Masterworks from the Salzburg Residenzgalerie collection
The Residenzgalerie Salzburg, opened in 1923, is successor to the art collections of the prince-archbishops. It was founded as a cultural attraction beside the Salzburg Festival, which had been initiated three years previously. The collection contains the most important 16th-19th-century Old Master paintings from the Province of Salzburg collections. With works from Austria, France, Italy and the Netherlands (Holland and Flanders), the focus is on the principal European art landscapes of the early modern period, according to which the majority of the collection is structured. A major influence in 17th-century Dutch landscape painting was Jacob Isaacksz. van Ruisdael, one of whose works was recently acquired for the Residenzgalerie.
Today, the nucleus of the collection consists of 70 masterpieces from the Vienna collection of Count Czernin. Under Federal Monument Protection since 1987, these paintings include an original work by Rembrandt which, together with 20 further works from the former Czernin collection, is on view in the current presentation.
Two rooms are devoted to specific narratives: the Noah’s Ark cycle by Kaspar Memberger the Elder, and Easter, illustrated by nine paintings from a variety of art landscapes. Eight of the paintings date back to the archiepiscopal collections, 21 to the Czernin collection, and nine were formerly part of the collection of the Austrian imperial family.
On public view for the first time are two paintings from the assortment donated (in memory of Roman Szalay) by Anna Szalay to the Residenzgalerie Salzburg on 26 November 2024.
More about the collection of the Residenzgalerie Salzburg.