CHAPTER IV.

DRESDEN CONTINUED.

The PICTURE GALLERY..

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Preliminary Ceremony for visiting that

or any other public Collection in Dresden. -The Building. — Internal Arrangement. Internal and external Gallery. - Advantages of that Arrangement. - Madonna di St. Sisto, and other chef-d'œuvres.- Battoni's Magdalen. - Facility afforded to Copyists.

St. Francesco of Correggio.

Cignani.

Andrea del Sarto. Carlo Dolce. - Dosso Dossi. - Peculiar effect of Perspective. - Titian's Venus. - Magic of Light. "LA NOTTE," the Gem of the Dresden Gallery. - St. George and St. Sebastian. The Doctor's Portrait. Colours of Parmegiano. Flemish, Dutch, German, French, and Spanish Schools. Method of classing the Pictures. Engraved Gallery. -- Sum Total.

The RÜST-KAMMER. - The first Pistol and the last Tournament.-MUSEUM of Natural History. - Curious effect of Lightning. — The Chemnitz Oak. — The Stag Horns. - Too much Fat. The Giant Hound and the Chicken Hound. - The Charger of Augustus II.-The RESIDENZ SCHLOSS. GRÜNE GEWÖLBE.— The largest Enamel. The Great Mogul, the Tea Service, and the Temple of Apis, by the brothers Dinglinger. The Cameo of Augustus Octavianus. The tri-coloured Onyx.- The Treasure. The Green Diamond. — Millions! — Royal Pawning. — Napoleon at the great Opera of Dresden. - Contrast. The Heights of RÄCKNITZ. Moreau's Monument. - The GROSSER GARTEN. PILLNITZ. Sachsische Schweiz.

ON my arrival at Dresden, I did not put my patience to too severe a trial, by deferring, longer than was absolutely

necessary to procure the requisite permission, my visit to that celebrated Gallery of Paintings, which has, for the last eighty years, given to that capital, above that of every other fair city in Germany, the reputation of being the favoured seat of the Fine Arts. The very instant I received the intelligence that Professor Schmidt was at his post ready to admit us, I hurried to that far-famed collection.

The form of introduction to the gallery, during the season in which it is not open generally to the public, as was the case when I passed through Dresden, consists in apprizing the curator of the pictures, who is called a professor, that you intend to visit that establishment at a particular hour, sending him, at the same time, or presenting him afterwards, with three rix-thalers. This sum once paid, the stranger is at liberty to frequent the gallery as often as he pleases; but the professor accompanies him only on the first day, to give every necessary explanation. As the gallery is not publicly open from September till May, it follows that the professor's emoluments, from this branch alone, must be considerable. The same practice of feeing the curators exists in regard to almost every other public building or collection of importance in Dresden during the vacations; and my expenses on that point alone I found in the end to have amounted to six or seven ducats. I mention this circumstance, merely because Dresden is the only continental city in which such a practice exists. Professor Schmidt, who accompanied us, is a very intelligent artist, well versed in the history of almost every painting of note contained in the gallery, and himself a painter by no means of inconsiderable merit; for he has more than once employed his time, as his predecessor had done before him, in copying, to order, some of the most celebrated pictures in the gallery, at a very moderate charge. He is an accurate copyist, and an excellent master of colouring.

The Bilder Gallerie, as the Saxons call it, is situated not far from the Royal Château, with its front towards the Neu-Markt, a very large open space, surrounded by lofty and curious buildings, with the church of Nôtre Dame (Frauen Kirche) at one end of it. Towards the river side the August Strasse separates it from the adjoining houses; and the Royal Family have a ready access to it through that part of the Château which fronts the bridge, and crosses the principal street of the old town, over an archway. I have here introduced a view of the Gallery, as seen from the Neu-Markt.

The present building was not completed until 1747, under Augustus III.; but it was begun by Augustus II., after that Prince had succeeded in procuring the superb gallery of pictures at Modena, containing, among

other productions, the principal chef-d'œuvres of Correggio.* The Electors of Saxony possessed, it is true, before Augustus, several very important though small collections of the ancient masters; but these were scattered in several of the Royal towns and country residences, and had never been brought together. In 1817, the late King of Saxony ordered some packages, that had been left undisturbed since the death of Augustus, to be opened, when it was found that they contained several very fine pictures of the Flemish school. These the King ordered to be added to those already existing in the gallery, making room for them wherever that appeared to be necessary, by the removal of others of inferior merit. This addition, while it increased the intrinsic value of the collection, caused also some changes in the internal arrangement of the gallery, and rendered a new method of classification desirable. The mere symmetrical order, which had hitherto been attended to as the more essential, was now neglected, for the sake of classing paintings, according to the masters as much as possible, and at all events according to individual schools. In this manner, most of the principal pictures, and, above all, the acknowledged master-pieces of the Italian and other masters, were placed in a more favourable situation, and the smallest of the pictures, which before were scattered high and low, merely to please the eye, by filling the sides of the room, were brought nearer, and within compass of every person's observation.

On the authority of the Professor, who drew up the short historical notice which precedes the Catalogue of the Gallery, printed in 1826, I make the above statement, in evident contradiction to that of Mr. Russell, who attributes to Augustus III. the purchase of the Modenese Gallery. It is acknowledged that that Prince bought the Madonna of Raphael, the Pastel drawings, and several comparatively modern paintings; but the honour of having given to Dresden the éclat of a first-rate gallery belongs assuredly to his predecessor.

The form of this precious depôt of whatever the genius of painting has produced in its most brilliant and successful days, is that of two concentric parallelograms, or one parallelogram within another, attached to which are two smaller rooms; the one of which contains a collection of paintings in pastel crayons; the other serves for the professor's studio.

In order to understand this unique arrangement, the reader will be pleased to cast his eye over the accompanying vignette of the plan of the gallery, which I have made partly from notes, and partly from memory, but which, even as it is, may be of use to those who are likely to visit that celebrated museum. The contrivance of two concentric galleries has afforded an opportunity of displaying a large number of the best paintings in a favourable light, which proceeds from immensely lofty and wide windows, and may be regulated