Federal President Visits the Exhibition “Mantegna and Bellini” at the Gemäldegalerie

25.06.2019
Gemäldegalerie

Michael Eissenhauer, Director-General of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and Director of the Gemäldegalerie, and Hermann Parzinger, President of the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz, welcomed the Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his wife Elke Büdenbender at the exhibition Mantegna and Bellini: Masters of the Renaissance.

Stressing the international significance of the exhibition

After signing the guestbook of the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz, the VIP guests were given a tour of the exhibition. The concept of the exhibition – which showcases the intricately interwoven work of the artists Andrea Mantegna (ca. 1431–1506) and Giovanni Bellini (ca. 1435–1516) – was explained by way of the two works that open the presentation, the two versions of "The Presentation of Christ in the Temple" by Mantegna (ca. 1453) and Bellini (ca. 1472). From there, the Federal President and his wife were taken to both artists’ moody depictions of the Madonna and their scenes of the Mount of Olives, and to see Mantegna’s multi-part work "Triumphs of Caesar", three sections of which are on display in the exhibition as a rare loan from Queen Elizabeth II.   

Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who serves as patron of the exhibition, was particularly impressed by the portrait of Doge Loredan, which Giovanni Bellini painted around 1501–1502, and which, on loan from the National Gallery in London, is one of the exhibition’s real highlights. President Steinmeier made a point of stressing the significance of the exhibition for the bilateral relations between the United Kingdom and Germany, and also for the concept of a shared European culture, congratulating the organisers of the exhibition for pulling off such as successful international project.  

The Exhibition

The exhibition Mantegna and Bellini: Masters of the Renaissancecloses on 30 June 2019.

It was produced together with the National Gallery, London, and in collaboration with the British Museum. The exhibition is sponsored by the Kaiser Friedrich Museumsverein and the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe.