Leseprobe

7 In keeping with the tastes of the 18th century, the collection’s core was formed by the works of artists schooled on Raphael and Correggio as well as Titian – a mature, highly developed style of painting of the 16th and 17th century with clear figural outline, definition, and strikingly rich palettes. In contrast, the art of the early Italians of the 14th and 15th century was considered crude and therefore held in much lower esteem. However, August III was not only interested in Italian art – he also acquired splendid French, German, Flemish, Dutch, and Spanish paintings by artists as diverse as Van Eyck, Dürer, Holbein, Lancret, Lorrain, Murillo, Poussin, Ribera, Rubens, Rembrandt, Ruisdael, Velázquez, Vermeer, and Watteau. Augustus the Strong had, furthermore, been extremely fond of small-scale Dutch and Flemish cabinet paintings and his son also shared this penchant. He too acquired a con- siderable number of works by the Leiden ‘Fine Painters’, including Gerrit Dou, Gabriel Metsu, Frans and Willem van Mieris, and Caspar Netscher who worked in The Hague. The quality of these works still surprises us today and is an indi- cation of the connoisseurship of the king and his art-buying agents. Another of August III’s great passions was pastel painting. A special room, the Pastel Cabinet, was therefore set aside for the large and important collection of works in this genre in the Stallgebäude (the former royal mews). At the heart of the Pastel Cabinet were 157 pastels by Rosalba Carriera, making Dresden home to the largest collection of works by this female Venetian painter. In addition, the pastel collection possessed outstanding works by other artists, such as Jean-Étienne Liotard, Anton Raphael Mengs, and Maurice Quentin de la Tour. The Dresden Pastel Cabinet has remained in this form to this day, making it unique for the quality and breadth of its holdings. Anton Raphael Mengs Friedrich August II, Elector of Saxony, as Augustus III, King of Poland (1696–1763) , 1745 Pastel on paper, 55.5×42 cm Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden