This lyrical view of Dresden of about 1758, taken from the greenhouses of the royal Orangery and looking towards the old city in the distance, is captured in paint by the great Venetian artist Bernardo Bellotto, the immensely talented nephew of Antonio Canaletto, known outside Italy by his uncle’s name. Bellotto provides a new angle on some of the city’s most famous landmarks. Here, in one of his most striking compositions, its fine detail well preserved, he offers an unexpected view of the Zwinger, a masterpiece of festive Baroque architecture, commissioned as a royal arena for ceremonies and spectacles. With his views of Dresden, Bellotto established himself at court and became known as the topographical painter par excellence.

Fig. 1, Bernardo Bellotto, View of the moat of the Zwinger, Dresden, c. 1749–53. Oil on canvas, 133 x 235 cm. Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden © Photo Scala, Florence/Bpk, Bildagentur Fuer Kunst, Kultur Und Geschichte, Berlin

This work relates to the large format view that Bellotto was commissioned to paint by Augustus III (1696–1763), son and successor of Frederick Augustus I, Elector of Saxony, who in 1697 converted to Catholicism in order to become Augustus II, King of Poland (1670–1733). As in the latter view, still preserved in Dresden at the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (fig. 1),1 Bellotto depicts the moat that runs along the Zwinger. This version differs in its tighter focus, numerous details and date. The artistic vision of both monarchs – father and son – is reflected in this composition: that of Augustus II, responsible for a series of ambitious royal and civic buildings, including the Zwinger depicted here; and Augustus III, who during his reign attracted an international circle of artists to his court, notable among them Bellotto.

Fig. 2, Pietro Antonio Rotari, King Augustus III of Poland, 1755. Oil on canvas, 108 x 86 cm. Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden. © 2020. Photo Scala, Florence/bpk, Bildagentur fuer Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte, Berlin

In the summer of 1747, aged just twenty-five, Venice’s most precocious artist came to Dresden at the invitation of Augustus III (fig. 2). At the outset of his career, under the tutelage of his uncle Canaletto, Bellotto had learned rapidly, specializing as a view painter; by 1738, at the age of only sixteen, he was already enrolled in the Venetian painters’ guild. His extraordinary talent was quickly recognized and his reputation as a vedutista flourished. A few years later, in 1742, he left for Rome, where he responded to his classical surroundings in numerous ambitious views that would provide him with material when back in Venice and would pave the way for his achievements as a view painter in some of the greatest capitals of Europe.

Fig. 3, Matthäus Seutter, City map of Dresden, c. 1755. Arrow indicates the Zwinger and shows the direction of the view. Sächsische Landesbibliothek - Staats- Und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden (Slub), Dresden © Slub / Deutsche Fotothek / Richter, Regine


Bellotto, who would later work at the courts of Vienna, Munich and Warsaw, was commissioned by Frederick Augustus II, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony as Augustus III, to paint views of Dresden, the nearby town of Pirna, and Königstein to the south-east (fig. 3). His annual salary of 1,750 thalers was the highest ever paid by the King to any painter. In 1748, the year after his arrival at the Saxon court, Augustus bestowed on Bellotto the title of court painter and gave him a gold snuff box studded with diamonds, containing 300 gold louis. He was to remain in Dresden for eleven years.

Between 1747 and 1753 Bellotto painted for the Royal Gallery fourteen dazzling large-format views, and numerous other views, that show Dresden to its best advantage. They are astonishing for their topographical precision, handling of light and perspectival clarity. He repeated for Augustus’ Prime Minister Count Heinrich Brühl (1700–1763) thirteen of the royal vedute; many of these ended up in the collection of Catherine the Great of Russia. For other clients Bellotto painted views on canvases of smaller format, as is the case with the present work, and he published etchings of many of his subjects. Few views are as theatrical as the View of the moat of the Zwinger – due in large measure to the angled perspective lines along the canal – and when adopting a smaller format, as here, Bellotto succeeds admirably in retaining a sense of unity and dramatic design.

