Bernardo Bellotto - The Fortress of Königstein [1756-58]

Bernardo Bellotto - The Fortress of Königstein [1756-58], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The painting is one of five large views of an ancient fortress near Dresden commissioned from Bellotto (Italian, 1722 - 1780) by Augustus III, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony. The panorama encompasses a broad expanse of the picturesque, craggy landscape known as Saxonian Switzerland, which Bellotto invested with a monumental quality rarely seen in eighteenth-century Italian painting. The great castle sits atop a mountain that rises precipitously from the Elbe River Valley, hundreds of feet below. In the distance on the left is the Lilienstein, one of the prominent sandstone formations scattered across the countryside.

Bellotto began working at Königstein in the spring of 1756. He was commissioned to paint five views of the interior and exterior of the fortress that were intended to complete the twenty-five views of Dresden and Pirna he previously painted for the royal collection. His work was interrupted when Frederick II of Prussia opened hostilities in the Seven Years War by invading Saxony in August 1756. It is thought that Bellotto completed the canvases by 1758, but none were delivered to the court and all five paintings were recorded later in the century in England where two remain in a private collection and two in the City Art Gallery, Manchester.

[Oil on canvas, 133 x 235.7 cm]