Information from the museum’s website, 28 April 2015
Following the ‘New Neighbours’ prelude last year, some 50 works of French, Spanish, Italian, Flemish, Dutch and German Baroque painting can now be seen once again in dynamic new constellations. The exhibition addresses four different themes through the juxtaposition of these masterpieces: ‘Nature and Mythology:, ‘Portraits’, ‘Art in Rome around 1600’ and ‘Caravaggism’. One element linking the topics is the pictorial mise-en-scène of the human figure, whether in the landscape or in the different forms of portraiture to which Rembrandt and his pupils dedicated themselves in the most varied of ways. The intense interest in figurative painting motivated a number of artists to go to Italy to study the works from Antiquity in particular. Rome was an especially important art centre and it was there, around 1600, that two contrary movements emerged. Those artists following on from Caravaggio upheld a naturalistic understanding of art; on the other hand, artists like Guido Reni maintained the ideal of classical beauty with balanced compositions. Masterpieces by Rubens, Rembrandt and other Baroque masters are now accessible once again to the general public following the closure of rooms in the Alte Pinakothek for renovation.