TOKYO, JAPAN.-The National Museum of Western Art presents Dresden: Mirror of the World - The State Art Collections Dresden, on view through September 19, 2005. This exhibition is made up of seven sections and features the collections assembled by the Electors of Saxony in the Dresden Palace. These rulers were fascinated by foreign cultures and collected the arts of many countries worldwide. Within this diverse array, works from six countries predominate, namely those from Italy, France, Holland, Turkey, China, and Japan. Section 1 of the exhibition examines the collection accumulated prior to the development of a taste for foreign arts. The section focuses on the scientific equipment, rather than artworks, that first fascinated the Electors. In the latter half of the 16th century the Elector of Saxony created a collections room within the Dresden palace and there displayed his globes, celestial globes, drafting materials, and other specific tools that he greatly enjoyed actually using in his studies.

Section 2 focuses on the arts and influence of the Ottoman Turks. The Ottoman Empire was a threat to the rulers of Europe of the day; at the same time it was respected and revered for its high levels of cultural achievement. During the reign of Frederick Augustus (the Strong), Turkish style festivals were held at the Saxony palaces, and other aspects of Turkish culture were fashionable.

Section 3 focuses on Italy, the country that pioneered in the field of art. The Saxon court bought a particularly large number of Venetian landscape paintings, and also sought the creation of landscape scenes of Dresden. Bellotto, Canaletto’s nephew, was invited to Dresden and today the palace is adorned with a number of scenes of Dresden painted by Bellotto in the veduta style.

In Section 4, the focus turns to the courtly culture of France. Frederick Augustus (the Strong) traveled through Europe as a young man, and he spent several months at the Versailles Palace of the Sun King, Louis XIV. He was stimulated by the elegance and refinement of that court culture. This led him to have the Dresden Palace refurbished in the French style; everything, from festivals and rituals to fashion and household furnishings, was transformed into those of the French style.

Section 5 features the decorative arts of China and Japan. Frederick Augustus (the Strong) was fascinated by porcelains of the east, and he ordered the alchemist J. F. Bottger to make his own white porcelains. Bottger melted Asian porcelains in a condensation mirror device in order to separate out and analyze their materials. Through these methods Bottger was able to successfully create Europe’s first porcelains. The resulting Meissen porcelains became sought after items by the courts of Europe, and they played a major role in Saxony’s diplomatic gift exchanges. While, needless to say, the decoration on these porcelains initially took Chinese and Japanese porcelains as their model, Meissen potters went on to develop their own decorative designs in later years.

Section 6 focuses on how the great Dutch master Rembrandt influenced Dresden. Based on Dresden’s Rembrandt collection, there was a “Rembrandt boom” during the 18th century, a form of “Rembrandt-ism” that focused on the director of the Dresden Art Academy, Ch. W. E. Dietrich.

Finally, Section 7 features Dresden as the heartland of the German Romantic movement. Dresden, with this impressive art collection at its center, was the point of assembly for a large number of young authors and artists during the 19th century. Over the course of the century Dresden became Germany’s main city of culture and the arts. The galleries were open for public viewing and Goethe left a famous account of his own enthusiasm for their splendors. The young artists of the day were greatly stimulated by the public collections on display in Dresden. Thanks to Goethe’s praise, the Dutch landscape painter J. I. van Ruysdael became the icon for the Romantic school of the day. Using his naturalist landscape style as their model, these artists created lyrical works that incorporated a “sense of season or time,” an element critical to Romanticist thought. Amongst them C. D. Friedrich is known as one of the major painters of German modern art. In J. C. C. Dahl’s painting “View of Full Moon in Dresden”, the artist creates a fusion of the Italian veduta style with the realistic depictive methods of Dutch landscape painting. Such works stand as unique in the Dresden collection. Thus Dresden can be seen as a mirror of the kaleidoscope of international cultures it brought into its realm, at the same time that it created the Romantic arts that reflected its own ideas out to the rest of the world.


Rembrandt
"Rape of Ganymede" 1635
Photo©Elke Estel
©Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden "A Set of Jewellery with Rose-cut Diamonds"
Photo©Jurgen Karpinski
©Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden