Are You Dreaming?

The Kupferstichkabinett is exhibiting a selection of depictions of sleeping people in the cabinet of the Gemäldegalerie. The exhibition is, however, not primarily concerned with the human body at rest. After all, sleep is so much more than just a physical state: it is also the precondition for the emergence of the mental images that arise in dreams, fantasies and visions. When viewed in this light, the subject of sleep offers a considerable degree of artistic scope.

Sleep provides a unique scope for art: for one, it allows artists to study the body in every conceivable pose and experiment with perspectives that not only deviate from traditional ideal representations of the human form, but are in some cases even unsightly. The extreme foreshortening and contortion of the body allows artists to showcase their skill and knowledge of classical and Italian models. Conversely, the world of dreams provides artists with a licence to engage with indecent jokes, pornographic imagery and imagined fantastical forms and creatures – a luxury the artists of the 16th century were not afforded. At the same time, the dream has offered artists the opportunity to reflect on the genesis of human imagination, ingenuity and originality.

The exhibition presents a collection of woodcuts and engravings that were produced in German-speaking countries between 1490 and 1560. Among them are such famous works as Albrecht Dürer’s Dream of the Doctor, Lucas Cranach the Elder’s Penance of St John Chrysostom and Hans Baldung’s The Bewitched Groom. These works are inscribed with elements of the enigmatic and fantastical, but also with such an originality that they continue to raise questions to this day. The exhibition also features smaller and lesser-known works by members of the Nuremberg-based group known as the Little Masters, among others. These are accompanied by an engraving by the Italian artist Jacopo de’ Barbari, who worked in Nuremberg and Wittenberg at the beginning of the 16th century, and another by the Dutch artist Lucas van Leyden, whom Albrecht Dürer met on his travels to the Netherlands. The artist Melchior Lorck, who lived out his final moments in Copenhagen, worked in Istanbul, which was then known as Constantinople, for a while. All of these artists’ works are emblematic of the lively artistic exchange that was taking place across borders at the beginning of the 16th century.

The exhibition highlights a special feature of graphic collections: the artworks have been left in their original mounting, thereby allowing viewers a glimpse of other themes that are not directly related to the exhibition. Visitors are invited to wander around and make discoveries – as if in a dream.

Curator

Are You Dreaming? is curated by Mailena Mallach, curator of German drawings and prints before 1800 at the Kupferstichkabinett.

A special exhibition of the Kupferstichkabinett in the Gemäldegalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin