Gemaldegalerie, 2: South of the Alps; Plus Special Bonus Donatello Exhibition

After a modest lunch at the modest Gemaldegalerie cafeteria, we resumed our visit to the galleries, first to see the Donatello exhibition, then briefly the South of the Alps portion. We had seen much of the Donatello at the Bargello in Florence last spring, but missed half of it because a) we were unimpressed with the first half, b) we were tired, and c) there was a long Renaissance staircase to get to the second half, at the Palazzo Strozzi. We were fortunate to run into the Donatello exhibit in Berlin, since this second half was indeed impressive, exhibiting the range, variety, and innovativeness of Donatello's work. 

Helpful model of the Kulturforum area, down by the gift shoppe

Nice entrance

Just a cast, obviously, of Donatello's most famous
David

Bronze crucifix, originally for St. Anthony's, Padua
cathedral there, during his long and productive stay

Padua was also the site of his famous equestrian statue of Gattamelata,
the first life-sized equestrian statue in Europe since the classical times;
this is not it; nor did I find any description

St. John the Baptist, 1442, from the Bargello

The Dudley Madonna, which we saw in Florence, and probably
also in London at the V&A where it lives

Another David, 1404 or so; not the famous one

The exhibition was accompanied by 7 small paintings by Masaccio
(!) originally from the Carmine church in Florence; this one an
Adoration; characteristically Masaccio, IMHO

The Donatello exhibition actually had more visitors than the
museum itself, while we were there

Moving right along now, south of the Alps, Giotto's Deposition
of Mary, 1310

Ghirlandiao's Jesus and St. John Meeting, 1490s

Botticelli, Venus, well, you know who...

Botticelli, Mary and Child and Singing Angels, 1477

Botticelli, Mary Enthroned with Child and St. John,
1477

Finally, another beautiful tondo, Rafael, Mary, Child,

St. John, and an Angel, 1505

Gemaldegalerie, 1: North of the Alps

The Gemaldegalerie, in the Culturforum in near western Berlin, is one of our favorites, mainly because it has so much northern German and Flemish work...the van Eycks, von der Weydens, Boschs, Cranachs, Durers, Brueghels.... The museum is conveniently divided into north and south halls, around a central hall. The north hall is north of the Alps paintings, the south, well, south, and the central hall currently is given to the traveling Donatello exhibit we saw part of in Florence last May. Alas, the Gemaldegalerie is undergoing renovation in its lighting, closing 1/4 of the museum at a stretch, so we didn't get to see its Caravaggios, Vermeers, Rembrandts, and similar vintage. (Some are at https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2012/07/berlin-gemaldegalerie.html, and https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2009/06/kulturforum-and-gemaldegalerie.html, where you will see that neither my tastes nor museum behavior have much changed). Anyhow, there will be three posts, including the inevitable out-takes.

In the Kulturforum, approaching the museum

Conrad Witz, The Counsel of Redemption, 1444; not that this is
one of the biggies, but the facial expression, below, is really
impressive; just a decade after van Eyck introduced oil painting
to Europe

The rest of the painting is thoroughly late Medieval...but the face
is not

Perennial favorite, Cranach's Fountain of Youth, 1546; women
only (!)

Cranach, Madonna and Bambino; wait, no...but see
https://www.thesmartset.com/article01241101/
for an interesting read on Cranach's mysterious muse
...perhaps a novel to be written...

Cranach's copy of a Bosch Last Judgement triptych, 1524

It's all in the details...

Rogier van der Weyden, Portrait of a Young Woman,
1440-45; next generation after van Eyck

Holbein the Younger, very famous portrait of the merchant
George Gisze, 1532, London; famous also in the history of post-it
notes

Durer's 1526 portrait of Nuremburg city father and
friend Hieronymous Holzschuher

Van Eyck's exquisite little Madonna in the Church,
1440; as with all his work, the detail is incredible

Anonymous Bosch...copy of Bosch's Temptations of St. Anthony,
1540; the original of which, 1501, we saw in Lisbon in 2017

Personal favorite detail

Brueghel the Younger's Carrying the Cross, 1606

Another fave, Brueghel the Elder's Netherlandish Proverbs, 1559;
we'll see lots more Breughel when we get to Vienna next month

Franz Hals portraits...Portrait of a Man, 1627

Catharina Hooft and her nurse, 1619

Singing Boy with Flute, 1619; muy famoso

Berlin Wall

After Prenzlauer Berg we walked back home via the mile-long Berlin Wall monument...roughly, the "no man's land" along a course of the Wall that features a host of displays and landmarks. A sad place, though there are many in Germany and throughout Europe. The Wall resonates with us since it occurred entirely in our life-times and was part of the evening news from 1961 on until 1989...except when Kennedy's assassination, the Vietnam war, the moon landing, Nixon's impeachment, or other things weren't top of the fold. I well remember 1989 because some of our neighbors in Dallas were German, and they rushed back to Berlin to get a piece of the Wall.

The course of one of the many tunnels under the Wall

Perhaps the most famous of many photos

Guard tower remains?

More tunnels

When a church was located in the expanding no-man's-land,
the East Germans just blew it up

New memorial church on the same spot

Berlin Wall Memorial Museum