A series of art museums to the north of Munich’s Hauptbahnhof combine to form one of the largest art collections in the world. Works range from antiquities to the present, and in genre, from sculptures to painting, drawings, and photographs. The three most famous art museums here are the three Pinakotheken, which house mainly European paintings: the Alte Pinakothek (14th to 18th centuries), the Neue Pinakothek (late 18th to early 20th centuries), and the Pinakothek der Moderne, which has four museums of modern paintings, sculpture, and photography.

The Alte Pinakothek is considered to be amongst the five most important art museums in the world. It is housed in a two-floor Neo Renaissance buildings erected around 1830 (and restored after major damage during the Second World War) to house the art collection of the Wittelsbachs. The Wittelsbach family ruled Bavaria from 1180 to 1918, and in addition to their often strange habits, generally had excellent taste when it came to art. Parts of their collection are housed in various palaces and museums throughout Munich and Bavaria, but the best pieces are here.

The first floor is larger and generally more interesting than the ground floor. The museum’s catalogue reads like a who’s who of European art and covers all major periods and artists. (The Spanish collection, however, is rather small.) It has numerous works of Old German masters such as Lucas Cranach and Hans Holbein. Albrecht Dürer, the artist who brought the Renaissance to Germany, is represented by several triptychs and paintings, including one of his most famous works – Self-portrait in a Fur Coat (1500), often also known as Albrecht Dürer looking like Jesus. The Flemish and Dutch collections are also comprehensive, with works by all the masters, including Van Dyck, Jordaens, Rembrandt, Hals, and one of the largest Rubens collections in the world. Italian and French artists are not neglected. Several galleries have works by Botticelli, Raphael, Da Vinci, Titian, Tiepolo, Lorrain, and Poussin.

The ground floor houses mostly early German masters. This collection may be of lesser interest to the average foreigner, but art connoisseurs will rave over the Cologne Masters (including several works by Stefan Lochner) and the large section dedicated to the artistic Brueghel family.

The museum is well laid out, allowing for easy navigation and full appreciation of the works without having to back track constantly. It is a large museum, making it sensible to concentrate on the major works only, especially if some of the other nearby museums are also on the same day’s itinerary.

Admission is free on Sunday, making it the best/worst day of the week to visit. On this visit, we had only that Sunday available for sightseeing, but unseasonably sunny weather kept crowds down to reasonable limits.

Opening hours are Tuesday to Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm, closing at 8 pm on Tuesday. Admission is €5, free on Sunday. A combination day ticket for all three Pinakotheken is €12.

I am a Rubens fan and this museum has more Rubens paintings than any other in Europe. There is a wonderful Rubens painting called the Lion Hunt which shows lions attacking the hunters on horseback. It is a very graphical painting and he captured amazing elements with the details of the muscles and expressions of not only the humans, but also the horses and the lions in the painting. They have on display an early version of the painting where Rubens sketched out drawings of the picture in a smaller form before he painted the canvas. It is a rare treasure to see how a master such as Rubens evolved and developed his work into the final piece.

In addition to Rubens, there are several other masters’ works on display as well. You will see numerous paintings by Rembrandt, da Vinci, Botticelli, Raphael, Titian and van Dyck as well as other Dutch, Flemish, French, Spanish and Italian artists. By seeing so many famous artists’ paintings that are not published in text books we felt that we saw a different side of the artists or were introduced to many of them for the first time. We were most impressed with van Dyck since we were not too familiar with his work before visiting Alte Pinakothek.

Throughout the museum there were two or three different paintings of a story called Susanna and the Elders. They were by different artists in different time periods. I bought a post card of van Dyck’s version so I would remember the name of it. To this day, I do not know what the story is, but I have created several stories myself of what could be going on with Susanna and the Elders. Is she guilty of something? Do they desire her? Did she betray them? I guess that’s what art interpretation is all about.

This collection was begun by the Wittelsbach family and has grown into one of the premier collections in the world. There are 6 paintings by Albrecht Durer including his famous self portrait (the one where he looks like Christ) his painting of Lucretia, and his panel work the 4 Apostles. There are 3 Raphael Madonnas and a Madonna by da Vinci. I loved the Lippi Madonna and child. She is in a side gallery and she has a wonderful pink dress with a blue cloak, her head and neck are covered by a lacy headdress that the child is reaching for.

There is a Roger Van der Weyden altarpiece and several pieces from Lucas Cranch the elder. There are works by Rembrandt, a room full of Rubens including portraits of both his wives, Van Dyke, Hals and there are a whole section of Bruegels father and son.

You will need at least 2 hours to do this museum justice and maybe even more. They have a nice gift shop and a small cafe where you can get a rest and some nourishment to continue across the street at the Neue Pinakothek, which is also free on Sunday.