Munich's Alte Pinakotek

Munich offers five world-class museums to choose from. We chose the Alte Pinakotek--the old paintings--observing our preference for things that have stood the test of time as well as our interest in the older North German and Netherlands works. The museum is overwhelmingly wonderful.

A view of the Alte Pinakotek

Our favorite, at length, was Breughel's (the Elder) The Land

of Cockaigne, a political satire depicting the sloth and

corruption of the classes...knights, clergy, scholars, peasants

too

Our favorite genre is the damnation...here a detail of one

of Breughel's, torment by fart...

The usual St. Sebastians

Durer's incredible self-portrait

The obligatory Rembrandt self-portrait

(did he paint anything else?)

And this, widely thought to be Velazquez's

self-portrait--something the Prado would

like to have back, one assumes

The largest and most varied collection of

Peter Paul Rubens I have seen; this his

damnation

This, Rubens' self-portrait with his first wife;

one of the few he did of non-obese people

with clothes on...

Rubens' Last Judgment

I have never seen a museum with more live

painters at work

Rubens' powerful death of Seneca

Titian's portrait of Caesar Carlos IV

(or V, depending on whether you're

counting Spanish or Hapsburg

kings)

An incredible museum I'd visit again in a flash. The displays were excellent, the order logical, the audio-guide, for once, genuinely tasteful and helpful.