Dirk Syndram

Grünes Gewölbe (Museum : Dresden, Germany)

The Green Vault is the most magnificent treasure chamber museum in Europe Home to the Dresden Green Diamond, the Green Vault houses more than 120 precious objects, most of them dating from the Renaissance through to the late Baroque period Housed in the Residence Palace of Dresden, this storehouse of treasures displays, some of the most important works of European culture.

The Green Vault in Dresden

Renaissance and Baroque Treasury Art

Bose Krishnamachari

Tasneem Mehta

The pictures of Eberhard Havekost (b. Dresden 1967; lives and works in Berlin) are the results of a persistent analysis of the outward appearance of our world. The city constitutes a central environment of his life and experience, supplying Havekost with motifs and situations that phenotypically reflect the urban lifeworlds of a rising consumer society. He integrates these complex structures into his works by using details, for example, of facades, streets, cars, shop windows, and passerby. Filtered and transformed by the painter's art, these views of everyday life condense into a stocktaking of contemporary manifestations of architecture, mobility, communication, consumption, and leisure. Havekost's pictures may be seen as exemplary formulations, resonance chambers abounding with experiences of the urban way of life. As part of the culture year "Germany and India 2011-2012: Infinite Opportunities," whose themetatic focus is on "CitySpaces," two Indian museums present solo shows of Eberhard Havekost's work; he is the only German artist to receive this honor.

Eberhard Havekost in India

Ulrike Weinhold

Red Porcelain, 1709 made ready for production by Johann Friedrich Boettger and universally known as Boettger red stoneware, represented the most elegant ceramics in Europe before experimentation led to rediscovery in Europe of the coveted white hard-paste porcelain, also known as Meissen Porcelain. Finished by the application of sophisticated techniques, Boettger red stoneware soon ranked high in favor with princes, of whom ostentation was expected. Combined with ruby glass, silver, gold and precious stones, it also entered the exalted sphere of the court treasury. Beginning with the universal 'alchemist' Boettger himself, the present publication provides an overview of the ways artisans dealt creatively with this hard material, how models were drawn from goldsmiths' art and what role was played by Boettger red stoneware in the Baroque treasury of Augustus the Strong. Essays reveal that exquisitely finished Boettger stoneware also set trends in court art.

Johann Friedrich Bö̈ttger and Treasury Art

Böttger Stoneware

Wolfram Koeppe

Noam Andrews

Florian Thaddäus Bayer

Jens Ludwig Burk

Wolfram Dolz

Ana Matisse Donefer-Hickie

Karsten Gaulke

Michael Korey

Lothar Lambacher

Peter Plassmeyer

Paulus Rainer

Antje Scherner

Konrad Schlegel

Pamela H. Smith

Featuring more than 150 treasures from several of the world’s most prestigious collections, Making Marvels explores the vital intersection of art, technology, and political power at the courts of early modern Europe. It was there, from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries, that a remarkable outpouring of creativity and learning gave rise to exquisite objects that were at once beautiful works of art and technological wonders. By amassing vast, glittering collections of these ingeniously crafted objects, princes flaunted their wealth and competed for mastery over the known world. More than mere status symbols, however, many of these marvels ushered in significant advancements that have had a lasting influence on astronomy, engineering, and even international politics. Incisive texts by leading scholars situate these works within the rich, complex symbolism of life at court, where science and splendor were pursued with equal vigor and together contributed to a culture of magnificence.

Science and Splendor at the Courts of Europe

Making Marvels

Claudia Brink

Dresden's Green Vault (Grünes Gewölbe) enjoys world renown as the largest collection of treasures in Europe and one of its richest. Although the private collections of the Electors of Saxony were begun in the 16th century, between 1723 and 1729 the Elector Augustus the Strong built a museum to house these treasures and opened them to the public unprecedented in the Baroque period.

Dresden's Green Vault

The Dream of a King

Dirk Syndram

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