Bernardo Bellotto (1722–1780), The Liechtenstein Garden Palace in Vienna from the Belvedere, 1759/60
Liechtenstein Bellottos in Dresden
Part of the monographic exhibition at the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister
Until 28 August 2022 two of the best-known works in the Princely Collections can be seen in Dresden. The ‘Liechtenstein Garden Palace in Vienna from the Belvedere’ and ‘The Liechtenstein Garden Palace in Vienna from the East’ are currently on loan to the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden as part of the exhibition ‘Magic of the Real. Bernardo Bellotto at the Saxon Court’, where they hang together with numerous other vedutas by the artist from the holdings of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, the Royal Castle in Warsaw and other collections. Marking the tercentenary of the artist’s birth, the exhibition represents the most comprehensive current conspectus of his works.
Like his uncle Giovanni Antonio Canal, commonly known as Canaletto, Bernardo Bellotto had started out by painting vedutas of his native city of Venice. In 1747 he arrived in Dresden, where he worked for Elector Frederick Augustus II (Augustus III as King of Poland) at the Saxon court, until the Seven Years War forced him to lead a peripatetic life between various European cities. In 1758, while in Vienna, Bellotto was commissioned by Prince Joseph Wenzel I von Liechtenstein to paint views of the Garden Palace in the Rossau quarter. With a Baroque sense of theatricality, the artist captured not just the building but also immortalized the prince himself.
