Germany Guide
Saxony
Museum der bildenden Künste
Address: Sachsenplatz
Opening time: Tues, Thurs– Sun 10am–6pm, Wed noon–8pm
Price: €5, free second Wed in month
Website: www.mdbk.de
Sachsenplatz north of the Markt epitomes modern Leipzig's go-ahead ambitions: communist eyesores have been replaced by a concrete-and-steel cube sheathed in glass to house the excellent Museum der bildenden Künste (Museum of Fine Arts). Pure minimalism within – all white walls, pale wood and concrete – it makes an excellent gallery for Old Masters to shine in. If you're pressed for time seek out the big guns from the German late Middle Ages – Hamburg's Meister Francke, Cranach, whose sexual nymphs titillate under the pretence of Renaissance style, and Hans Baldung – and enjoyable works by Rubens and Hals, notably the latter's louche Mulatto, as well as a luminous seascape by Romantic Caspar David Friedrich. You're unlikely to miss Max Klinger's colossal marble sculpture of Beethoven, a swaggering work that sees the composer enthroned like a god, nor a soul-searing sculpture of The Damned by Dresden's Baroque master-sculptor, Balthasar Permoser. Max Beckmann gets a room to himself among a good oeuvre of Expressionist works, as does Neo Rauch, a figurehead of the New Leipzig School whose large-format works are inspired by the communist socialist– realist aesthetic.