Trip to Germany: Day 11 (Sans Soucci)

Germany Trip Day 12: This day was a polar opposite experience from my visit to Sachsenhausen the day before. Instead, I visited the Schloss and Park Sanssouci, which was begun as a summer retreat for Frederick the Great (1712-86) so he could be "sans souci" (without cares). What luxury and opulence were here! This park has numerous palaces, monuments and gardens. I spent seven hours here and still didn't see everything! 

I first visited the Sanssouci Palace itself. I was interested to learn that a specific strain the Rococo style can be seen at Sanssouci, which is known as Frederician Rococo. This style embraces nature in all its forms, including spiderwebs and spiders! 🕷 I also loved seeing the oval dome in the Marble Room (it reminded me of Borromini) and the floral garland on the ceiling of the Voltaire Room.

I really adored the bedchamber nicknamed the "Voltaire Room." Voltaire was a guest at Sanssouci for three years, from 1750-1753.

Ceiling of the Voltaire Room

Wall paneling in the Voltaire Room

The Bildergalerie:

This is the Bildergalerie in Sanssouci Park. The lighting is similar to the original lighting for the gallery (i. e., using windows, so the glare is terrible), but it was still fun to see Caravaggio's "Doubting Thomas."

The Orangerie:I then went and visited the Orangerie. This palace contains a Raphael Hall, which is based off of the Sala Regia in the Vatican. The room is filled with copies of Raphael paintings. I thought of my late friend Hasan when I walked into this room - he would have loved it!

The New Chambers: 

The Chinese House:I really enjoyed seeing the Chinese House and thinking about chinoiserie. I love that Corinthian column were replaced with lush, exotic palm trees. 

The Roman Bath House:

This is the Caryatid Room in the Roman Bath House

Neues Palace:
The most impressive room to me in the Neues Palace was the Grotto Hall, since the walls were covered with iridescent shells and colored stones. When I was there, I remember thinking how I've never seen anything like it before. The royal family would spend Christmas in this hall.

Neues Palace

Schloss Charlottenhof: 

The red door color was in vogue in the Neoclassical era because of the discoveries of red Roman wall paintings at Pompeii. 

This is the Tent Room at Schloss Charlettenhof. This was a guest room and was supposed to evoke a Roman commander's tent. I imagine there also was some interest in tents because of Turquerie.

This was an unforgettable day in Potsdam. I saw so many beautiful things and I learned a lot, too. I'm really glad that I got to go here at the very end of my trip - what a great finale to my experience in Germany!

Trip to Germany: Sachsenhausen (Day 10)

Germany Trip Day 10: This day I explored the dark and difficult parts of German history. In the morning I went to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. This camp was built in 1936 and served as a prototype for other Nazi camps. The Nazis imprisoned 200,000 people here, and tens of thousands died here. After WWII, the Soviets retained this site as a prison until it became a memorial site in 1961.

It was a cooler day, but I think I mostly felt chills by being in such a lonely and evil place. There weren't too many people at the site that day, either, which made the experience seem even more introspective and lonely. The complex is very big and it wasn't difficult to imagine the area filled with prisoners from eighteen different countries. It was a humbling and poignant experience. I was most horrified by the "Station Z" extermination area, as well as an exhibit about the brothel which was set up using female prisoners. I hope this history never repeats itself. 

The presence of the prisoners who suffered here was especially palpable to me in a few places of the complex. One display had an especially threadbare prison uniform with a purple triangle, which indicated the prisoner was a Jehovah's Witness (the reason for incarceration). I also felt a connection to the prisoners who worked in the kitchen cellar, washing and peeling vegetables. Some paintings have been left on the wall of the cellar, including a humorous vegetable scene (1945-50) that was painted by animation artist Hans Fisher-Köchen when he was an inmate of the Soviet special camp.

One particular part of the site I found interesting and disturbing was the Soviet memorial in the center with the sculpture "Liberation" (1961) by Rene Graetz. According to the audio guide, this rescued prisoners in this sculpture were modified to seem less emaciated than the actual prisoners who were rescued. This was done because it was thought that the Russian efforts would seem more ennobling and heroic if they were rescuing visually-appealing people who looked like they were worthy of rescue.

After Sachsenhausen, I went back to Berlin. When I was at the Brandenburg Gate, I thought of Ronald Regan's famous speech in front of the gate, in which he said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" (Also, side note: I learned that the Brandenburg Gate design is influenced by the Propylaea in Athens.) 

I walked to the Reichstag and then continued on to the Holocaust Memorial with its Field of Stelae. In the memorial museum, I was really impacted by the few extant letters which imprisoned or about-to-be-imprisoned Jews were able to send to their family members. These people suffered so much! 

I then visited the Topography of Terror exhibit which is placed along a good portion of the remaining Berlin Wall. This outdoor exhibit explained the rise of Hitler's power, WWII, and the impact of the Nazis on the people of Berlin. While standing in the shadow of the Berlin Wall, I couldn't help but read the exhibition text and think about how much the people of Berlin suffered (especially those in East Berlin) in the decades which followed WWII. Now having been in Berlin, I have a much better understanding of the Cold War and the political tension between the US and Soviets.

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.