So I booked my ticket online €21 for an adult and my University student daughter Eabha was free. At this stage for any Museum in Europe I would book before I go. Times have changed and it is not worth taking a chance anymore, now I will also say this was one of the quietest Museums I was ever in. We virtually had the place to ourselves and some rooms were empty.
The Building is absolutely beautiful so remember to take photographs from the outside before or after you leave. The entrance foyer is superb and now here is a little Museum tip (which I only discovered when I got home, typical me). When you walk up the stairs to the first floor standing at the Canova Statue of Theseus defeating the Centaur, have a look at the ceiling opposite to where I took this photo and on the upper walls/ceiling you will see the most beautiful Gustav Klimt Egyptian paintings.
Now I have to apologise to anyone reading this who is interested in the Antiquities housed in this beautiful museum. I am here for the Art and I am sure the treasures the museum hold are amazing but that’s just me.
So the first painting that greeted me as I walked through the large glass door was Jacob Jordaens “The feast of the Bean King” 1640. The painting depicts the Flemish folk custom on Epiphany Day. The person able to find a bean hidden in a cake becomes king of the feast. Artistically Jordaens absorbed himself in the art of Caravaggio, Rubens and other Dutch painters, yet he developed a characteristic style of his own. Now I am Irish and I have seen this scene not on The Epiphany but on Christmas day and any excuse for a party when we invite all the neighbours over for a sing song and food, so I find this painting Hilarious and beautiful. It is a masterpiece.
Now can I just add that this room is enormous, it has beautiful high ceilings and it is roomy and almost empty! And that’s to your advantage. No scrambling for positions, you can take your time and in case I forget to mention the Museum staff are so helpful. I missed an Altdorfer which was six rooms away and the steward walked me directly to the painting, and oh yeah the Viennese are a lovely people.
As an aside can I recommend you do some homework on Emperor Rudolf II (1552-1612), he was the man responsible for amassing some of the most beautiful Art in this collection, Durer, Brueghel and Arcimboldo. Now can I also say he was referred to as “Rudolf the mad” but when you study him you will see the absolute vision he had and his connoisseurship. Incidentally he was “mad” but his son Julio was evil. Look him up!
If you are a fan of Anthony Van Dyck, which I am, you will love the Kunsthistorisches. I don’t know where to start, The taking of Samson, The vision of the blessed Hermann Joseph, Marchese Di Borgomanero, Portrait of Pieter Soutman, Study of a woman’s head looking up, Apostle Simon, Apostle Philippus, Young General, Nicholas Lanier, Jacomo de Cachiopin, Jan van Monfort, Apostle Judas Thaddaus, Mary and child and Saint Rosalie, and a woman with a ruff that I cannot identify, mea culpa. So that’s approximately 14 Van Dyck’s on display. Now I am not an Art Historian but I wonder is that the most amount of Van Dyck’s on display anywhere in the world? For me I love The Capture of Samson, this is the second attempt at the scene by Van Dyck. Delilah had discovered that Samson’s extraordinary strength lay in his hair and revealed the secret to his persecutors. She cut off his hair while he was sleeping and so delivered him to his enemies, the Philistines. Van Dyck uses a composition by Peter Paul Rubens as a model, but reproduces the psychological state of Samson and Delilah differently, instead of depicting Samson’s last heroic struggle, the artist concentrates on the ambivalent feelings of both protagonists. Incidentally here in Vienna he is Anthonis van Dyck.
Peter Paul Rubens is also very prominent in the museum, His huge Altarpieces, a beautiful self-portrait and The little fur. For me I loved the lamentation 1614, it was created for private devotional use. It focuses like a burning mirror on the passion and the act of Christ’s redemption. The persons and objects are depicted with sensual differentiation and are intended to lead the viewer to a better understanding of the Passion story. This picture, which was painted with particular brilliance, is one of the few works by Rubens that he signed and dated.
This painting shows the extraordinary intimacy between the painter and his wife. Rubens was working from within a much narrower set of conventions which he confidently stretched as far as possible. He legitimised the life-size depiction of his almost nude wife by resorting to the familiar statue type of the ancient Venus pudica. (modest Venus). For Baselitz, ‘Het Pelsken’ (The Fur or The Pelt) is simply a wonderful painting. When you see a picture like that, you have to say either I never want to die or I will die happy. Those are incredible experiences
In 2023 there has been so much talk about Johannes Vermeer and especially the ground breaking exhibition hosted by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. An exhibition I had the privilege of seeing. The Kunsthistorisches is lucky to display one of his masterpieces; The Art of painting 1666, with his depiction of the painter in his studio, Vermeer turns this genre painting into an allegory of the art of painting. His model is posing as Clio, the muse of history, who inspires the painter and proclaims the glory of painting in the old Netherlands, which she has immortalised in the book of history. The unity of the arts is reflected in the sculpture model, sketch-book and the work in progress on the easel. The map with the seventeen provinces of the Netherlands before they were divided into north and south is a reference to a land that had always owed its fame to the art of painting.
Dutch painting is also well represented by Rembrandt and it is hard to choose as to which painting you should talk about, his self-portrait is exquisite and the portrait of Prophetess Hannah who is Rembrandt’s mother is beautiful but for me the portrait of his son Titus is a show stopper for so many reasons. When Rembrandt died he was left penniless. His wife tried to protect their son Titus. Saskia’s will gave half of everything to Titus her son, so what happens if Rembrandt remarries, “He has to pay Titus half of the estate” and this is worth 20,375 guilders. Rembrandt states “I have a son, but no wife and if I find a wife to be a mother for him, profit and loss, loss, loss”
AC Grayling wrote “who in art has given us such an autobiography in oils, as Rembrandt has”
Beware of Luxury by Jan Steen, in this painting with its traditional German title “Die verkehrte Welt” (The topsy turvy world), Steen combines humorous narration with a moralising message, this house is ruled by a complete lack of restraint. The inscription on the slate tablet at the lower right laments this state of affairs with the first part of a Dutch saying “in weelde siet toe” (Be careful in living the good life), which continues “and fear the rod”. A sword and a crutch hang threateningly in a basket suspended from the ceiling.
Albrecht Durer features in the Kunsthistorisches museum and if you do love his Art this room is a must see. In the painting below it is actually the reverse of a portrait. Taking painstaking and macabre pleasure in observation, Durer depicts the body of an old woman. In her left hand the unhappy looking woman clutches a purse that is filled to the brim with Gold coins. Whether it was a lifetime of misery on her part that resulted in this useless accumulation of wealth is impossible to say. It was not unusual in either Italian or Northern painting to include on the back of a portrait a motto. In this case, the painting was done in full awareness of the transience of all things mortal.
To be continued in Part 2...
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Alan is an avid Art Gallery visitor here in Europe. I would think I have visited approximately 33 Art related galleries(churches with works of Art also) in Europe. He has a bucket list of approximately 14 left to visit (obviously there's always more).