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.

Trip to Germany: Hildesheim (Day 8)

Once we got settled in Berlin, I decided that I wanted to go to Hildesheim and see the famous bronze doors that I discuss with my student at length. Rachel understandably didn't want to do the 2.5-3 hour train ride both ways (and I don't blame her), so we split up and I took this trip on my own. This was a really special day trip for me to see these doors that I know so well, and perhaps going alone made it feel even more like a pilgrimage.

I was a little nervous about navigating through the transit system by myself since I don't speak German, but I was just fine. I did end up sitting in first class on accident, though, and I had to change seats about halfway through the ride there!

As I wandered through the streets of Hildesheim, I tried to find the cathedral by looking for tall church towers. The first building I came across was the church St. Andreas (which incidentally has the tallest church tower in Lower Saxony). The outside of the church depicts this monument in honor of the Reformer Johannes Bugenhagen (1485-1558).

I was struck by how the figures on the fountain seemed similar to the proportions and Ottoman style of the bronze doors, and I wondered if there was an intentional choice to have a cohesive aesthetic between churches in the city.

The Hildesheim Cathedral!

This is the place where the doors originally would have been placed on the west side of the cathedral. They now are located inside the doors in a little faux narthex meant just to showcase the doors. I know that these doors were able to escape damage when Hildehseim was bombed in an air raid in 1945 - the doors were removed to the Kehrwieder in the southeast of the old city in 1942. The doors weigh several tons, and had to be carefully transported on a stable scaffold by two teams of horses. Since the doors spend their time underground during they war, they were not damaged! My assumption is that the doors were placed inside the cathedral after the war ended.

Interior of the cathedral

The doors! I probably spent about hour looking at these doors and photographing small details that I had never noticed before.

I never noticed that Joseph is holding a little dove (as an offering) in this panel

It was neat to see how far the images protrude from the surface of the door into the space of the viewer.

 I was also surprised to see how thin these doors are! What an amazing technical achievement to cast something so tall and so thin, especially since each of these doors was cast as a single unit!

Inside the cathedral is Bernward's Column (also called "Christ's Column"), which was made about the same time as the doors. The scenes on the doors depict events surrounding the life of John the Baptist and the ministry of Christ. These events chronologically "fill in" the New Testament scenes that are not shown on the bronze doors themselves.

I did notice, however, that the craftsmanship of the bronze column is not as refined as that on the doors.

Salome dancing so she can ask for the head of John the Baptist

After visiting the cathedral and the cathedral museum, I walked over to St. Michael's Monastery, which possibly is the place that originally housed the bronze doors starting in 1015. It is presumed that the doors would have been in place when Bernward commissioned the crypt in 1015 (see Cohen and Derbes, "Bernward and Eve at Hildesheim," GESTA, 2001, p. 19).  Bernward is buried here, so I felt like it was appropriate to go and pay homage to the bishop who commissioned the bronze doors. The Bronze doors may have been moved to the cathedral by Bernward's successor Gotthard in either 1022 or 1035 (the latter date was first argued by Franz Dibelius in "Die Bernwardstür zu Hildesheim, Strassburg: Heitz," 1907, p. 78-80).

This was a special and unforgettable day. I'm so glad that I got to visit these doors and spend some time in this smaller German city.

Trip to Germany: Meissen (Day 7)

After leaving the Gemaldegalerie in Dresden, Rachel and I checked out of our hotel and headed in the car to visit the Meissen porcelain factory. Rachel was so nice in accompanying me here and said, "I'll go where you want to go - I want you to have a good trip." She is such a sweetheart.

I was really curious about going to this place because I've studied Meissen porcelain. This is the first porcelain factory that was established in Europe under the endorsement of the ruler August the Strong (see timeline). In fact, August the Strong essentially held the alchemist Böttger and his comrades in captivity until they were able to figure out how to produce porcelain! Meissen continues to produce porcelain today and the museum displays both contemporary and traditional porcelain. Here were some of my favorites:

Jörg Danielcyzk's "Saxonia" (2014) is a life-sized female figure whose skirt is decorated with 8,000 handmade porcelain blossoms. Danielcyzk has been working at the factory for over 45 years and understandably considers this work of art (as the largest free-standing porcelain sculpture the world) as a highlight of his career!

Ernst August Leuteritz's ornamental vase "Flora," 1877

Johann Theodor Paul Helmig's clock "The Future" (Die Zukunft, 1904) reminds me a little of Guiseppe Sanmartino's "The Veiled Christ." I love the little figures of Day and Night too.

This figurine was based of the Liotard's "The Chocolate Girl" pastel that we saw in Dresden that very morning. This model was formed in 1843, but the specific object on display dated from 1920.

Johann Gottlieb Kirchner's porcelain rhinoceros (2010) pays homage to Albrect Dürer's woodcut print from 1515

At the end of our visit through the museum, we attended a demonstration of how porcelain is made. It was a little bit too contrived and formal as a presentation (it felt like it was really just geared toward getting tourists to spend money in the gift shop), but it was memorable nonetheless. I couldn't really afford anything in the gift shop, but I did buy a little putti head that had been used as a demonstration example.

We spend the afternoon driving through the German countryside until we reached Berlin. We stayed at the NH Collection hotel on Friedrichstraße and ate dinner at a grill called Peter Pane (Peter Pan). The interior of the restaurant was created in a way to evoke Neverland and the forest where the Lost Boys live.

