The Kupferstichkabinett shows depictions of sleeping people in the cabinet in the Gemäldegalerie. It is not primarily about the resting body. After all, sleep is not only a physical state, but also the condition for inner images that arise when dreams, fantasies and visions awaken. Seen in this light, the theme of sleep is associated with great artistic freedom.
Image gallery
Lucas Cranach d. Ä., Die Buße des heiligen Chrysostomus, Detail, 1509, Kupferstich
Hans Baldung, Der behexte Stallknecht, Detail, um 1534, Holzschnitt
Hans Baldung, The Bewitched Stable Boy, detail, around 1534, woodcut
Jacopo de‘ Barbari, Schutzengel ("Custodi nos dormientes"), Detail, um 1500, Kupferstich
Sleep opens up special scope for art: on the one hand, artists can study the body in all conceivable poses and try out perspectives that do not correspond to the traditional ideal image, but also present the unsightly. With extreme foreshortening and bending of bodies, artists demonstrate their skills and knowledge of ancient and Italian models.
On the other hand, the dream is a justification for indecent jokes, pornographic views and invented fantastic forms and creatures that were not readily permitted to artists in the 16th century. At the same time, the dream lent itself to reflection on the origins of imagination, invention and originality.
The exhibition shows woodcuts and copperplate engravings produced in German-speaking countries between 1490 and 1560. Among them are such famous works as Albrecht Dürer's “Dream of the Doctor”, Lucas Cranach the Elder's “Penance of St. Chrysostom” and Hans Baldung's “Behexter Stallknecht”.
The enigmatic and fantastic are already inscribed in them, but they are also so original that they still raise questions today. The exhibition also shows smaller and lesser-known works by the Nuremberg Kleinmeister and others.
They are complemented by a copperplate engraving by the Italian Jacopo de' Barbari, who worked in Nuremberg and Wittenberg at the beginning of the 16th century, and one by the Dutchman Lucas van Leyden, whom Albrecht Dürer met on his journey to the Netherlands. Melchior Lorck from Lübeck, who died in Copenhagen, worked for a time in Istanbul, then Constantinople. Their works are representative of the lively exchange across borders at the beginning of the 16th century.
The exhibition reveals a special feature of graphic collections. The works have been left in their collective mounts, allowing a view of other themes that are not directly part of the exhibition. Visitors are invited to wander off and make discoveries - as if in a dream.
Curator
“Träumst Du?” is curated by Mailena Mallach, curator of German drawings and prints before 1800 in the Kupferstichkabinett.
A special exhibition of the Kupferstichkabinett in the Gemäldegalerie of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Additional information
Price info: Frans Hals + Gemäldegalerie
Kulturforum all exhibitions: 20,00 €
Price: €16.00
Reduced price: €8.00
Reduced price info: Kulturforum all exhibitions: 10,00 €
Children and young people up to the age of 18 are admitted free of charge.
