Kunsthistorisches Museum

Today’s museums on the menu were the Kunsthistorisches Museum, the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, and the Imperial Treasury. Although I did not visit all of them on this day, that what this blog will be about.

We had a guided tour of the Kunsthistorische Museum by Dr. O, first she described to us what happened in the middle of the 19^th century and why these buildings were put here. Both the Kunsthistorische Museum and the Natural History Museum lie on the Ringstrasse, and the Ringstrasse used to be the location of the wall that enclosed the city, after the Habsburgs took down the wall, they started to build all these buildings along the ring. This all started with Franz Joseph on December 12, 1857, when he signed a bill that was to take down the wall and construct all these buildings. After we entered the building and walked up the stairs, there is a large statue of Theseus killing a centaur, that dates back to 1805 and is Neo-Classical. The statue was made for Napoleon who was easily one of the most important people of this time period. We continued up the stairs to a raised platform where there were paintings on the wall which were done by Gustav Klimt, unfortunately we could not take any pictures of these, but they were very beautiful. These paintings show how Klimt was an integral part of Vienna and the art of the area during this period. We started off looking at paintings of Peter Paul Rubens, which are immense! It would be impossible to carry one of these paintings around they were so big. Not only were his paintings huge, but there were so many of them, and it turns out that the reason that there were so many was that he had a workshop that would do almost all the paintings. He would design them and do a smaller version and then his team would do the final big version that would be taken to the customer. There were a couple instance where the was an actual Peter Paul Rubens’ painting and the difference between his style and that of his workshop is noticeable when you know what to look for: the lines between colors are very sharp in the paintings of his workshop, it looks almost too perfect, but the actual Rubens’ paintings have more flow to them and seem more natural. Apparently there are some people that like the workshop paintings more than the actual Rubens’ paintings, but I personally prefer the real ones. Also in the Kunsthistorische Museum is a section on the Egypt and Rome with tons of artifacts. We did not go through this with Dr. O, but Ben and I did and we found this section really amazing. Just the sheer number of items alone will blow your mind, there are so many sarcophaguses and other ancient artifacts. It is incredible that this one museum and Vienna in general has so many items in their possession.

The Heeresgeschichtliches Museum was something that we were to do on our own on two different occasions. The first time I went we looked at the “War Against the Turks” as well as the section on the 30 Years War. We went upstairs because the lower level deal primarily with more modern military history from World War I and on. The Ottoman Empire was in power for over 6 centuries, which is up there with the Habsburgs in years. They also competed for land holdings which can be seen in the Turkish sieges of 1529 and 1683. This was important for the Habsburgs because the two religious groups of Protestants and Catholics had to come together to hold off the Turks. However, it is widely known that the Turks had some of the best military personnel a few centuries ago, and this continued even as technology progressed. For example, the Turks would still use bow and arrows when their opposition were using muskets and the like, because they were more accurate and could shoot more arrows per minute that someone with a musket. The Thirty Years War was also a major historical period of the Holy Roman Empire because it left the empire in economic turmoil after the Peace of Westphalia. The Catholics and the Protestants within the empire effectively crippled any form of progress with this war that drew in almost all of Europe.

The Hofburg Imperial Treasury we went to at a lunch break one day and walked through and really got an idea of how the Habsburgs showed their superiority. The most popular attraction within the treasury is the Imperial Crown, but most interesting for me was the wardrobes of the kings. Kathy wanted us to discuss the pomp and grandiose of the absolute monarchs, and I think that it is worth mentioning that the reason they had all of this pomp and grandiose was to show their power. They ruled over you, and any resemblance of regular life might have made them be questioned by the people they ruled over. They wanted to leave no question about who was in charge, and they made sure of that by building the palaces and castles, and wearing the clothes they did.

Another aspect Kathy wanted us to talk about was baroque, and what being baroque meant. For me, Baroque is all about the excessiveness and the showing off. It started south of Austria but made its way all the way through Europe, and since much of Austria has been intact for centuries, there is a lot of Baroque here. Baroque as an architectural style was a way for the monarchs to show they were the boss, you cannot walk by and not look and be amazed, so it was a constant reminder for the people.