The canvas ‘View of the Upper Gate in Pirna’ was created by Bernardo Bellotto representative of the Venetian landscape school.
Bellotto is a master of veduta which is a documented precise architectural landscape. Bellotto studied painting with his uncle artist Canaletto. At the age of 19, he married and immediately went on a trip to Italian cities. While traveling the artists painted a lot and freed himself from the style influence of his uncle.
The landscape from the Alupkin Museum-Reserve differs from a similar painting stored in the Dresden Gallery, since the latter one depicts two horsemen on the left rather than an open carriage.
Bellotto is a master of veduta which is a documented precise architectural landscape. Bellotto studied painting with his uncle artist Canaletto. At the age of 19, he married and immediately went on a trip to Italian cities. While traveling the artists painted a lot and freed himself from the style influence of his uncle.
At the age of twenty-five, the artist moved to Dresden, the residence of the King of Poland. From 1747 to 1755 Bellotto worked in Dresden at the court of the Elector of Saxony August III. The views of Dresden and the small Saxon town of Pirna, which Bellotto painted at the request of August III, were given a name ‘Royal Series’ (now they are located in the Dresden Gallery). It is interesting that the all-powerful cabinet-minister of the Saxon court Count Henry Brühl immediately ordered the artist to repeat all the paintings he performed for the king, but already for his art gallery. The ‘Brylevian’ series of views of Dresden and Pirna, among other paintings from the count 's collection, was acquired by Catherine II and then transferred to the Hermitage. Later five of fifteen pictures of a series were transferred to the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, one of these works — ‘A view of the Top gate in Pirna’ ― came to the Alupka memorial estate. Bellotto’s works were used in the restoration of the historic center of Dresden after the destruction of World War II.
Pirna, a town of merchants on the high bank of the Elbe, attracted Bellotto with its picturesque location. In the painting “View of the Upper Gate in Pyrna” there’s a main attraction of the city — the Zonnenstein Castle, located on the right at the top of the mountain. The castle was founded in the 13th century on the site of the Slavic settlement and substantially rebuilt after 1460. In the center of the composition there’s an upper gate leading to the fortified part of the city, and the house of the gatekeeper. There’s a Late Gothic Church of the Holy Virgin Mary and the Tower of the Town Hall behind the city wall which stand out against the background. The landscape is brightened up by a few figures of people of different classes, moving slowly on the streets. Among them is a figure of a woman taking water from the water fountain.
Pirna, a town of merchants on the high bank of the Elbe, attracted Bellotto with its picturesque location. In the painting “View of the Upper Gate in Pyrna” there’s a main attraction of the city — the Zonnenstein Castle, located on the right at the top of the mountain. The castle was founded in the 13th century on the site of the Slavic settlement and substantially rebuilt after 1460. In the center of the composition there’s an upper gate leading to the fortified part of the city, and the house of the gatekeeper. There’s a Late Gothic Church of the Holy Virgin Mary and the Tower of the Town Hall behind the city wall which stand out against the background. The landscape is brightened up by a few figures of people of different classes, moving slowly on the streets. Among them is a figure of a woman taking water from the water fountain.
The landscape from the Alupkin Museum-Reserve differs from a similar painting stored in the Dresden Gallery, since the latter one depicts two horsemen on the left rather than an open carriage.
