Introduction

Almost all of the works on display in the Ludwigsburg Baroque Gallery belong to the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. These include paintings acquired in recent decades as well as several important works on loan from private collectors. Nevertheless, the nucleus of the Staatsgalerie’s collection of paintings can for its part look back on historical origins, for many of the paintings go back as far as the time when Schloss Ludwigsburg was built and - like the collection of Count Gustav Adolf von Gotter, for example - were originally owned by Württemberg’s erstwhile aristocracy.

Included in the collection of Count von Gotter - his exhibited portrait was painted by Martin van Meytens the Younger (1695–1770)–were several works of German Baroque painting, all of which can at long last be put on permanent display thanks to the new exhibition rooms in Schloss Ludwigsburg. The impressive work entitled »Treasure Diggers in Roman Ruins«, painted in 1662 by Johann Heinrich Schönfeld (1609-1684), is one of the main works of this collection. Alongside further works by this outstanding painter from Biberach are paintings by the Memmingen-born artist Johan Heiss (1640-1704). Further works will be completely new discoveries for the visitor, such as the large painting entitled »The Entry of the Animals into Noah’s Ark« painted by the animal painter Carl Andreas Ruthart, who was born in Danzig in 1630 and died as a monk in an Italian monastery some time after 1703. Ruthart’s relatively rare works were held in high esteem by many, not least by Grand Duke Cosimo III of Tuscany.

Niccolò Renieri (Nicolas Regnier) (1591–1667) »Amnon and Thamar«, oil on canvas

Also displayed in the new Baroque Gallery in Schloss Ludwigsburg are numerous works of Italian art of the 17th and 18th centuries, which form the second mainstay of the collection. Italian painting has constituted the Staatsgalerie’s most substantial department ever since 1852, when the museum acquired the Venetian Barbini-Breganze Collection.

Through lack of space, however, it has hitherto been virtually impossible to show many of these works, especially those of the Italian Baroque, which in recent years have grown considerably in number through new acquisitions. The Ludwigsburg Baroque Gallery is thus the ideal complement to the Staatsgalerie’s existing exhibition facilities, for it now permits an adequately representative showing of the works of Italian Baroque painters from Venice, Florence, Rome and, above all, Naples. [ Rv ]