Dresden owes a large part of its fame to its extensive artistic, literary, and scientific collections. Of these the most valuable is its splendid picture gallery, founded by Augustus I. and increased by his successors at great cost. It is in the Museum, and contains about 2500 pictures, being especially rich in specimens of the Italian, Dutch, and Flemish schools. Among the Italian masters repre sented are Raphael, Titian, Corrsggio, Leonardo da Vinci, Paolo Veronese, Andrea del Sarto, Giulio Romano, Annibale Caracci, Guido Reni, and Carlo Dolci. Of the Flemish and Dutch schools there are paintings by Rubens, Vandyck, Rembrandt, and Ruysdael, Wouvermann, Dow, Teniers, Ostade, Potter, &c. The French school is represented, among others, by Poussin and Claude. The gem of the collection is Raphael s Madonna di San Sisto, for which a room is set apart. There is also a special room for the Madonna of the younger Holbein. Other paintings with which the name of the gallery is generally associated are Coreggio s La Notts and Mary Magdalene ; Titian s Tribute Money and Venus ; The Adoration and The Marriage in Cana, by Paolo Veronese ; Andrea del Sarto s Abraham s Sacrifice ; Rembrandt s Portrait of Himself with his Wife sitting on his Knee ; The Judgment of Paris and The Boar Hunt, by Rubens ; Vandyck s Charles I., his Queen, and their Children. In separate compartments there are a number of crayon portraits, most of them by Rosalba Camera, and views of Dresden by Canaletto and other artists. Besides the picture gallery the Museum in cludes a magnificent collection of engravings and drawings. There are upwards of 350,000 specimens, arranged in twelve classes, so as to mark the great epochs in the history of art. A collection of casts, likewise in the Museum, is designed to display the progress of plastic art from the timeof the Egyp tians and Assyrians to modern ages. This collection was begun by Raphael Mengs, who secured casts of the most valuable antiques in Italy, some of which no longer exist.
The Japanese Palace contains a public library of more than 300,000 volumes, with about 3000 MSS. and 20,000 maps. This library is especially rich in the ancient classics, and in works bearing on literary history and the history of Germany, Poland, and France. In the Japanese Palace there are also a valuable cabinet of coins and a collection of ancient works of art. A collection of porcelain, formerly in the Japanese Palace, but since 1876 in the " Museum Johanneum " (which once contained the picture gallery), is made up of specimens of Chinese, Japanese, East Indian, Sevres, and Meissen manufacture, carefully arranged in chronological order. There is in the same building an excellent Historical Museum, in which there are many inte resting relics of past times, besides objects which cast light on the history of races and of manners. In the Green Vault of the Royal Palace, so called from the character of its original decorations, there is an unequalled collection of precious stones, pearls, and works of art in gold, silver, amber, and ivory. The objects, which are about 3000 in number, are arranged in eight rooms. They include the regalia of Augustus II. as king of Poland ; the electoral sword of Saxony ; a group by Dinglinger, in gold and enamel, representing the court of the Grand Mogul Aurung- zebe, and consisting of 132 figures upon a plate of silver 4 feet 4 inches square ; the largest onyx, known, 6 inches by 2 inches ; a pearl representing the dwarf of Charles II. of Spain ; and a green brilliant weighing 40 carats. Besides the Green Vault the Royal Palace has a gallery of arms, consisting of more than 2000 weapons of artistic or histori cal value. In the Zwinger are the Zoological and Minera- logical Museums, and a collection of instruments used in mathematical and physical science.
The two chief art institutions in Dresden are the Royal Academy of Arts, founded in 1764, and the Royal Choir. The Art Union, founded in 1828, which has a permanent exhibition in the Briihl Terrace, is a private body ; and there are a good many other private art societies more or less distinguished. Dresden is also the seat of a number of well-known scientific associations. The educational in stitutions of the town are both numerous and of a high order, including a technical college with a staff (in 1876) of 39 professors and teachers, three gymnasia, two real schools of the first class, and many schools of different ranks for popular education. The Catholics and Jews have schools of their own ; and there are two seminaries for the education of teachers. Dresden has several important hospitals, asylums, and other charitable institutions.
Among the chief branches of industry are manufactures in gold and silver, turnery, straw plait, scientific and musical instruments, paper-hangings, artificial flowers, and painters canvas. There are several large breweries ; a considerable corn trade is carried on ; and there is an ex tensive traffic in books and objects of art. A number of steam-ship companies provide for the navigation of the Elbe.
Dresden, which is known to have existed in 1206, is of Slavonic origin. It became the capital of Henry the Illustrious, margrave of Meissen, in 1270, but belonged for some time after his death, first to Wenceslas of Bohemia, and next to the margrave of Bran denburg. Early in the fourteenth century it was restored to the margrave of Meissen. On the division of the territory in 1485, it fell to tlie Albertine line, which has since held it. Having been burned almost to the ground in 1491, it was rebuilt ; and in the 16th century the fortifications were begun and gradually extended. John George II., in the 17th century, formed the Grosser Garten, and otherwise greatly improved the town ; but it was in the first half of the 18th century, under Augustus I. and Augustus II., who were kings of Poland as well as electors of Saxony, that Dresden assumed something like its present appearance. The Neustadt, which, had been burned down in the 17th century, was founded anew by Augustus I. ; he also founded Friedrichstadt. The town suffered severely during the Seven Years War, being bombarded in 1760. Some damage was also inflicted on it in 1813, when Napo leon made it the centre of his operations ; one of the buttresses and two arches of the old bridge were then blown up. The dis mantling of the fortifications had been begun by the French in 1810, and was gradually completed after 1817, the space occupied by them being appropriated to gardens and promenades. Many buildings were completed or founded by King Anton, from whom Antonstadt derives its name. Dresden again suffered severely during the revolution of 1849, but all traces of the disturbances which then took place were soon effaced. In 1866 it was occupied by the Prussians, who did not finally evacuate it until the spring of the following year. Since that time numerous improvements have been carried out, and between 1871 and 1875 the population in- creased at the rate of rather more than 11 per cent.
DREUX (Durocassis, Drocce), a town of France in the department of Eure-et-Loir, on the Blaise, 21 miles north of Chartres. Noteworthy structures are the Gothic church of St Pierre ; the town-house, partly in the Gothic and partly in the Renaissance style, built in the 16th century; and the remains of a castle of the 12th century, situated on the hill overlooking the town, within the inclosure of which is a chapel commenced in 1816 by the dowager duchess of Orleans, and completed and adorned at great cost by Louis Philippe. The chief industries of Dreux are dyeing and silk-weaving, and the manufacture of jewellery, serges, hosiery, candles, hats, and leather. In 1872 the population of the commune was 7418, of the town 6666.
Dreux was governed by counts in the Middle Ages. In 1188 it was taken and burnt by the English ; and in 1562 Coligni and the prince of Conde were defeated in its vicinity by Montmorency. In 1593 Henry IV. captured the town after a fortnight s siege. Dreux was occupied by the Germans on October 9th, 1870, was subse quently evacuated, and was again taken, on November 17th, by General Von Tresckow.
