The Fortress of Konigstein: Courtyard with the Brunnenhaus
Bernardo Bellotto, 1757
The painting shows the inner courtyard of the Königstein Fortress, near Dresden, seen looking northeastwards. Its focal point is the Brunnenhaus, a pumphouse linked to a deep well that supplied the garrison with fresh water. Around it stand the Commandment's House, the Central Barracks and St George's Church, arranged by Bellotto in a way that gives the space a sense of order and measure. Rather than a scene centred on people, the work reads as a portrait of a real place and its everyday function. It is usually dated to around 1757-1758 and belongs to a set of five paintings commissioned by Augustus III, Elector of Saxony, which ties it to the official depiction of his territories. It later came into the hands of John Tempest, a northern English landowner whose country house in County Durham displayed it, and then passed to his descendants until its sale in 1982 and its acquisition by the Manchester Art Gallery.
- Painter
- Bernardo Bellotto
- Date
- 1757
- Medium
- oil paint, canvas
- Dimensions
- 134 × 238 cm
- Museum
- Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester
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