MUNICH.- In 2011 the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen is marking the Alte Pinakothek’s 175th anniversary with a wide range of events. Opened to the public on 16 October, 1836, Leo von Klenze’s seminal museum building today still provides the architectural framework for collections of paintings assembled in Munich around 1800 by various branches of the Wittelsbach dynasty, together with King Ludwig I’s later acquisitions.

A series of exhibitions during the jubilee year focuses on the history of the museum and its collection which is among the most important in the world. To launch this series, from mid March the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen welcomed a hugely important guest, Johannes Vermeer’s “Woman Holding a Balance”. This masterpiece, now held in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, once formed part of the exquisite private collection amassed by the first king of Bavaria, Max I Joseph, who awaits rediscovery as a collector of Dutch paintings from the “Golden Age”. At the same time, the exhibition “Treasures from the Depot” is being held in the North Cabinet Rooms where paintings that are seldom or have never been displayed before can be seen throughout the whole anniversary year.

From mid April, a selection from the exceptional holding of works by Cranach in the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen will be on show. The title “Cranach in Bavaria” is consciously ambiguous as it does not merely relate to the early years of the artist who was born in Kronach, but also to the history of the holdings and their deployment today in various regions of the Free State.

The exhibition “Concealed/Revealed” provides a special look under the surface of paintings from 8 July onwards. Photographs taken using digital infrared reflectography render the artistic sketches of major works of German Renaissance painting in the Alte Pinakothek visible. From the end of July, visitors can once again experience what Klenze’s famous building must have been like in an exhibition about the historical Alte
Pinakothek before its was bombed in the war. Large-format prints, made from glass negatives in our photographic archive that is now almost 100 years old, will give an impression of the former splendour and opulence of the Alte Pinakothek which was rebuilt in the 1950s in a more simplified form incorporating building materials that could still be reused.

The dazzling finale will be the exhibition “Perugino – Raphael’s Master” from October onwards. The altarpiece depicting the appearance of the Virgin to St. Bernhard, acquired by King Ludwig I, who commissioned the building of the Alte Pinakothek, will be shown together with selected paintings and drawings by Perugino among them outstanding international loans.