Berlins Gemäldegalerie is known for its outstanding collection of European paintings from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century. Each of the twelve chapters in this book is dedicated to one painting from the collection. In the breadth of this selection, painting is seen, as it discovers itself and becomes a medium for the formulation of modern subjectivity. Each painting in focus unfolds its own emergence and concrete pursuits as they also reflect something of todays concerns. What are the paradoxes within which art is made by women? How does the primordial drive to destroy works of art affect today's art discourse? Where did the modern struggle of painting against the picture begin? Why does the Wild Man from the early German Renaissance still haunt us? And why doesnt it matter whether JanVermeer used an optical device for his paintings? Twelve Paintings is a hymn for the currentness of Old Masters. TAL STERNGAST (*1972, Israel) studied photography and film in Jerusalem, London, and Berlin. She has published numerous essays and articles about contemporary art and film in international newspapers and art magazines. She has organized several exhibitions. This book is based on the article series Alte Meister, published in the weekend supplement of die Tageszeitung from 2017 until 2019.

Cover Preface: Michael Eissenhauer Introduction: Tal Sterngast The Museum as a Safe Space / Amor Vincit Omnia (1601–02) by Caravaggio Body Painting / Susanna and the Elders (1647) by Rembrandt van Rijn The Conspiracy of Painting / Joseph Accused by Potiphar’s Wife (1655) by Rembrandt van Rijn Through a Glass Wall / Woman with a Pearl Necklace (1663–65) by Jan Vermeer The Creativity of Women / Prince Heinrich Lubomirski as the Genius of Fame (1787–88) by Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun The Vertigo of Time / The Melun Diptych (ca. 1455) by Jean Fouquet The Architecture of Heaven / The Madonna in the Church (ca. 1440) by Jan van Eyck Zooming In / The Presentation of Christ in the Temple (ca. 1454) by Andrea Mantegna Shadow of Existence / Self-Portrait I and II (1649 and 1650) by Nicolas Poussin Nature’s Plan / Landscape with St. Matthew and the Angel (1640) by Nicolas Poussin In Search of the Wild Man / Landscape with Satyr Family (1507) by Albrecht Altdorfer The True Image / The Holy Face of Christ–Vera Icon (ca. 1420) by an unknown Westphalian artist List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Colophon