Alex Sokolov
Google
Verdict: Way, way more art than you can possibly shake a stick at, this is a must- visit if you come to Dresden. Top-notch art combined with superb (and sometimes overwhelming) storytelling on the labels and boards, this museum is an art lover's paradise.
Details: it's popular for good reasons, so make sure you either get a ticket online or go there early to avoid long lines. The rooms are all wall-color-coded by period and style of the art housed in the rooms, so it's easy to navigate around and figure out if you've been to a certain place. All rooms are of Zwinger Palace's original structure, so take some time to admire that part too. All paintings have detailed labels telling us who painted this worked named X at what time with what material, and on top of that, many paintings have stories, narratives, or explanation about them too, also on the label board. We are big fans of art and haven been to many other world-class museums, but we still learned a great deal from these stories, narratives, and explanations accompanying the paintings -- that's a good return on investment, money well spent.
Protips:
- The famous Sistine Madonna is housed in a room very close to the end of the Italian Renaissance wing.
- The Flemish paintings in the cabinet-style rooms on the sides of the main rooms in the same wing are excellent.
- The upper floor's series of landscape paintings of the historical Dresden and its surrounding areas are well worth checking out, especially if you are interested in the history of the city itself.
- There's only one set of restrooms and it's on the lower level by the ticket desk. Technically you need to exit the exhibition area to reach it and scan your ticket again when you return to the exhibitions, so keep your ticket on you until you are all done for the day with all the art there.