The Dresden Porcelain Collection () is part of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen (State Art Collections) of

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It is located in the

Zwinger Palace The Zwinger (, ) is a palatial complex with gardens in Dresden, Germany. Designed by architect Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann, it is one of the most important buildings of the Baroque period in Germany. Along with the Frauenkirche, the Zwinge ...

History

The collection was founded in 1715 by the Saxon Prince-Elector

Augustus the Strong Augustus II the Strong (12 May 1670 – 1 February 1733), was Elector of Saxony from 1694 as well as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1697 to 1706 and from 1709 until his death in 1733. He belonged to the Albertine branch of the ...

, and was originally housed in the Japanese Palace (then known as the "Dutch Palace") on the banks of the

Elbe The Elbe ( ; ; or ''Elv''; Upper Sorbian, Upper and , ) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Republic), then Ge ...

. It moved into the Johanneum in 1876. The collection largely survived

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

thanks to evacuation, and moved into its current home in the south part of the Zwinger in 1962.

Collection

Today the collection features about 20,000

porcelain Porcelain (), also called china, is a ceramic material made by heating Industrial mineral, raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The greater strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to oth ...

artefacts.Sommerkultur: Pomp und Pracht
Herien Wensink, ''

Der Tagesspiegel (meaning ''The Daily Mirror'') is a German daily newspaper. It has regional correspondent offices in Washington, D.C., and Potsdam. It is the only major newspaper in the capital to have increased its circulation, now 148,000, since reunificati ...

'', 14 May 2010. Retrieved 30 April 2011. One strength is the collection of traditional Chinese and Japanese porcelain acquired by Augustus the Strong. Above all this includes blue-and-white porcelain from the Ming and

Qing Dynasties The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

, in particular the "Dragoon Vases" acquired by Augustus from King Frederick William I in exchange for a regiment of dragoons. There are also colourful famille-verte and famille-rose items, white Dehua ceramics, Japanese Arita porcelain, and ceramics made especially for export. The other strongpoint is the collection of

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

porcelain, in particular

Meissen porcelain Meissen porcelain or Meissen china was the first Europe, European hard-paste porcelain. Early experiments were done in 1708 by Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus. After his death that October, Johann Friedrich Böttger continued von Tschirnhaus's ...

. This crockery is decorated partly with Chinese patterns, but also with various European motifs such as scenes from mythology or

rococo Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...

idylls. There are also numerous

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

s made of pure white or painted porcelain, including miniature comedians, musicians and court jesters (''Schmiedel and Fröhlich''), a table set created for King Frederick Augustus III, and a tableau of riders belonging to King

Augustus III Augustus III (; – "the Saxon"; ; 17 October 1696 5 October 1763) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1733 until 1763, as well as Elector of Saxony in the Holy Roman Empire where he was known as Frederick Augustus II (). He w ...

Exhibition

Due to lack of space, not all the items are on permanent display. Today’s exhibition comprises around 2,000 artefacts, representing about 10 percent of the entire holdings. A new gallery for the East Asian collection was opened in 2006, increasing the exhibition space by a quarter. It was created in a matter of months by the

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

architect Peter Marino with a mixture of classical and modern elements. In the modern section, Japanese blue-and-white porcelain is presented on historic tables, in front of panels lacquered with

anthracite Anthracite, also known as hard coal and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a lustre (mineralogy)#Submetallic lustre, submetallic lustre. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy densit ...

grey and

cinnabar Cinnabar (; ), or cinnabarite (), also known as ''mercurblende'' is the bright scarlet to brick-red form of Mercury sulfide, mercury(II) sulfide (HgS). It is the most common source ore for refining mercury (element), elemental mercury and is t ...

. Marino carried out further redesigns in 2010.Porzellansammlung im Dresdner Zwinger neu inszeniert
City of Dresden, 1 April 2010. Retrieved 30 April 2011.

References

External links

Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (, ''Dresden State Art Collections'') is a cultural institution in Dresden, Germany, owned by the State of Saxony. It is one of the most renowned and oldest museum institutions in the world, originating from the ...

Porzellansammlung
- Information and history from the Dresden and Saxony tourist website
Dresden Porcelain Collection
within

Google Arts & Culture Google Arts & Culture (formerly Google Art Project) is an online platform of high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from partner cultural organizations throughout the world, operated by Google. It utilizes high-re ...

* {{authority control Collections of museums in Germany Ceramics museums in Germany Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden German porcelain 1715 in art Art museums and galleries established in the 18th century Buildings and structures completed in 1715 Educational organizations established in 1715 Meissen porcelain 1715 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire

History

Collection

Exhibition

References

Further reading

External links