Many visitors come to The Kunsthistorisches Museum for one reason only and that is The Breughel’s. In Hunters in the snow The group of hunters returns to the low-lying village, accompanied by an exhausted pack of dogs. Only a single fox hangs on one of the spears slung over the men’s shoulders. To the left preparations are afoot to singe a pig over an open fire. Delightful details such as skaters on frozen ponds have added to the pictures enormous popularity. Yet it is not the sum total of details that make the picture important, rather its overall effect. In a manner both virtuosic and consistent, Brueghel evokes the impression of permanent cold in this first and most prominent winter landscape of European painting.
Painted on both side, the panel originally formed the left wing of a small triptych. Bosch sets the scene in his present so as to make clear to the viewer the immortality of the world. The expression of evil is concentrated in the henchmen’s grimaces, which heralds a new psychological moment in the history of painting. The child with its toddlers chair and pinwheel on the reverse of the panel has been variously interpreted, by some as the infant Jesus, by others as an allegory of the folly, particularly striking in any case is the contrast established between the child’s innocence and the wickedness in the Passion scene
Rogier van der Weyden’s Triptych is superb. The scene presented today as the wing of an altarpiece probably originates from a single panel on which the frame was only painted. At an early stage the work was sawn into three pieces so that the depictions of Mary Magdalene and St Veronica became side wings of the Triptych. The great artistic innovation of van der Weyden may therefore have carried even greater weight in the original version, for the first time he combines all the participants – the crucifixion group, saints and benefactors, in front of a unified landscape in which the idealised view of Jerusalem appears on the horizon.
To see any van Eyck painting is a thrill but to see two side by side is real treat. During a peace congress in Arras in 1435, van Eyck produced a silverpoint drawing in which he not only caught the physiognomy of the elder cardinal and papal envoy, but already noted details concerning paint colours. The portrait shown here was painted soon afterwards. Contrary to art History myth, oil painting, i.e. the use of oil resins as a bonding agent was not invented by van Eyck however he did perfect it in his time. In his portrait of the goldsmith, the Flemish inscription on the original frame not only reveals the painter and year of composition. It can be translated as follows “Jan de (picture of a Lion) first saw the light of the world on St Ursula day in 1401; I was painted by Jan van Eyck as is probably shown, when it happened in 1436.” Jan des Leeuw was working as a Goldsmith in Bruges. He shows the viewer a ring thereby revealing the craftsman’s pride in his skill.
The Apple peeler by Gerard ter Borch one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age is a characteristic example of Dutch “fine painting”. The homely scene, in which a small girl attentively watches her mother peel apples, is probably a reference to a moralising epigram that warns against fulfilling every wish of a child but even more so against doing the same for oneself. Parental care was a popular subject in Dutch painting and literature of the 17th Century
I don’t think this photograph does the painting justice but the door on the left has the most incredible golden light emanating from the street. Pieter de Hooch was one of the Giants of the Dutch golden age, in this painting Woman with child and Maid about 1663 he depicts the urban life of Holland’s middle class. Familial scenes in comfortable, orderly houses and sunlit courtyards. In contrast to Gerard ter Borch, for example, his view is concentrated less on the figures than on the context of an exactly depicted spatial perspective. He preferred to paint spacious rooms with a view to the outdoors, creating convincing illusion of the interior with surprising lighting effects. A fine example of this can be seen in the brightly illuminated houses in the background.
Frans Hals, who was born in Antwerp, was still a child when his parent fled religious persecution and moved with him to Holland. During his many years in Haarlem he painted almost exclusively portraits, in which he captured life-like images of his fellow citizens. The half-length portrait of a young man is one of the painter’s late works. The virtuoso treatment of the highly expressive face demonstrates his gift for psychological observation.
There are four works by Giorgione in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, I am not sure is this the most works by Giorgione in any museum in the world. Although there is very little known about Giorgione’s life, his work deeply impacted early sixteenth century Venetian painting. Born north of Venice in 1477, he moved to the city around 1500 to follow in the footsteps of almost all the period’s great Venetian artists and train with Giovanni Bellini; he died aged thirty of the plague that swept Venice in 1510. Only very few works can safely be attributed to him. This half-length portrait of an idealised young man with luxuriant curls and an arrow in his right hand is hard to interpret: while the arrow suggests Eros, it may also represent an idealised portrait of the „handsome“St. Sebastian with his attribute. The soft sfumato and the delicate colours shining from out of the dark background heighten the poetic charm of his rapturous expression and turn the picture into an icon of youthful beauty.
