The State Art Gallery

The Herrenberger Altar by Jerg Ratgeb (1518/19) and the Grauen Passion (1494-1500) by Hans Holbein In the Staatsgalerie of Stuttgart.. (Photo by Steffen Jänicke)

Stuttgart's Staatsgalerie is one of the top fine art museums in Central Europe

Body of Christ (1582) by Annibale Carracci.


St. Paul in Prison (1627) by Rembrandt.


Bathsheba at her Bath (c.1485) by Hans Memling.


Bohemian Landscape (1808) by Caspar David Friedrich.


Female Nude Reclining on a White Pillow (1917) by Amadeo Modigliani.

The State Gallery of Art in Stuttgart—built upon the private collections of the Dukes of Württemberg—houses paintings by Rembrandt, Rubens, Lucas Cranach, Hans Holbein the Elder, Tiepolo, Monet, Picasso, Cézanne, and Warhol.

There is also an excellent medieval Swabian collection, and 20th century German works .

The collections are spread across both the original Neoclassical space and a massive, playful, color-kissed 1984 addition designed by British architect James Stirling.

Some favorites among the collections:

• The Virgin as the Throne of Soloman (c. 1335) by an unknown artist in the style of the School of Lake Constance. This is the oldest Swabian painting known to exist, and it came from a former Cistercian monastery.
• Scenes from the Apocalypse (c. 1330/40), by the so-called "Master of the Erbach Panels," two densely decorated wood panels with wacky Last Judgement scenes done in the style of Giotto (and— rather fancifully, if you ask me—attributed to that Italian Gothic master).
• Body of Christ and the Implements of Martyrdom (1582) by Annibale Carracci, a perspective masterpiece of Renaissance foreshortening and chiaroscuro realism.
• St. Paul in Prison (1627) by a young Rembrandt van Rijn, a contemplative piece from a emerging Dutch master, painted when he was about 21 years old.
• Bathsheba at her Bath (c. 1485) by Hans Memling, with the erotic Biblical moment captured in a typical Gothic German ideal of elongated beauty and chastity. (Poor King David, in a red tunic on that distant balcony, wouldn't really be able to see much more than the back of the maid's head and a large white sheet).
• Bohemian Landscape (1808) by Caspar David Friedrich, a quiet yet majestic tonal landscape by this master of the German Romantic era.
• Female Nude Reclining on a White Pillow (1917) by Amadeo Modigliani, a luscious Modernist work harking back to classical nudes by an Italian master portraitist who died at 35.
• The Sublime Moment (1938) by Salvador Dalí, because, hey: Salvador Dalí. (Actually, it supposed to be a commentary on the build-up to war following the Munich Conference, but you can still just dig it for Dalí's patented hallucinatory brand of Surrealism.)

Tips & links