Bernardo Bellotto
View of the Rock, and the Königstein Castle from the West
1754-1764
Scroll
Bernardo Bellotto
View of the Rock, and the Königstein Castle from the West
1754-1764
Physical Qualities
Etching, Sheet: 514 x 697 mm. (20 1/4 x 27 7/16 in.)
Plate: 421 x 631 mm. (16 9/16 x 24 13/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of James and Leslie Billet, Baltimore
Object Number
1983.48
In 1747 Bernardo Bellotto moved from Italy to Dresden to become the court painter to Augustus III, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony. The Fortress of Königstein was one of five large-scale paintings of a castle located just outside of Dresden that Augustus III commissioned from the artist in 1756. Bellotto is thought to have completed the five canvases in 1758, but they were never delivered due to the invasion and siege of Saxony at the onset of the Seven Years War (1756–1764). Bellotto subsequently made etchings after his paintings of Königstein, as well as after many of his other sweeping views of Saxony, to help support himself and also to make these compositions more widely known.
BMA, Jacobs rotation, 15 March - 29 June 2010
Inscribed: In plate, across bottom: "Vue du Roc, et Forteresse de Koenig stein du coté de l'Occident, et de la / Montée, aïant de l'autre coté le Lilienstein, au de-la de l'Elbe, et en distance, les Montagnes de la Lusace. / La Vue a eté prise du Cabaret nommé la Neue schenke. Se trouvent chez l'Auteur a Dresde, et chez Pierre Fouquet a Amsterdam. Peint et gravé par Ber: Belotto de Canaletto Peintre Elec."
Markings: None
