The Berlin Gemäldegalerie is home to a small but important collection of German paintings from the 17th century. Most of them are on display in the permanent exhibition along with other works from the art-historical ‘milieu’ in which they were created, or are thought to have been created, based on common stylistic features. They include, for example, paintings by Hans von Aachen, Adam Elsheimer, Johann Heinrich Schönfeld and Hans Rottenhammer.

Now, for the first time, an in-depth scholarly catalogue of the paintings in this part of the collection is being produced. It will be the result of close collaboration between art historians and conservators, so that, along with an art-historical discussion of each individual work, results of technical investigations of the paintings (based on x-ray, infra-red and microscope images) will also be included.

The aim is to bring together findings about the provenance, function and attribution of the paintings, as well as about the genesis of the images, the development of the subjects, motifs and the painters’ techniques, and to publish this in a single catalogue, which will provide a basis for all future research.

Project leader:  Prof. Dr. Dr. Andreas Tacke (University of Trier), Dr. Rainer Michaelis, Deputy Director of the Gemäldegalerie (and advisor on German 17th-century painting)
Project team: Dr. Ute Stehr, paintings conservator; Sandra Stelzig, paintings conservator; Christine Waidenschlager (Kunstgewerbemuseum); Christoph Schmidt, technical photographer; Rainer Wendler, wood conservator
Publication: The research results will be published as a critical collection catalogue in book form.
Project sponsor: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Universität Trier
Duration: until 2019