Alte Pinakothek: Dürer's Stare and the Scarred Façade
Why is it significant?
Walk along the south side of the long brick building and look carefully at the façade. In some stretches the walls are elegant, with arched windows and fine Renaissance-style detail.
Key Facts
| Place | Alte Pinakothek: Dürer's Stare and the Scarred Façade |
|---|---|
| Address | Barer Straße 27, 80333 München, Germany |
| Geo Coordinates | 48.14830, 11.57000 |
| Part of Walk | Isar-Athens: Munich's Königsplatz, the Pinakotheks & the Blue Rider |
| Generated | Generated |
Walk along the south side of the long brick building and look carefully at the façade. In some stretches the walls are elegant, with arched windows and fine Renaissance-style detail. In others, the arches simply stop, and the wall becomes rough, plain brick, as if someone had stitched a wound shut without hiding the scar. That is precisely what happened.
The Alte Pinakothek was built by Leo von Klenze between 1826 and 1836 for Ludwig the First, to show the old masters collected by the Wittelsbach dynasty over centuries. With its long galleries lit from above and its sequence of rooms, it became a model for picture galleries across Europe. The story goes that its tallest hall was made high enough for Rubens's enormous Last Judgement.
Allied bombs gutted the building in the Second World War. Some wanted to tear the ruin down. The architect Hans Döllgast rebuilt it in the 1950s, and instead of faking the lost ornament, he filled the gaps with simple brick and a straight staircase. Critics hated it at first. Today many consider it one of the most honest acts of post-war architecture in Germany: the building tells you, plainly, that it was hurt.
Inside hangs the painting that may stare at you longer than any other in Munich. In 1500, Albrecht Dürer painted himself facing straight out of the panel, long curls, fur collar, one hand raised to his chest. That frontal pose was then reserved for images of Christ. A twenty-eight-year-old artist from Nuremberg dared to paint himself as if creation itself had passed into his hands. More than five hundred years later, he still holds your gaze without blinking.
The collection runs from medieval altarpieces to Rubens, Rembrandt and Titian, and it is easy to lose a whole afternoon here. But the twentieth century is waiting across the road. Cross Barer Straße to the east and head for the big building of white concrete and glass.