Leseprobe

6 Augustus the Strong’s Collection of Paintings Overseen by Baron Raymond Leplat, the king introduced a targeted acquisitions policy for masterworks of painting with the aim of significantly increasing the holdings he had inherited, both in terms of number and quality. The painting collection soon achieved a calibre that allowed for favourable comparison with other royal courts in Europe. With this targeted approach, Augustus the Strong collected Venetian masters including Giorgione, Titian, and Palma Il Vecchio; Bolognese artists, such as Francesco Albani, Agostino and Annibale Carracci, Domenichino, and Guido Reni; artists of the French school, such as Jean Marc Nattier, Nicolas Poussin, Simon Vouet, and Antoine Watteau; Flemish masters, such as Gillis van Coninxloo, Anthony van Dyck, Peter Paul Rubens, David Teniers the Younger, and Marten van Valckenborch the Elder; Dutch painters, such as Gerard ter Borch, Rembrandt, Matthias Stom, Adriaen van der Werff, and Philips Wouwerman, with a particular importance placed on the ‘Fine Painters’ ( Fijn- schilders ) Gerrit Dou, Gabriel Metsu, Willem van Mieris, and Caspar Netscher. Furthermore, important works by the Spaniard Jusepe de Ribera and Joseph Heintz the Elder of Switzerland also found their way into the collection. August III and the Emergence of the Gemäldegalerie as a Picture Gallery for Visitors When Prince-Elector Friedrich August II took the throne after his father’s death in 1733, he followed in his predecessor’s footsteps not just politically but also as a patron of the arts. As his father before him, he was crowned King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania in 1734 (thus ruler of the Polish-Lithuanian Common- wealth) and, in these functions, bore the name of August III. August III’s collecting interests were particularly focused on drawings, cop- perplate engravings, and paintings. During his grand tour from 1717 to 1718, which took him through the Holy Roman Empire, Switzerland, France, and as far as Naples, he acquired considerable expertise and can still be regarded as one of the most important art collectors of the 18th century. As a genuine connoisseur of painting, he had a precise concept for the future development of the Electoral Collections and began the systematic expansion of the Gemäldegalerie’s collection. He had inherited a number of important paintings from his father, such as Sleeping Venus by Giorgione and Titian, Albani’s Galatea on a Shell Chariot , Van Dyck’s Drunken Silenus , The Realm of Flora by Poussin, Rembrandt’s The Wed- ding Feast of Samson , and Reni’s Christ with the Crown of Thorns . This had established the standard of quality that the son not only aimed at continuing but even exceeding. August III was especially fascinated by the art of Italy. He admired the art of the Venetians and their colorito sophistication and purchased master- works by Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese, as well as Palma il Vecchio, Francesco, Jacopo, and Leandro Bassano, Canaletto and Bellotto. His collection activities also focused on painting from the Emilia – especially the school of Bologna – with important groups of works by Francesco Albani, the late Guercino, Correggio, the Carraccis, Parmigianino, and Guido Reni.