The SMB’s Gemäldegalerie is home to one of the most important collections of European painting from the 13th until the 18th century. In a special display, over 70 works from the study gallery and storerooms have been put on show in the spacious central hall. Many of these works have, until now, never been on view or have been shown only to a limited extent. They will now be displayed until late 2018 and take centre stage during any visit to the museum. The exhibition will alternate with major special exhibitions in the adjoining galleries, such as ‘Mantegna and Bellini: Masters of the Renaissance’, which will begin in spring 2019.

Through additional cultural and educational offerings and a new lighting system, so far under-presented works by and in the style of Hieronymus Bosch, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Davide Ghirlandaio, Gerard de Lairesse, Diego Velázquez, Giovanni Paolo Panini, Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, and Sir Joshua Reynolds will appear ‘in a new light’, finally presented in a place befitting them at the centre of the Gemäldegalerie.

The central hall – usually kept deliberately empty – will thereby become a new, central entry point to the Gemäldegalerie. The choice of works and their hanging will provide viewers with orientation for their tour through the building and invite them to discover the individual collection areas, art schools, and stylistic periods, ranging from the early German and early Netherlandish periods through the Renaissance and the Baroque period in Italy, France, and Spain up to the Enlightenment and sentimentalism in European painting in the 18th century. Introductory wall panels provide information on the museum’s holdings and the history of the collection.