Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
EXPLORING THE KHM PICTURE GALLERY
Features of the Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM) building itself are highlights in their own rights, bringing to-
gether visual arts with architecture into one artistic whole.
As you climb the ornate main staircase, your gaze is drawn to the ever-decreasing circles of the cupola;
marble columns guide the eye to delicately frescoed vaults, roaring lions and Antonio Canova's mighty statue of
Theseus Defeating the Centaur
(1805). Austrian legends Hans Makart and the brothers Klimt have left their hall-
mark between the columns and above the arcades - the former with lunette paintings, the latter with gold-kissed
depictions of women inspired by Greco-Roman and Egyptian art.
After admiring the staircase and its lunettes, make a beeline for the Picture Gallery on the 1st floor.
Dutch, Flemish & German Painting
First up is the German Renaissance, where Lucas Cranach the Elder stages an appearance with engaging Genesis
tableaux like
Paradise
(1530) and
Adam and Eve
(1520). The key focus, though, is the prized Dürer collection,
with masterful pieces like
Portrait of a Venetian Lady
(1505), the spirit-soaring
Adoration of the Trinity
(1511)
and the macabre
Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand
(1508).
Rubens throws you in the deep end of Flemish baroque painting next, with paintings rich in Counter-Reforma-
tion themes and mythological symbolism. The monumental
Miracle of St Francis Xavier
(1617), the celestial
Annunciation
(1610), the
Miracles of St Ignatius
(1615) and the
Triptych of St Ildefonso
(1630) all reveal the iri-
descent quality and linear clarity that underscored Rubens' style.
In 16th- and 17th-century Dutch Golden Age paintings, Rembrandt's lucid
Self-Portrait
(1652), showing the
artist in a humble painter's smock, Van Ruisdael's palpable vision of nature in the
Large Forest
(1655) and Ver-
meer's seductively allegorical
Art of Painting
(1665), showing Clio, Greek muse of history, are all emblematic
of the age.
The final three rooms are an ode to the art of Flemish baroque master Van Dyck and Flemish Renaissance
painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Van Dyck's keenly felt devotional works include the
Vision of the Blessed Her-
man
(1630) and
Madonna and Child with St Rosalie, Peter and Paul
(1629). An entire room is given over to Pi-
eter Bruegel the Elder's vivid depictions of Flemish life and landscapes, alongside his biblical star attraction -
The Tower of Babel
(1563).
Italian, Spanish & French Painting
The first three rooms here are given over to key exponents of the 16th-century Venetian style: Titian, Veronese
and Tintoretto. High on your artistic agenda should be Titian's
Nymph and Shepherd
(1570). Veronese's dramat-
ic depiction of the suicidal Roman heroine
Lucretia
(1583), with a dagger drawn to her chest, and Tintoretto's
Susanna at her Bath
(1556), watched by two lustful elders, are other highlights.
Devotion is central to Raphael's
Madonna of the Meadow
(1506) in room 4, one of the masterpieces of the
High Renaissance, just as it is to the
Madonna of the Rosary
(1603), a stirring Counter-Reformation altarpiece
by Italian baroque artist Caravaggio in the next room. Room 7 is also a delight, with compelling works like Gi-
useppe Arcimboldo's anthropomorphic paintings inspired by the seasons and elements. Look out, too, for Vene-
tian landscape painter Canaletto's
Schönbrunn
(1761), meticulously capturing the palace back in its imperial
heyday.
Of the artists represented in the final rooms dedicated to Spanish, French and English painting, the undoubted
star is Spanish court painter Velázquez. Particularly entrancing is his almost 3D portrait of
Infanta Margarita
Teresa in a Blue Dress
(1673), a vision of voluminous silk and eight-year-old innocence.
Kunsthalle Wien
MUSEUM
