02.07.2019
Gemäldegalerie
The special exhibition Mantegna and Bellini: Masters of the Renaissance, which closed on 30 June 2019, was seen by a total of more than 190,000 visitors. Featuring more than 100 works, the project – which had the German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier as patron and was the result of a cooperation between the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, the National Gallery, London, and the British Museum – provided the first ever comparison of the intricately interwoven oeuvres of these two masters of the Renaissance, Andrea Mantegna (ca. 1431–1506) and Giovanni Bellini (ca. 1435–1516).
Michael Eissenhauer, Director-General of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and Director of the Gemäldegalerie und Skulpturensammlung, said: “I am so happy that with this standout exhibition, we have been able to surpass even the successes of The Boticelli Renaissance and El Siglo de Oro, consolidating the Gemäldegalerie’s reputation as an international hotspot for exhibitions of the Old Masters. The fact that our concept of combining a major special exhibition with concentrated single-room cabinet displays was received with such enthusiasm by experts and the broader public alike is something that fills me with gratitude.”
The unique international cooperation of Mantegna and Bellini: Masters of the Renaissance was only possible because the collections of the Gemäldegalerie and the National Gallery boast more key works from all the creative phases of these two artists than any other collections outside of Italy. On top of this, the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin’s Kupferstichkabinett and the British Museum are both home to an extraordinarily broad collection of works on paper by Mantegna, Bellini, and their respective circles. The exhibition was enriched by significant loans from the Musée du Louvre in Paris, the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, as well as from the royal collection of the Queen Elizabeth II.
The accompanying special display Bellini Plus has been extended until the end of 2019. It presents recent research outcomes brought to light during the restoration work that was carried out on works by Giovanni Bellini and his circle in the lead-up to the major exhibition. Andrea Mantegna’s masterpiece The Presentation of Christ in the Temple (ca. 1453), which in the exhibition was placed in a dialogue with Giovanni Bellini’s version – produced some 20 years later and clearly based on Mantegna’s – will also be on display in room 460 of the Gemäldegalerie until the end of the year.
While other paintings by Giovanni Bellini are moving back to the permanent exhibition of the Gemäldegalerie and their traditional home in room 459, and the works on paper of both artists can be inspected in the study room of the Kupferstichkabinett, from 13 July 2019, visitors can find Andrea Mantegna’s painting Madonna with Sleeping Child in the newly installed James-Simon-Kabinett in the Bode-Museum.