25.02.2021
Gemäldegalerie
The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin is publishing another virtual tour of one of its collections: following on from the Bode-Museum, visitors now have the chance to digitally explore the entire Gemäldegalerie in two languages – in a high-resolution, 360° tour covering some 58 rooms, 112 panoramas and 1,200 artworks, replete with a wealth of background information: smb.museum/gemaeldegalerie-360.
I am so pleased that we are now able to provide art lovers all around the world with access to the Gemäldegalerie’s collection, in all its splendour and significance. For the first time, this digital presentation not only showcases all the works on exhibit, elucidating them through supplementary information, but it also contextualises them in a clear and comprehensible way.
Michael Eissenhauer, Director-General of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
This labour-intensive project would not have been possible without the close, collegial collaboration between the Gemäldegalerie and the Kaiser Friedrich Museumsverein. Our thanks goes in particular to the extraordinary efforts of the members of the Verein, Wolfgang Gülcker and Marion Knauf.
Julien Chapuis, Director of the Gemäldegalerie and the Skulpturensammlung
The virtual tour is deliberately designed to mirror the on-site museum tour, and provides a realistic impression of the space of the Gemäldegalerie. Just like in the physical tour, a digital visit to the museum from home opens up fascinating connections and perspectives within the collection.
The Gemäldegalerie is world-renowned as one of the most important collections of European painting from the 13th to 18th centuries. Beginning in 1815, the collection was assembled in a systematic fashion, guided by art-historical considerations and aimed at bringing together the full spectrum of European[JS2] painting in its regional and art-historical schools. What emerged was an incomparable range of masterpieces from all epochs and styles from the 13th to 18th centuries, which can be studied at the Gemäldegalerie as in almost no other Old Masters museum.
There is a particular focus on German and Italian painting of the 13th to 16th centuries, as well as Netherlandish painting of the 15th to 17th centuries. Masterpieces from all art-historical epochs, including paintings by Jan van Eyck, Hans Holbein the Younger, Pieter Bruegel, Albrecht Dürer, Raphael, Titian, Caravaggio, Sandro Botticelli, Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt and Jan Vermeer are all on display in the museum.
The tour was put together thanks to the initiative of Marion Knauf, Chair of the Kaiser Friedrich Museumsverein, the association of friends for the Gemäldegalerie and the Skulpturensammlung. The tour was conceived and carried out in collaboration with the Gemäldegalerie on a volunteer basis by Verein member Wolfgang Gülcker.
In 2022, the Kaiser Friedrich Museumsverein will celebrate its 125th anniversary, and is pleased that now, in supporting this unique digital feature, its long tradition of supporting the art of the Old Masters is being carried on into the future.
The Bode-Museum can likewise be digitally explored in a tour conceived by Wolfgang Gülcker: 62 360° panoramas capture the bulk of the entire ground and upper floors of the museum on the northern tip of the Museumsinsel Berlin. The tour offers information on 850 works from the Skulpturensammlung and the Museum für Byzantinische Kunst, including masterpieces from the early Middle Ages through to the late 18th century, artworks from late antiquity and the Byzantine Empire, and everyday objects from just about every region in the ancient Mediterranean: smb.museum/bode-museum-360.
Related Links
360-Degree Tour of the Gemäldegalerie
Virtual Tour of the Bode-Museum
Exhibition
Paintings from the 13th to 18th Century
Permanent exhibition