Buzási Enikő szerk.: In Europe' Princely Courts, Ádám Mányoki, Actors and venues of a portraitist's career (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2003/1)

Harald Marx: "THE LUCKY STAR OF PAINTING HAS RISEN" Painting and Art Patronage in Dresden under Augustus the Strong and Augustus III

Johann Samuel Mock: Festive entry of Augustus III, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, into Warsaw on 25 November 1734, 1734 Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister trade and the resultant Silesian wars - were independent of the will of a single prime minister. Giacomo Casanova noted, as an unbiased observer, "It is unjust to say that Count Brühl brought ruin upon Saxony, as he was merely a loyal servant of his master's wish and inclinations. [...] The court in Dresden was the most magnificent court in Europe at that time. The arts burst into bloom."

66 However inventive Count Brühl's diplomatic moves to forge an alliance were, he failed to halt the political tendencies detrimental to Saxony; while in domestic affairs, he created a system so suppressive of dissenting opinions that his more liberal contemporaries were already at that time filled with dread.

67 "EUROPE'S RICHEST TREASURE" Painters and the Dresden Gallen/ There came a new upswing in both painting and art collection in Dresden. In the 1740s, outstanding masterpieces of earlier painting were acquired: important works had come from Prague and Modena, from Paris and Venice. The picture gallery of Dresden became world famous during those ten years. A sweeping architectural project was also coupled with the extension of the picture collection: the conversion of the electoral stables into a gallery was entrusted to the care of Johann Christoph Knöffel (1686-1752). He had the two upper levels and the representative guest suites, which also housed many paintings from 1740, replaced with a single tall gallery level with monumental arched windows.

68 The unified impression of the rooms in the gallery is due partly to the picture frames made by Joseph Deibel (1716-1793). Their elegant, even graceful form and perfect execution, as well as the subtle gilding on the coral-red base are as much admired today as they were at the time of their creation: "[...] Over four hundred frames by him [Joseph Deibel] can be found in the Elector's Gallery. That earned him the title sculptor of the court gallery [in 1750]. He would have got the accompanying salary, if the Seven Years' War had not broken out."

69 So many pictures in homogenous rococo frames is startling to today's viewer. The overwhelming majority of masterpieces by Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) and Raphael (1483-1520), Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) and Bartolom Esteban Murillo (1618-1682), Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn (1606-1669) and Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) - ages and schools of a wide variety - are still preserved in uniform frames. Johann Christoph Knöffel rose from the Chief Architectural Office even higher: as the favourite architect of