[ Sept.2015 ] There seemed to be many places to look at in Zwinger Palace in Dresden, but we went straight to the gallery, Alte Meister.
Taking photos was strictly forbidden, but this is the photo of the staircase in the gallery, which I took swiftly.
Here, there is the “Sistine Madonna” by Raffaello.
Augustus I paid a large sum of money to get this from a church in Piacenza in Italy in 1753.
The amount was so large that, apparently, it could be used to create a whole town from scratch, according to the Japanese guide, who happened to be there with lots of children.
This painting cost the most money among his whole collection.
The big question is what did the church in Piacenza do with that money?
Anyway, we were familiar with this painting because we saw an exhibition about it in Piacenza a while ago, so we were happy to see the real one.
This gallery has a collection of paintings that were hunted down and purchased by Augustus I and his son Augustus II by the middle of the 18th century.
The famous “Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window” by Vermeer is here, too.
During WW2, the paintings were all evacuated and then the USSR forces took them as trophies, but after the war, apparently most of the paintings were returned.