Fig. 4, Bernardo Bellotto, View of the Zwinger, Dresden, c. 1749–53. Oil on canvas, 134 x 237 cm. Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden © 2020. Photo Scala, Florence/Bpk, Bildagentur Fuer Kunst, Kultur Und Geschichte, Berlin

In this view of the old Zwinger moat, Bellotto does not choose a vantage point that gives centre stage to the Zwinger’s grand festival complex; instead his design adopts an unusual vista: his eye is drawn to the stretch of moat that takes its water from the River Elbe and extends past the Luna bastion and the Zwinger, towards the city centre. His focus in this veduta is not on Dresden’s most famous building (which he also painted in a more straightforward composition today in Dresden; fig. 4),2 but rather the surface and reflections of the walls and water of the moat and its surroundings. The water’s still surface is barely ruffled, only occasionally disturbed by a passing swan. Indeed, the presence of these white, long-necked birds adds an idyllic note to the scene.

Landmarks in view from the moat of the Zwinger
  • Kronentor Created with Sketch.
  • Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon Created with Sketch.
  • Zoologischer Pavillon Created with Sketch.
  • Opernhaus am Zwinger, designed by Pöppelmann Created with Sketch.
  • Sophienkirche, redesigned in the 19th century, its twin spires replaced the old Baroque tower Created with Sketch.
  • Kreuzkirche Created with Sketch.
  • House of Andreas Adam, Secretary to the Department of Public Buildings, 1744 Created with Sketch.
  • Wilsdruffer Tor Created with Sketch.
  • Court laundry (‘Hofwaschhaus’), built after 1752 Created with Sketch.
  • Malersaal, where the backcloths and props for the opera house were painted Created with Sketch.
  • Kronentor

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  • Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon

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  • Zoologischer Pavillon

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  • Opernhaus am Zwinger, designed by Pöppelmann

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  • Sophienkirche, redesigned in the 19th century, its twin spires replaced the old Baroque tower

    Icon Navy - Close - 24x24 Created with Sketch.
  • Kreuzkirche

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  • House of Andreas Adam, Secretary to the Department of Public Buildings, 1744

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  • Wilsdruffer Tor
    Die geschichtliche Entwickelung der ... Residenzstadt Dresden ... Mit ... Illustrationen, etc

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  • Court laundry (‘Hofwaschhaus’), built after 1752

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  • Malersaal, where the backcloths and props for the opera house were painted

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In Bellotto’s highly original conception, he places the Zwinger – Dresden’s most famous building – to one side, where it is largely obscured by trees. Its canal-side entrance on the southern side of the complex is recognisable by its Kronentor – the distinctive gateway surmounted by a bulbous dome and the Polish crown. Designed between 1711 and 1728 by Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann and the sculptor Balthasar Permoser, the Zwinger’s ornate baroque structure was intended to be the forecourt of a castle that was ultimately never built. Once used to stage tournaments, festivals and displays, the Zwinger’s large open courtyard is framed by elegant galleries and pavilions that now house several museums. Here by the trees can be seen part of the Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon, the Langgalerie with the Kronentor, and, somewhat hidden, the upper part of the Zoologischer Pavillon. Immediately beyond is a cluster of roofs, towers and spires, comprising the red roof of Pöppelmann’s Opernhaus am Zwinger and behind it the slate roof of the Sophienkirche. To the left, rises the tower of the Kreuzkirche. Level with the Kronentor a temporary wooden bridge crosses the moat and connects the Zwinger on the left to the Ostra-Allee on the opposite side. In the distance, prominent among the buildings of the old city and close to the vanishing point where the receding lines converge, is the brightly painted five-chimneyed house belonging to Andreas Adam, Secretary to the Department of Public Buildings, which dates from 1744; and next to it, the Wilsdruffer Tor, with its squat tower.

