About the museum
The story of the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister
The Old Masters Picture Gallery in Dresden grew from the collections of the Saxon electors, above all Augustus III, who bought masterpieces across Europe in the eighteenth century. It hangs in Gottfried Semper's wing of the Zwinger palace.
It is famous for Raphael's Sistine Madonna and for outstanding works by Giorgione, Titian, Vermeer, Rembrandt and Canaletto, whose views of Dresden still shape how the city is imagined.
The collection
Augustus the Strong and his son Augustus III built one of the first great picture galleries of Europe in the eighteenth century. In 1746 they bought one hundred of the best paintings of the Duke of Modena, and in 1754 Raphael's Sistine Madonna, whose two cherubs became world famous.
The collection also includes Giorgione's Sleeping Venus, Titian's Tribute Money, two Vermeers, Rembrandt's Self-Portrait with Saskia, Correggio and the city views of Bernardo Bellotto, Canaletto's nephew.
At ArtLogia you can order 180 of its paintings as hand-painted reproductions, by 89 artists led by Bernardo Bellotto, Caspar David Friedrich and Lucas Cranach the Elder.
- paintings to order
- 180
- artists
- 89
- art movements
- 14
- years covered
- 1437–1896
The building
The gallery occupies the Semperbau, a wing added by Gottfried Semper in the 1850s to close the Baroque Zwinger palace. Damaged in the bombing of 1945, it was rebuilt, and the paintings, saved and briefly taken to Moscow, returned in 1955.
Masterpieces to see
Sistine MadonnaRaphael, 1512 · Hand-painted reproduction available
Girl Reading a Letter at an Open WindowJohannes Vermeer, 1658 · Hand-painted reproduction available
Sleeping VenusTitian, 1509 · Hand-painted reproduction available
The ProcuressJohannes Vermeer, 1656 · Hand-painted reproduction available
Planning a visit
The Zwinger courtyard is free to walk through and makes a fine approach to the gallery.
