This is northern Germany's leading art museum, which reopened in the spring of 2006 after extensive renovations and much improved lighting. Be sure to see the outstanding altarpiece painted for the St. Petri Church in 1379 by Master Bertram, Hamburg's first painter known by name and a leading 14th-century German master. The 24 scenes on the wing panels depict the biblical story of humankind from creation to the flight into Egypt. Note the panel showing the creation of the animals, in which a primitive Christlike figure is surrounded by animals. As a sardonic note, one little fox is chewing the neck of the lamb next to it. The museum also contains works by Master Francke, a Dominican monk. The altar of St. Thomas à Becket (ca. 1424) is the first known work to depict Becket's murder in Canterbury cathedral.
The collection also includes the distinctive visions of Philipp Otto Runge and Carl David Friedrich; German Impressionists Max Liebermann and Lovis Corinth; and 20th-century artists Munch, Warhol, Beuys, Picasso, Kirchner, Dix, Beckmann, Kandinsky, and Klee. In addition, the museum has an entire wing devoted to contemporary art.
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