There's probably also a Restoration comedy smutty 'fine china' joke to be made somewhere
Nice meal last night - spaaaaaaaargel!!!! - though would have been nicer without the lengthy hiatus between starter and main. In a slightly odd large keller-space, which included at one end a carousel thing slowly revolving with what appeared to be a Dance of Death motif. Also waitstaff in ye trad dress and musicians making the rounds with (we thought) ye olde trad folke-songes.
Today we took the tram as far as just before the bridge to the older bit of town and walked along the banks of the Elbe to the Japanese Palace - this was a bit disappointing, at least from the outside, but the walk was nice - weather bright and fresh, whereas by afternoon a bit muggy - and some splendid vistas of the old town across the river.
Thence to the Zwinger Palace, which guidebook describes as 'baroque at its most playful' - walked along the ramparts, and then into the Gallery of Old Masters, which is a world-class collection, even if we were rather put out that they only had a few of their substantial collection of Bellottos from when he was a court painter in Dresden actually on view, v disappointing.
Even if there was a significant quotient of High Art=Soft Porn... encountered less of this yesterday, though perhaps should have mentioned the slightly WTF small marble statue of 2 putti engaging in a spanking scene in (if memory serves) one of the sculpture galleries in the Albertum. The collection in the Zwinger includes the famous one of Venus pleasuring herself Asleep, lots of Rubens, and a weird Tintoretto of Women Playing Musical Instruments with their kit off, apart from one in diaphanous draperies.
However, some great Rembrandts, including the one of a terrified Ganymede being abducted by an eagle, which makes perhaps an interesting pair with his Susannah painting in being much more about the victim's reaction than the voyeuristic gaze.
We also did the Porcelain Museum, which is pretty much Augustus the Strong's collection of Japanese, Chinese, and locally produced porcelain, and goes on and on and on.
Augustus the Strong doesn't worry about living up to his china.
Augustus the Strong's china worries about living up to him.
It's actually very very impressive even if one is not particularly into ceramics, because it's pretty much all absolutely stunning, apart from a case or two of bog-standard Dresden figures, or else amazingly weird, like the whole gallery of large porcelain animals, and the porcelain statue of A the S with a riot of presumable allegorically significant beings and stuff around the base of the plinth, possibly even a kitchen sink in there somewhere.
We took in a couple more churches, including the Church of the Three Kings in Neustadt, which although most of it is now baroque and after, incorporates a C16th carved Totentanz frieze.
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