciously they paved the...