Fig. 5, Bernardo Bellotto, View of the moat of the Zwinger, Dresden, c. 1749–52. Oil on canvas, 49 x 83 cm. The State Hermitage, Saint Petersburg © The State Hermitage Museum /Photo By Vladimir Terebenin

The present work postdates the Dresden version painted for the King. Unlike the latter, which takes a slightly wider-angled view, and a second reduced version of similar design, which Kozakiewicz dates to about 1749–52 (since the 1770s in the imperial collections at The Hermitage, Saint Petersburg; fig. 5),3 here Bellotto eliminates the sharp corner of the old Luna Bastion of the city fortifications – the so-called ‘Scharfe Ecke’ – and reduces the moat area at the lower left, thereby giving the impression that the viewer has moved further along the canal. In this work Bellotto brings a tighter focus to the bridge and the cityscape in the distance. One other significant difference between this and the other two versions mentioned above, is that in this picture, beyond the wooden bridge, on the bend of the far bank, Bellotto has added the court laundry (‘Hofwaschhaus’). The insertion of this two-storey building, which was erected after 1752, provides clear evidence for the dating of this canvas and confirms that it postdates the other two versions. In 1758 Bellotto used this painting for one of the most handsome of his series of etched views of Dresden (fig. 6). Taking this into account, as well as considerations regarding Bellotto’s technique, Kozakiewicz dates the present painting to about 1758. Camesasca too suggests a dating of 1758, citing Bellotto etching of the same year.4 Apart from a few changes to the figures, the etching reproduces this version of the view.

Fig. 6, Bernardo Bellotto, View of the Zwinger Canal, 1758. Plate 53.1 x 83.8 cm. First state from a series of etched views of Dresden © 2020. Photo Scala, Florence/bpk, Bildagentur fuer Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte, Berlin.

One of the most appealing qualities of Bellotto’s design lies in the contrast in register between the buildings on either side of the canal. At the lower right, cast in shadow, is a cluster of shabby dwellings that strike a picturesque note at odds with the stately buildings bathed in sunlight. In the shady foreground, sheds and outhouses are glimpsed across a tiled roof – Bellotto’s vantage point. His skill lies in capturing the nooks and crannies of humble huts in the spirit of seventeenth-century genre painting and combining them within a sweeping view of Dresden’s skyline. From the Orangery runs the steep perspective of the Ostra-Allee; further along is a two-storey half-timbered building known as the Malersaal, its pale green wooden shutters closed to the sunshine. It was there that the backcloths and props for the opera house were painted. Bellotto includes incidental figures that reflect the atmosphere of everyday life: a coach crosses the bridge; a figure rests against a tree in the sunshine; another leans across the balustrade of the Ostra-Allee to gaze at the swans. At the lower right, the motif of the man in a tricorn hat feeding two swans in the enclosure on the moat – omitted from the Hermitage canvas but first found in the large Dresden painting – is here preserved.

‘Bellotto’s paintings allow the viewer to walk around the city’
Gregor Weber

The majority of Bellotto’s Dresden vedute were designed as pairs, whose subject and composition complement one another. For the Royal Gallery he painted two views of the old moat around the bastions: the View of the moat of the Zwinger (Gal. no. 609), whose composition is reprised here, and its pendant, which shows a continuation of the moat, the View of the Saturn Bastion (Gal. no. 611).5 The ascending diagonal in the former is mirrored by a descending diagonal in the latter. The present painting appears not to have been designed with a pendant; none is known.

As Gregor Weber has written, ‘Bernardo Bellotto’s views of Dresden demonstrate astonishing precision both in their topographical detailing and their mastery of perspective. […] Bellotto’s paintings allow the viewer to walk around the city’.6 Rendered with astonishing clarity, it is as if the buildings are seen through the lens of a powerful camera. The effect of distance is achieved not only by Bellotto’s remarkably skillful use of perspective but also by his masterful handling of contrasting tonal effects. Overlapping areas of light and dark create a highly convincing sense of depth as the viewer’s eye moves from areas of shadow in the foreground to the sunlit expanse of the canal.

Bellotto’s paintings of Dresden, a highpoint of the artist’s maturity, bear witness to his supremely accomplished style, which after his departure from Italy in 1746, would serve him so well for more than three decades at the great courts of northern Europe. In the words of Edgar Peters Bowron, Bellotto’s views of Dresden and its environs are not only his finest works but are among the greatest achievements of eighteenth-century view-painting.

Note on Provenance

First recorded in the private collection of the Duke of Saxe-Anhalt, Bellotto’s Dresden, View of the Moat of the Zwinger found its way onto the open market in Berlin, where it was acquired sometime between 1928 and 1930 by Jewish businessman Max Emden (1874–1940). One of the founders of Berlin’s famous KaDeWe department store, Emden owned stores around Germany and as far afield as Italy, Hungary and Scandinavia.

