Main information:

Residenz Museum

Special collections

19th-century porcelain

East Asian Collection

The Nottbohm Collection
of European Miniatures

Silver

Ecclesiastical Vestments

Masterpieces of bronze art

Relics

 

19th-century porcelain

The collection of nineteenth-century porcelain amassed by the Wittelsbachs contains not only items produced by the royal Bavarian factory at Nymphenburg, but also services from other important makers, including Sèvres in France and the Royal Prussian Factory in Berlin (KPM for short).

 

 

A highlight of the collection is the famous Onyx Service, which King Ludwig I commissioned from the Nymphenburg factory in 1835. Its 717 pieces took thirteen years to complete.

All of them have a purple ground imitating the colour of onyx, the precious stone that gave the service its name.

Another striking feature of the porcelain collection is its plates. Some are decorated with images – scenes from the German medieval epic poem Das Nibelungenlied, pictures of beautiful women wearing traditional costume and views of Bavaria.

 

 

One room in the collection is notable for porcelain reproductions of paintings housed in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. King Ludwig I commissioned these from the Nymphenburg factory in 1827.

Porcelain was prized for its durability, and this was the reason for the king's commission, as he explained: "Copies of the most excellent paintings in porcelain colours will preserve them for posterity when the originals have long since fallen victim to the ravages of time." Fortunately, the King has not been proved right – not yet, anyway – because most of the original paintings can still be admired in the Alte Pinakothek. The porcelain pictures are attractive in their own right, however, and required great skill to produce. Colours applied to porcelain change during firing, for example, so the painters could not see the results of their efforts until the whole process had been completed.

Please note: Due to restoration works the collection 19th-century porcelain can not be visited at the moment.

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East Asian Collection

The Wittelsbachs' collection of Far Eastern art contains over 500 porcelain objects and some lacquer items. Most of the pieces on display were acquired around 1700 by Elector Maximilian Emanuel.

Of special note are the items with mounts of finely chased fire-gilt bronze. The mounts were commissioned from craftsmen in Paris and were intended to increase the preciousness of the objects.

The earliest porcelain wares in the collection are the blue-and-white bowls and plates made in China around 1600, during the Ming dynasty.

The collection also contains items of Japanese and Chinese Imari porcelain. Imari ware was Japanese in origin, but by 1700 it had become so popular in Europe that Chinese craftsmen began copying its typical harmonies of blue, red and gold on a white ground, and eventually succeeded in exporting large quantities to Europe. Porcelain was first produced in Europe itself in 1708, at Meissen in eastern Germany. Thereafter interest in Chinese and Japanese porcelain declined.

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The Nottbohm Collection of European Miniatures

Few museums give visitors an opportunity of acquainting themselves with the full diversity of miniature painting.

The Nottbohm Collection of Miniatures in the Residenz in Munich offers just such a rare opportunity.

Klaus and Helga Nottbohm have amassed an extensive collection of fine miniatures dating from the late sixteenth century to the mid-nineteenth, when photography ousted miniature painting as a way of recording likenesses on a small scale.

The Nottbohm Collection contains primarily portraits, but includes some still lifes and landscapes. The media represented in the collection range from watercolour on vellum or ivory, via oil on silver or copper, to enamel painting.

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Silver

The Silberkammern contain silver used in the Residenz on a regular basis. At a princely court even items of everyday use possessed great material and artistic value.

The contents of the Silberkammern formed part of the state treasure and in times of financial difficulty items were frequently melted down to mint coins. Also, old services were often melted down to make ones in more up-to-date styles.

The contents of the Silberkammern formed part of the state treasure and in times of financial difficulty items were frequently melted down to mint coins. Also, old services were often melted down to make ones in more up-to-date styles.

Swedish invaders in the Thirty Years' War made off with some of the Residenz silver. The ship removing the remaining objects to safety sank near Mühldorf on the River Inn in 1648 and only a few pieces could be rescued.

The collection was replenished after 1777 with items belonging to the Palatine Wittelsbachs, when they moved to Munich to rule over the combined Electorate of Bavaria and the Palatinate. The confiscation of church property in 1803 brought additional services to Munich from the Prince-Bishoprics of Bamberg and Würzburg.

A highlight of the collection is the 502-part silver-gilt service of King Maximilian Joseph I. Made in 1807-09 by the two leading Paris goldsmiths of the day, Martin-Guillaume Biennais and Jean-Baptiste-Claude Odiot, this outstanding neoclassical service had originally been commissioned by King Jérôme of Westphalia, Napoleon's youngest brother.

With some 3,500 items, the silver collection of the Munich Residenz is among the finest in Europe. It necessarily focuses on the eighteenth and the nineteenth century, because little earlier silver has survived.

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Ecclesiastical Vestments

 

The Paramentenkammer (Ecclesiastical Vestments Room) contains clerical vestments and other textiles used in an ecclesiastical context. Surviving ecclesiastical vestments used in a liturgical context in the Munich Residenz date from the late sixteenth to the nineteenth century.

 

 

In the early seventeenth century Elector Maximilian I acquired many fabrics in Italy, including precious items embroidered with gold. The court textile workshops made sets of vestments from these fabrics for use in the Hofkapelle and in the private chapel known as the Reiche Kapelle.

Further precious textiles entered the Wittelsbach collection following the dissolution of the monasteries in 1803, chiefly from monasteries in southern Germany.

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Masterpieces of bronze art

Duke Wilhelm V and Duke Maximilian I commissioned a number of large bronze figures which rank as major international works of the mannerist and early baroque period.

In the summer rooms of Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria are two life-size bronzes from the former gardens of the Residence: the original fountain figure of Perseus (c. 1585/90) by Hubert Gerhard from the Grotto Courtyard, and in the second room the bronze figure of the sea god Neptune by Georg Petel (1601/02-1634)

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Relics

Not only saints' bones, but also objects closely associated with them have always been venerated as holy relics.

The collection of relics in the Munich Residenz began to be amassed during the Counter-Reformation, the reform movement with which the Catholic church responded to the challenge of Protestantism. In 1577 the Pope granted Duke Wilhelm V permission to acquire relics. Wilhelm's son, Maximilian I, expanded the collection and housed the reliquaries – the name given to containers made for relics – in the Reiche Kapelle, his private place of worship. Until well into the nineteenth century the relics were regarded as the most valuable treasure in the palace.

Some sixty reliquaries have survived from the period 1590 to 1640. They include outstanding works by Munich and Augsburg goldsmiths.

 

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