At 13:50 from the Kunstbibliotek to the Kulturforum’s outdoor café – still run by the same multi-tasking proprietor that I met in 2008 – for lunch in the shade of a large umbrella, then inside again an hour later to the Engraving Gallery – the Kupferstichkabinett – for several series of prints by outstanding 18th Century artists such as Tiepolo, Canaletto, Piranesi and Fragonard, under the title 'On the Edge of Reason' (Am Rande der Vernunft).
All of the prints were superb; I was particularly struck by the series 'Imaginary Prisons' by Piranesi – each print 50-60cm wide – which portrayed huge cathedral-sized interiors with arches and flying staircases that wouldn't look out of place in a film like Lord of the Rings. Also by Piranesi some of the 137 etchings of a similar size in a series he called 'Veduti di Roma' (Views of Rome), on which he worked over three decades from 1748; the realistic portrayal modified to be part dramatic, part painterly.
By contrast, lovely small cartoons – actually 'Singeries', which use a monkey to satirise humans – by Guélard and Huet from around 1743. And a selection of the prints by Francisco de Goya, best known as a painter, in his Los Caprichos album, which combine an incised line with the broad effect of aquatint; the small aquatints were an artistic experiment which he completed in the late 1790s as he recovered from a serious illness, and which he said depict "the innumerable foibles and follies to be found in any civilized society". The display included the iconic 'The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters', which was also used to promote the exhibition:
© Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
I enjoyed fifty minutes in the Kupferstichkabinett before moving nearby to the Musikinstrumenten Museum, next to the Philharmonie (predictably I had to walk all round it to its entrance on the main road). A huge collection of keyboard instruments, and much else, in one big space; lighter and less crowded than the museum in Leipzig that I visited last year. I didn't take the audio guide, which I think plays samples from many of the instruments, due to lack of time; I wanted to get back to the hotel for a quick break and to change before returning to the Philharmonie for my pre-booked concert tonight. So I left the Musikinstrumenten Museum at 16:30, walked back to Potsdamer Platz and took the train up to Nordbahnhof.
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