Trip to Germany: Dresden (Days 6 and 7)

Dresden is also a place that I didn't really think to consider visiting, but I'm glad that Rachel recommended it. This is such a great city for art and Baroque architecture! Before going to Dresden, my main association with the city was that it was heavily bombed during WWII, which is the reason why Courbet's The Stone Breakers was destroyed and no longer exists (such a shame!). Upon arriving in Dresden I learned that the architecture underwent extensive restoration or was completely rebuilt after the bombing. So the city is a very unique combination of the old and the new: many things have an old appearance in style but they are relatively new. Rachel had been to Dresden before, and she recommended that we stay in a hotel that was located right in the heart of the old part of the city (the Altstadt).

This image was taken from the cupola of the Frauenkirche church in the old part of the city.

Our hotel is just at the lower right hand portion of this photograph

This is the Katholische Hofkirke, which was just a block away from our hotel. It is a really lovely structure and its too bad that it is covered with so much soot.

The Frauenkirche building was really interesting to me, because was completely rebuilt to be a copy of the original that stood before WWII. The structure has some of the old stones that were from the original church. I wrote more about this building on my art history blog.

The morning after we arrived in Dresden, Rachel and I went to go and visit the Grünes Gewölde (Green Vault) and the Neues Grünes Gewölde (New Green Vault) at the Reisdenzschloss. The Green Vault was the first public museum in Europe and today it houses one of the biggest collections of treasury in Europe (see this news article). Room after room is filled with luxurious decorative arts and jewels, largely from the time of August the Strong and his son August III. There were thousands of objects on display, and I liked seeing all of the lathe ivories, nautilus cups, mounted ostrich eggs, and mounted coconut cups. Visitors weren't allowed to take pictures in the Green Vault, but they were allowed to take pictures in the New Green Vault area.

This is the doorway to the Residenzschloss, which is the building that houses the Green Vault and the New Green Vault

It was fun for me to see this coconut goblet with depictions of Amerindians, since I have read about this goblet in articles but I hadn't seen a reproduction before - and I got to see the real thing! The label specifies "North American Indians," which is curious to me because other images like the Humboldt Cup are inspired by Eckhout's images in Dutch Brazil (i.e. South America). I'd love to do more research on this cup in the New Green Vault. It was made in Nuremberg shortly before 1656.

These delicate, intricately-detailed polyhedrons are made out of ivory! The two court turners, Wecker and Lobenigk, made these between 1581 and 1584.

I really adore the floral decoration on his perpetual calendar for Elector Johann Georg II of Saxony (presumably made in South Germany, dated 1657)

Owl with a matching case by Gottfried Döring, Dresden, shortly before 1713

The piece I loved the most in the New Green Vault was this marquetry panel, "Still Life with Flowers" (1654) by Dirck van Rijswijck. The panel is made of iridescent mother-of-pearl from different kinds of shells, which results in the subtle color variation between flowers. Apart from the beautiful colors, I love the little details like the parrot and the dragonfly.

In the afternoon, Rachel went to the hotel to rest and I went back to the the Residenzschloss to see the Historical Museum and the armory (Rüstkammer). I spent a lot of time looking at the historical clothing. One really curious piece of clothing was the "Landscape Garment of Elector Johann Georg I of Saxony" from 1611. The garment is filled with little circles that contain landscape scenes (see here and here).

My favorite dress was the parade dress (c. 1650) of Electress Magdalena Sibylla of Saxony

The next morning, before we checked out of our hotel, Rachel kindly agreed to go with me to the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister before we left Dresden. The Gemäldegalerie is located in the Zwinger palace, and we took some time to look at the grounds before we went into the museum.

Baroque parterres at the Zwinger Palace! The parterres were filled with grass

Rachel and I at the Zwinger palace

When we got into the museum, I was disappointed that Vermeer's "Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window" was not on display (for conservation purposes), but there was still a lot to see. 

I don't remember seeing or studying Jan Van Eyck's "Winged Altar" (1437) in school, so it was fun to see this new painting (for me) by a beloved artist

Titian's "Portrait of a Lady in White" (c. 1561) has some really striking details in the fabrics - one can get a good sense of the different textures

Detail of Giorgione and Titan's "Sleeping Venus" (c. 1510). I thought of my blogger friend Frank when I saw this painting, since he loves Giorgione and Titian

This is Vermeer's "The Procuress" (1656). I have seen his painting before, but in person I was struck by how much I did not like it, because I usually love paintings by Vermeer. Sometimes I question the attribution of certain paintings to Vermeer (and rightly so, I think, since Vermeer's really gained his reputation posthumously and attributions have been shaky at times). The details seemed so muddied in contrast to other Vermeer paintings and some of the features (like the man's left hand in front of the woman) are very awkwardly rendered.

A group of students were learning about Raphael's Sistine Madonna (1512), so we weren't able to get too close or spend too much time in this gallery. This painting is probably best well known for the two little angels that are on the bottom of the picture plane.

Étienne Liotard's pastel "The Chocolate Girl" (c. 1744/45) - this is one of the popular images that appear in the Dresden tourist shops. It is really impressive to me that the transparent glass of water is made with pastels!