Trip to Germany: Berlin (Day 9)

This was probably the busiest day on my whole trip to Germany. I went to five major museums, plus a couple of other historical sites! Most of the museums are visible in this photo of "Museum Island," which I took from the top of the Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom) between my visits to the Altes Museum and the Bode Museum. The crane in the background will serve as a reminder to me that part of the Pergamon Museum was closed for renovation - which means I now have a reason to go back one day.

Rachel and I started the day going to Checkpoint Charlie, and then we walked around and saw a few sections of the Berlin Wall.

GEMÄLDEGALERIE:
Then we kept walking through the city and went to the Gemäldegalerie. There were a couple of works of art that really stood out to me:

Master of the Maria-Magdalena, detail of Maria Magdalena (Mansi-Magdalena), after 1525

It was fun to see Caravaggio's Amor Vincit Omnia in person!

It also was fun to stumble across Frans Hals' painting "Catharina Hooft and Her Nurse" in the gallery!

It was fun to stumble across this Botticelli ("Portrait of a Young Lady"). I became familiar with this painting not too long before my trip; I think the sitter looks a lot like my sister E.

This was my favorite work of art from the Gemäldegalerie: Antonio del Pollaiuolo's "Profile Portrait of a Young Lady" (1465). It is gorgeous, and I noted with irony that I would be visiting another beautiful long-necked lady later that afternoon (i. e. The Bust of Queen Nefertiti at the Neues Museum).

PERGAMON MUSEUM:

Of course, my greatest disappointment on this trip was not being able to see the Altar of Zeus at the Pergamon Museum. For a split second I even considered canceling my ticket and going another year, but I'm glad that I didn't do that. Now I just have a reason to go back to Berlin. It was really fun, however, to see the Ishtar Gate. What a highlight to see this gate in person!

I was really glad to see the inscription is located that is discussed with this gate. The exact original location of the inscription isn't known, but today it is placed off to the side of the gate. Perhaps the unknown location explains why the inscription isn't visible in reproductions of the gate found in typical art history textbooks.

A replica of the Stele of Hammurabi is placed between the walls and the facade of the Throne Room of the palace at Babylon. This room was used as an official reception room. The original facade was 56 meters in length and what we see is a tentative reconstruction of the upper part of the facade (with stylized palms and patterned registers).

NEUES MUSEUM:
In the Neues Museum I felt like I got to run into old friends, because I saw works of art that I know very well. The famous Queen Nefertiti bust is located there (no photos permitted within the room, but I did get one from the next room). I was expecting to see the bust, but I didn't realize that the sunken relief of "Akhenaten with his Family" was in the Neues collection. It was so fun to just stumble across it in the gallery, as well as the powerful, small portrait of Nefertiti's mother Queen Tiye!

ALTE NATIONALGALERIE:

There were so many works of art that I liked in this museum, but the ones that stood out to me were Canova's "Hebe" and paintings by Friedrich. There also were a lot of pictures of adorable children (I posted details on Instagram), and those made me miss my own kids. 

I took so many detail photographs of "Hebe." This is one of four versions, by Canova and I forgot that it was in the Alte Nationalgalerie collection until I went inside. It was fun to look at it from the side and see details in the back, including the flowing drapery and the bow.

When I think of the landscape that I saw while driving in Germany on my trip, I think back to this painting: "The Rhine near Säckingen" (1873)by Hans Thoma. The bright green color of the fields looks just like the bright green that I saw while we drove around in our car.

Hans Thoma, detail of "The Rhine near Säckingen," 1873

I really liked seeing Friedrich's "Monk by the Sea" and "Abbey Oak in the Forest" side by side.

I didn't realize that Friedrich's "Woman at a Window" (1822) is in this collection, too. It is in the same room as the other Friedrich paintings in the photo above. This painting was fun for me to see, since I use this image as a header for my art history blog. Plus, I just love 19th century paintings of women in period clothing.

ALTES MUSEUM:
The biggest highlight of the Altes Museum was getting to see the Berlin Kore. I love that so much of the original paint is still visible on her. And my biggest realization, upon seeing her in person, was that her face is not symmetrical: her right eye (on the viewer's left) is a bit higher than her left one!

This was the first time I ever saw the back of this sculpture (I had never seen a photographic reproduction), and I was struck by the even folds of her stylized braids and drapery

BODE MUSEUM:

I have to admit, the Bode Museum was my least favorite museum that I visited on Museum Island. In my opinion, there are a lot of second-rate medieval and Renaissance sculptures there. The collection and its display seemed a little random and haphazardly-arranged, too. But there are some gems scattered throughout the galleries, including Canova's "Dancer." Notice the really impressive ringlets in her ponytail!

Canova's "Dancer" (1809-12)

Guiliano Finelli was a Baroque sculptor who actually helped Bernini to create some of his masterpieces. The delicate hair strands and laurel leaves on Bernini's Apollo and Daphne are actually Finelli's work. This is Finelli's Portrait of the Principe Michele Damasceni-Perett (Finelli active 1601-1653 in Rome). The delicate lace collar is a great indication of Finelli's fine skill with marble.

 I really liked this interesting display at the Bode Museum, which connects to works of art together that have a similar composition and a shared acquisition history, but different original historical contexts and perceptions. The label reads: "The putto stood as one of six originally on the baptismal font of Siena Cathedral; the woman with jewelry was once part of a memorial altar in Benin City, present-day Nigeria. Both bronzes were acquired at roughly the same time by the Berlin Museums, one as a work of art, the other as an ethnological object. These two masterpieces finally meet as equals."

This day was a very full one! I felt like my eyeballs should have fallen out since I spent so much time looking. But I didn't mind one bit - it was a special and unforgettable day.