The beauty of the whole world. The Heinrich Taddel Collection and its Stone Cabinet – Grünes Gewölbe | 24.06.-09.10.2023

Green Vault shows from 24 June 2023 the exhibition ” … the beauty of the whole world” – Collection of Heinrich Taddel and his Stone Cabinet. On the occasion of the 300th birthday of the Green Vault in June 2023, magnificent stones will be the focus of an exhibition that is the result of six years of interdisciplinary cooperation between restorers and art historians of the Green Vault and mineralogists of the TU Bergakademie Freiberg. The starting point is a hitherto little-known artist and his key work: the goldsmith and privy chamberlain Heinrich Taddel (1714-1794) with his unique stone cabinet, originally consisting of 214 tablets of mainly Saxon, but also from all over the world, gemstones.

Fig. above: Heinrich Taddel, Steinkabinett, 1764-1775, Photo: Paul Kuchel

Many of Taddel’s stone samples came into the possession of the court jeweller Johann Christian Neuber (1736-1808) and were used in his precious objects. By comparing them with the stone cabinet, it was possible to identify previously unnoticed works. It was also possible to reunite objects that were once made from the same rock samples after 200 years.

The exhibition makes complex research collaboration transparent and opens up both natural science and humanities issues that are relevant far beyond the Green Vault. But sensual enjoyment is not neglected, as the high aesthetics and diversity of the rocks are made visible, which often only reveal their full splendour when viewed under a microscope. Thus, “the beauty of the whole world is united in these artistic gemstone objects,” as contemporaries already praised.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published by Sandstein Verlag: “…the beauty of the whole world”. Heinrich Taddel and his Stone Cabinet in the Green Vault, edited by Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg, Gerhard Heide, Ulf Kempe, Michael Wagner and Marius Winzeler with the collaboration of Meghan McNamee, approx. 244 pages, expected publication date: mid-June 2023, ISBN 978-3-95498-751-1

WHERE?

Residenzschloss
Grünes Gewölbe
Taschenberg 2
01067 Dresden

WHEN?

Exhibition dates: Saturday, 24 June – Monday, 09 October 2023
Daily 10 a.m. – 6 p.m., Tuesday closed, Friday 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.

COSTS?

Regular € 14, reduced € 10.50, under 17 free, from 10 pers. € 12.50