In 1927, Emden acquired the two Brissago Islands in the Swiss sector of Lake Maggiore and in 1929 began redeveloping them as his permanent residence, preserving the garden on the larger island made by the previous owner, the Baroness St Leger, and building a house in classical style at its centre. As unconventional in spirit as the Baroness, he continued with her tradition of exotic parties and, as a committed naturist and nudist, encouraged his like-minded guests to water-ski and dance naked in the garden. His motto ‘Auch leben ist eine Kunst’ (‘Even living is an art’) greeted visitors as they disembarked.

In 1933, Emden left Hamburg and withdrew to his island property, and the following year, the municipality of Porto Ronco granted him citizenship rights, which meant that he was also a Swiss citizen from that date onwards. For Emden, the apparent blessing of Swiss citizenship led to his economic downfall; while he could still have managed his arrangements and made provisions relatively unhindered until 1935, as a Swiss citizen he was already prevented from doing so prior to 1935 solely on account of the Third Reich’s restrictive foreign exchange policy. In 1934 and 1935 his businesses, properties and financial assets in Germany, including most of his prestigious art collection, were seized by the Nazis. By 1937, he was almost insolvent and began to sell his art collection held on Brissago Island.

In June 1938, art dealer Anna Caspari arranged the sale of two of Emden’s Bellotto paintings – Dresden, A View of the Moat of the Zwinger (the present lot) and Vienna, a View of the Karlskirche (lot 165 in the Old Masters Day sale, 20–29 July 2020, L20034) – to Karl Haberstock, a prominent dealer at the time, who was a buyer of artworks for Adolf Hitler and his planned ‘Führermuseum’ in Linz. A victim of Nazi persecution, Emden sold the Bellottos below market value, and according to the findings of last year’s restitution case, there is no evidence he received the proceeds of the sale. The descendants of Max Emden were collectively of the opinion that the forced sales carried out under National Socialist rule and the expropriation of the businessman’s assets located in Germany ultimately led to his financial ruin. That the sale of the paintings had not been undertaken voluntarily but entirely as a result of worsening economic hardship, was confirmed not least by the fact that Emden had been forced to sell other valuable items from his household at the same time. In 1940, Emden died, and the island and house were acquired by three local cantons, Ticino buying a half-share.

After the war Dresden, A View of the Moat of the Zwinger was seized by Allied troops and entered the German federal government collection in the 1960s. The painting was housed in the residence of successive German presidents for many decades thereafter, but President Horst Köhler returned it to the government in 2005 after learning its history. The picture then went on permanent loan to the Militär Historisches Museum in Dresden. In 2019 Dresden, View of the Moat of the Zwinger by Bellotto was restituted and returned by the German government to the heirs of Max Emden.

1 Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Gal. no. 609. Oil on canvas, 133 x 235 cm. Kozakiewicz 1972, vol. II, pp. 127–28, no. 157, reproduced p. 126.

2 Gal. no. 629; reproduced in colour in A. Rizzi, Bernardo Bellotto: Dresda, Vienna, Monaco, Venice 1996, p. 49, no. 20.

3 Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, inv. 1341. Oil on canvas, 49 x 83 cm. Kozakiewicz 1972, vol. II, p. 128, no. 158, reproduced p. 126. The design of this painting is narrower at the margins and omits the Hausmannsturm, the tower of the castle visible at the extreme left of the Dresden composition.

4 Plate 53.1 x 83.8 cm. First state: caption in the bottom margin: Vüe laterale des Galleries du Zwinger, – avec le Pont, qui degage vers l’Allée – /d’Ostra et vers la Porte de Wilsdruff, – prise d’une des Serres de l’Orangerie Roïale. /Peint et gravé par Berd: Bellotto dit Canaletto Peiñ. R. – 1758.

5 Reproduced in colour in Rizzi 1996, p. 47, no. 18.

6 G. Weber in Masterpieces from Dresden, exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2003, p. 96, no. 30.