Home - Introduction - Court Life in the Age of Enlightenment
Bernardo Bellotto, called Canaletto (1721/22-1780)
View of Dresden from the Left Shore of the Elbe River, up from the Bridgehead of the Historical City Centre
1748
Canvas, 133 x 235 cm
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Gem?ldegalerie Alte Meister, gal. no. 608
Life in eighteenth-century Europe was characterised by competing noble dynasties. Rulership centred around the court, which constituted the political, social and cultural heart of each principality. Court culture focused on symbolising princely power through representation. Seats of royal power such as Berlin, Dresden and Munich were distinguished by the grandeur with which they held court, boasting sumptuous palaces and gardens, festivities with music and fireworks, state portraits and luxurious clothes. Though the rulers differed in their receptiveness to the ideas of the Enlightenment, some did participate in the Enlightenment project by founding public museums C as in Dresden and Munich C or establishing tolerance as a state principle C as in Berlin.
Antoine Watteau (1684-1721)
Party in the Open Air c. 1720
Canvas, 111 x 163 cm
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gem?ldegalerie, inv. no. 474B
Georg Desmares (1697-1776)
The Artist with His Daughter Antonia
c. 1760 Canvas, 159 x 118 cm
Bayerische Staatsgem.ldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek, Munich, inv. no. 42
