The Glory of Baroque. Mississippi Arts Pavilion

“The Glory of Baroque Dresden” was an exhibition of Baroque art from the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen (State Art Collections) Dresden, held at the Mississippi Arts Pavilion in Jackson from March 1 to September 6, 2004. Organised by the Mississippi Commission for International Cultural Exchange in association with the Dresden museums, it was the fourth major European exhibition mounted by that commission in Jackson and the first large-scale presentation of Dresden’s collections in North America since German reunification. The exhibition drew some 130,000 visitors over its six-month run.

The show spanned the full breadth of Dresden’s collecting under Elector Augustus II (“the Strong”) and his son Augustus III, encompassing Old Master paintings, sculpture, drawings and prints, jewels from the Green Vault, porcelain, decorative arts, arms and armour, and coins, as well as reconstructions of palatial Dresden interiors. Nine thematic sections corresponded to the major departments of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, and the accompanying catalogue included essays on the history of Baroque Dresden, the figure of Augustus the Strong as a political image-maker, and transatlantic cultural exchange during the Baroque era.

Vermeer’s The Procuress (1656), the largest and earliest of his securely attributed works, travelled to Jackson from the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister as part of the Old Masters component of the exhibition. The painting had recently undergone conservation treatment in Dresden, and its inclusion in the Jackson show gave American audiences a rare opportunity to see it freshly restored. Shortly after the exhibition closed, the Gemäldegalerie presented a dedicated studio exhibition in Dresden examining the restoration in detail, cementing The Procuress’s standing as a key work in the study of Vermeer’s early career.