Fine Art Gallery, Berlin, painting masterworks
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, on Kulturforum, Berlin
10 must-see pictures.
A visit with your own art historian, flying in for you.
Join me for a visit to the great Berlin Fine Arts painting gallery, the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Berlin. I will be your private professore, travelling in from Amsterdam, Holland specially for you. This is one of the 10 best museums of paintings in the world.
Tour by Drs Kees Kaldenbach, a professional Art History scholar with excellent teaching skills. Specialist in Fine art and Design, Architecture and History. VIP entry. Entry best at from 9 or 10AM.
Please note, this is a high level offer. Practicalities: I live in Amsterdam, Holland and do NOT run a travel agency. I do however provide Fabulous international museum tours. The plan is that you contract me for one or more days as your private ‘Professore’ and offer full transport to that city, plus hotel accommodation in the same place you will stay. We will spend quality time together in mornings and early afternoons.
The Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister holds one of the world’s leading collections of European paintings from the 13th to the 18th centuries. Its collection includes masterpieces from really great names: Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Cranach, Hans Holbein, Rogier van der Weyden, Jan van Eyck, Raphael, Botticelli, Titian, Caravaggio, Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, Johannes Vermeer. It was first opened in 1830, on Bode museum, on Museum Island, and in the present day in the bunker-like brutal Concrete building completed in 1998. It is located in the Kulturforum museum district west of Potsdamer Platz.
Legally bought for this Berlin gallery and lost as Repair compensation to Belgium.
The Gemäldegalerie collection does not, like many Galleries, root in a noble or dynastic royal collection, but was created by step by step acquisition by the Prussian government, beginning in 1815. The museum was intended to reflect the full range of European art and to present it in a coherent and scientific way.
One of the grievous losses of Berlin was the central part of Van Eyck Ghent altarpiece, once legally bought, but which had to be returned to Belgium as part of the War Repair compensation in 1920, part of the Versailles Treaty.
Destroyed: Caravaggio, Christ awakes the sleeping apostles.
Some 25 years later, during the next World War, a large group of Berlin museum paintings were destroyed, among them the large Caravaggio shown here, Christ awakes the sleeping apostles. Formerly owned (among others) by the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum (now Bode Museum) in Berlin. Other lost paintings were by Guido Reni, Francisco de Zurbarán, Jusepe de Ribera, Caravaggio and Petrus Christus. Also sculptures by Michelangelo and Giulio Mazzoni were lost since the battles of 1945.
Caravaggio, Profane Love. One of the strangest boy-love scenes he ever made. In these days of hysteria over child porn, it is an uneasy yet rewarding picture. It is displayed alongside Giovanni Baglione’s Sacred Love Versus Profane Love.
Piero della Francesca. Cool light, ethereal atmosphere.
Rembrandts by the dozen.
Two Vermeers out of a world total of 36.
Dutch Mannerism married to Classical Antiquity. Cornelis Corneliszoon of Haarlem.
Brueghel, Flemish Proverbs. These men try to figure out which proverbs apply.
Vermeer, Glass of wine, one of the best he ever painted. Worth a visit in itself.
Vermeer, Woman with Pearl Necklace. Wonderful poetry.
Detail of the Glass of Wine. Stained Glass. Let me tell you about the weird contents.
Vermeer, Glass Wine, detail
Author Kaldenbach lecturing in front of Vermeer
Business card. The logo refers to Vermeer.
Please note, this is a high level offer. Practicalities: I live in Amsterdam, Holland and do NOT run a travel agency. I do however provide Fabulous international museum tours.
The plan is that you contract me for one or more days as your private ‘Professore’ and offer full transport to that city, plus hotel accommodation in the same place you will stay. We will spend quality time together in mornings and early afternoons.
Tour by professional Art History scholar with excellent teaching skills. Specialist in Fine art and Design, Architecture and History. VIP entry.
Drs Kees Kaldenbach: „…he is wildly overqualified to be a guide . That is his secret… Trust me on this.” Gabe. Statement made February, 2017.
Overview of International tours (outside Holland).