The splendor of Jean-Pierre Latz: furniture art in Dresden

Unique collection long forgotten

"This is the first comprehensive exhibition on Jean-Pierre Latz anywhere in the world," said SKD Director General Marion Ackermann. Another special feature is that "nowhere else does so much of his furniture still exist". The collection was rediscovered in the Museum of Decorative Arts at the end of the 2000s. Now the treasures have returned to the place where they were kept until 1945 and have been supplemented by loans from Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam and the Palazzo Del Quirinale in Rome. According to Ackermann, the show also demonstrates "what masterpieces of craftsmanship furniture is".

Latz, who was born in the Electorate of Cologne, is considered one of the most important cabinetmakers of his time. In Paris, he created masterpieces that ranged in style between the strictly symmetrical Baroque and the Rococo, which stood for lightness and asymmetry. Pendulum clocks (pendulums) and pedestals (pedestals) are decorated with precious inlays, so-called boulle marquetry, made of tortoiseshell, brass, ebony, mother-of-pearl, colored horn or precious tropical woods and lavishly gilded fittings called bronzes.