The Three Philosophers was finished around 1509, and the current name of the work derives from a writing Marcantonio Michiel (1484–1552) who saw it just some years after in a Venetian villa. The three figures portrayed are allegorical: an old bearded man, possibly a Greek philosopher; a Persian or Arab philosopher; and a sitting young man, enclosed within a natural landscape. In the background is a village with some mountains, the latter marked by a blue area whose meaning is unknown. The young man is observing a cave on the left of the scene, and apparently measuring it with some instruments. Since the end of the 19th century scholars and critics rejected on various grounds the earlier view that it is a representation of the three Magi gathered before Jesus' grotto.
Giorgione features in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, His painting Laura is the only known painting signed and dated by him on the back. It is also known as Portrait of a young Bride. The portrait depicts a young woman as a bride. According to the museum it depicts Laura di Noves. Behind the young woman is a branch of Laurel (Laurus), a symbol of chastity or of poets, and carrying the nuptial veil. The gesture of opening the fur mantle uncovers the bosom. This may indicate fecundity (and, therefore, maternity) as an offer of love and a marriage blessed with children. As the laurel symbolized virtue, so the visible breast could symbolize the bride's conjugal fidelity.
Caravaggio considered by many to be one of the greatest artists of all times who completely revolutionised Art in the Baroque age. Here in David with Goliath’s head he condenses the biblical story of the David’s victorious struggle over the giant Philistine general Goliath. Caravaggio interprets it in a personal way , he shows a melancholy victor who seems to reflect both on himself and his victim. Despite the smooth surface (wood as a painting surface is unusual for Caravaggio), the stylistic proximity to “Madonna of the Rosary” and other works of Caravaggio from his Roman period can be seen.
Cleopatra VII, the last queen of Egypt, committed suicide with the help of an asp to avoid the humiliation of having to walk in Octavian’s triumph in Rome. Cagnacci was imperial court painter in Vienna, and his pictures bear witness to his training in the circle of Guido Reni. Repeated Roman sojourns, however, introduced him to the works of Caravaggio and his followers, especially Orazio Gentileschi. In this important painting he tried to fuse these two stylistic concepts: the verisimilitude in the rendering of the expressive gestures of the crying, agitated attendants contrasts strangely with the classicism of the calm and serene queen. The figures are bathed in a soft Correggio-like light that helps to fuse the colours and creates a strong sensual mood.
To give you an idea of how quite this Museum is, Eabha and I were alone in this room. It is a big open room with many masterpieces and I have to tell you it was a thrill. Raphael’s, The Madonna of the meadow is perfection. The group formed into a pyramid is embedded in a delightful pasture landscape which on the one hand emphasises the world of humans, yet in the way it fades out into the far off horizon, it appears to accentuate what is eternally valid. Thus the Madonna in the meadow became the “icon” of the new spiritual thinking of the Renaissance.
There are four Velazquez paintings in The Kunsthistorisches museum, the famous infant Margarita. Below Infanta Margarita in a Blue dress, Velazquez painted this portrait of the eight year old Infanta in a blue dress shortly before he died. Cropped at the top the composition is dominated by her enormous blue-silver cartwheel farthingale, which was worn at the Spanish court throughout the seventeenth century. The impressive width of the bell-shaped hoop skirt is achieved by adding several bands of the wired fabric.
The portrait follows the model of a final likeness that Velázquez made of his lord and master, King Philip IV. (Madrid, Prado). A well-known letter written by the king in 1653 and stating that he had not had his portrait taken for nine years, provides a terminus post quem. The painting was sent to the Governor of the Netherlands, Archduke Leopold William, and initially cropped into an oval, and later (circa 1780) reduced into a rectangular shape.
So I think I have reached the end of the tour and my apologies if I have not included many of the Masterpieces, some notable exclusions were works by Parmigianino, Holbein, Lorenzo Lotto, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, Lucas van Valckenborch, Joos van Cleve, Jan Gossaert, Albrecht Altdorfer, Hans Memling, and Lucas Cranach. This has been a pleasure. I loved the Kunsthistorisches Museum and I loved Vienna definitely up there as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe.
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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).