Herzog Ant­on Ul­rich-Mu­seum Braun­sch­weig

The Herzog Ant­on Ul­rich-Mu­seum is the art mu­seum for the state of Nieder­sachsen (Lower Sax­ony). Opened in 1754, it is not only one of Europe’s old­est mu­seums, but also one of the world’s most im­port­ant mu­seums of Old Mas­ters thanks to its out­stand­ing col­lec­tions. Paint­ings by Cranach, Rubens, Rem­brandt and Ver­meer, the largest col­lec­tion of Itali­an ma­jol­ica this side of the Alps, a large col­lec­tion of East Asi­an art as well as over 100,000 prints and 10,000 draw­ings on dis­play in the Print Room make this a ma­jor in­ter­na­tion­al mu­seum. The mu­seum re­opened in Oc­to­ber 2016 fol­low­ing sev­en years of renov­a­tion and mod­ern­isa­tion.

The mu­seum is named after Duke Ant­on Ul­rich of Braun­sch­weig-Lüneb­urg (1633-1714), a col­our­ful and mul­ti­fa­ceted ruler from the Baroque age who laid the found­a­tions for this ex­traordin­ary col­lec­tion of art. The most valu­able and sig­ni­fic­ant works in the col­lec­tion, in­clud­ing Rem­brandt’s Fam­ily Por­trait, Ju­dith with the Head of Holofernes by Rubens and Jan Ver­meer’s The Girl with the Wine Glass, found a home in the Nieder­sachsen (Lower Sax­ony) of today thanks to the col­lect­ing pas­sion of the art-lov­ing Duke. Even Hol­ly­wood has tapped the po­ten­tial of Braun­sch­weig’s artist­ic treas­ures. The Girl with the Wine Glass plays a key role in the film Girl with a Pearl Ear­ring, which is based on Ver­meer’s fam­ous paint­ing of the same name.

In total, the col­lec­tion com­prises some 190,000 art­works pro­duced over a peri­od of 3,000 years from an­cient times to the present day: paint­ings, prints, sculp­tures, fur­niture, ap­plied art (por­cel­ain, ma­jol­ica, enamels), East Asi­an arte­facts and oth­er pre­cious works of art.
The mu­seum’s second ex­hib­i­tion site, Dank­war­d­erode Castle, is home to na­tion­al cul­tur­al rel­ics from the me­di­ev­al col­lec­tion such as the ori­gin­al Braun­sch­weig Castle Li­on, a coat which be­longed to Em­per­or Otto IV and pieces from the fam­ous Guelph Treas­ure, in­clud­ing the Arm Reliquary of Saint Blaise.