View of Dresden with the Moat, Bastions and Italian Gate

According to Le Blanc, the featured composition was the first plate in the Views of Dresden series. It depicts fragments of the town’s former fortifications with bastions and the Italian Gate.

In the foreground, on the left, enfold scenes from everyday life in Dresden’s suburbs. A mother and child are shown seated at the foot of a milepost. Along the riverbank, townsfolk from various walks of life go about their daily business, from privileged members of the elite in their elegant carriages to beggars occupying the stone steps of the embankment. On the left, joiners are erecting a timber-framed house by the Elbe under the supervision of architects engaged in animated exchange. Behind, in a distance, the Zwinger’s façade is visible with adjoining pavilions and next to them the towers of the Hofkirche and castle. On the right, in the background, there is a bridge leading to one of the city’s principal gates: the Italian Gate, also called the Wilsdruffer Tor. First mentioned in the fourteenth century, it will be demolished in 1811, during the dismantling of Dresden’s fortifications. Behind it rises the tower of St Sophia’s Church (destroyed during World War II). Capturing many structures no longer extant or considerably changed since Bellotto had depicted them, the Views of Dresden series, in addition to its artistic merits, is a valuable historical document.

keywords: Baroque  |  Dresden (Germany)  |  German graphics  |  Italian graphics  |  town  |  panorama of the town  |  German art  |  veduta  |  views of Germany