The Portland daily press., 1892-12-28
Especial Correspondence of the Press.)

especial Correspondence OF tlle ffeSS.l
BAsLE, SWITZERLAND, Nov. 24th.-To
all the lovers of art, Dresden next to
Florence is the most enjoyable city in
which to dwell. Although not in all re-
spects alike, these cities have a striking
resemblance.
To Augustus Ii the Strong and Angus
tus Ill his successor all the past of Ores
den belongs. In the time of the former
the cultivation of Rocco art reached a
very high point and the Zwinger with
its Roman galleries was commenced. At
that time, there lived in Dresden an OBJ
scure chemist by the name of Bottger,
and to him all its classic adornments are
due, for it was he who led in the dis
covery of this branch of plaster art. In
well as at the midday meal we are re-
minded of him. The tiny egg shells our
fashionable danes finger at the five
o'clock tea and in afternoon calls had no
existence until Bottger discovered the
process of making, not only Dresden
china, but all the other delicate porce-
LANES which are so much coveted nova
days.
Saxony's Louis XIV. who was Angus
tus Ii the Strong was SO IN love with
Roman Art, that like the Grand Monar-
que" of France he tried to reproduce it
in all the finest features of the old Ro-
man style, and both of these sovereigns
invested their domestic life with much
more pomp and splendor than that Of
the monarchs of to-day. But like all
affectations of magnifcence, pendantry
partly died out with Augustus III and
although Augustus III spent his life in
collecting valuable pictures, in about
the middle of the last century Dresden
became inferior to Munich and Dussel-
dorf as an art centre, but in the begin
ming of the present century artists were
| invited from the cities to stimulate anew
the artistic taste of Dresden and during
the last half century-the pupils of their
own great artists have brought the repu-
tation of the city up to its past glory and
today all its people and all its surround
ings are pervaded with the spirit of ar
|
most attractive place to those who de-
Sire home, where they can cultivate
these elements of character and so Dres-
den has become one of the foremost
cities in which Americans, who are
lovers of art, congregate to study and en-
| JOY it's benefits.
The galleries rank well with those Of
| Florence and reflect greatly to the taste
of Augustus III, who ransacked all of
Northern Italy bringing its great art
treasures thither. 1t was in its churches
and galleries that he found some of
Raphaels greatest works, the Sistine
| Madonna having been originally painted
| for and placed in the church of st Sisto
in Piacenza Also he brought hither
those of Mantegner, Del Sarto, Corregio,
Palma, Vecchio, Paul Veronese, Murrillo,
Rembrandt, Rubens and Holbein now in
the Zwinger, many of which he found in
Northern Italy. And, in no galleries IN
galleries not excepted, can one pass a
day more satisfactorily than in the CALLER
les at Dresden.
There is also much beside in Dresden
to enjoy, in it's suburban drives, in it's
palaces and famous collection of gems
and in the trip to Meissen where the
manufacture of the porcelain is carried
on and where it can be seen in all of it's
different stages, and also where a survey
of the old Albrichtburg Palace can be
obtained, which is now restored, but I'M
til 1860 contained this same porcelain
mandatory.
| Leipsic.
In the same way that Dresden appeals
to the artistic taste, Leipsic takes pos
session of the lovers OF music, fol- the