Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Art museum in Dresden, Germany
The Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister is a museum in the Semper Gallery wing of the Zwinger complex, showing around 750 European paintings from the 15th to the 18th century. The rooms span two floors and group the works by country and era, with broad wall surfaces and skylights in the central halls.
Augustus the Strong and his son Frederick Augustus II assembled paintings from across Europe between 1694 and 1763 to expand the Saxon court collection. The holdings returned from the Soviet Union in 1955 after being seized during the Second World War, with more than 200 works lost.
The name points to the focus on paintings created before 1800, a period still regarded in the region as the peak of European painting. Visitors walk through rooms arranged by school and century, with Italian and Dutch masters filling most of the walls in a rhythm of dark halls and bright cabinets.
The museum opens Tuesday through Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00, with audio guides and themed tours available for an extra charge. The rooms lie on the first and second floors, reached by stairs and lifts from the inner courtyard of the Zwinger.
Raphael's painting of the Madonna with the Christ child hangs in its own room with cushioned benches, where visitors often pause for a long time. The canvas arrived in 1754 from an Italian monastery for an enormous sum and has been regarded as the centerpiece of the collection ever since.
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