27 April 2014

What is Old?  What is New?

We start the day out by going to the Gemäldergalerie at the Zwinger.  It will take up the whole morning.  What is interesting to see is how a collection of private individuals, and thus reflecting their taste, is morphed into a national institution under the care and taste of curators.  There are some really wonderful works here, and I imagine my sister Wendy salivating over the Dürer Adam and Eve, and several Cranach’s (both older and younger).  The big draw is the Raphael, Sistine Madonna, but there are many other delights as well.  A surprise to me, there are several Pousin and some very early El Greco.  Later in the day, Arthur asks me which moved me the most.  I had to admit that it was the small Van Eyck altarpiece, off in some side gallery.  It was jewel-like and quite moving.

After lunch and a final tour of the galleries, we make our way to the Hofkirche.  There is a Roman Catholic Cathedral in Dresden because, August the Strong wanted to be the King of Poland – and they required a Catholic ruler – so he converted, and thus the Hofkirche was built.  It’s a rather subdued building, but with a magnificent pulpit.

It seems, however, that it really doesn’t know what it wants to be.  Perhaps it is subdued out of deference to its staunchly Lutheran surroundings.  There is one monument that gives me pause.  It is a pieta, but so poorly conceived and executed that I couldn’t wait to show it to Arthur (who met it with a wry smile).  Perhaps one needs to really tap into the horror of the firebombing – and that is a topic to which we will return soon – in order to appreciate this particular work.

If you cannot see it, it is the Blessed Virgin, with the dead Jesus draped across her lap, is holding a crown of thorns.  It did make me think.  But it seems to reside on the side of the extreme, and not too subtle.  On our way over to the Frauenkirche, we pass by a walk on the side of the Residenz, which depicts all the rulers of Saxonia.  It is very interesting.

Our first visit to the Frauenkirche was a climb up to the cupola of the church.  A combination of stairs and one short elevator ride will get you there.  It’s like climbing the Duomo in Florence, but less.  In Florence you get to see the solutions and machinery that Brunelleschi brought to the problem of springing a dome without having any lower supports.  Here there are similar engineering problems, but the solutions aren’t as transparent.  The views, however, are spectacular.

We cannot get into the church proper because of Baptisms, so we walk over to Kreutzkirche.  What a contrast!  The solution at Frauenkirche was to replace a profile and an interior.  The solution at Kreutzkirche was to create a vibrant liturgical space.  Both spaces are Lutheran (although the commitment at Frauenkirche seems to be nominal – but more about that later) and it is Kreuzkirche that makes both a traditional and a contemporary statement.  The old altar is reworked, but the remainder of the interior is left empty – an elegant and eloquent statement about the firestorm.

Outside there is an even more convincing piece, and that is a small plaque that acknowledges the treatment of the Jews during National Socialism and the church’s complicity, and that asks for forgiveness. It is stunning, and as we read the sentiments, Arthur and I both weep.

We do go to a service (Anglican Evening Prayer) at Frauenkirche.  It wasn’t all that satisfying to me.  The interior of the church is too new.  It is going to require a few decades of candle wax and soot to mute the much too bright images and the baroque altar.  Here we are in a church, named for Our Lady, and there is no image of her – anywhere.  Eucharistic references are nil, and the altar in the lower church has a deep bowl in the mensa of its altar that said to me something was missing.  The sentiment at Frauenkirche is that something was taken away and has now been replaced.  It doesn’t make, however, any statement about the faith.  I had a conversation after the service with a Pfarrarin who was a member of the group that made liturgical decisions about the reconstruction.  She was satisfied with what they had done, even though it did not accurately reflect the original designs. The question for me was one of whether there was a duty to just replace the old, or to reinterpret and give some place to the new.  I hate to say it, but I think the Frauenkirche is a failure.  I don’t think it’s a failure for the Dresdeners, but that success is about civics and not Christianity.

We walk back in the twilight, with the buildings taking on a glow against a blue on blue sky.  It is lovely. Dresden is a beautiful city that is draped over difficult history.  It will take some time to think it through.