Our AKN Editor Is Welcomed At The Palatial & Lavish Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna

Written by Calvin Guzamal Thursday, 20 January 2011 23:43

The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna is one of the largest and most important museums of the world. In the rich collections of objects are located in seven centuries, from the time of ancient Egypt to the end of the 18th Century. Special focus is the art of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The high quality of the collections and their diversity are largely the result of preferences and interests of people from the house of Habsburg, among them Emperor Rudolf II (reigned 1576-1612) and Archduke Leopold Wilhelm (1614-1662). In 1891, the inauguration of the newly constructed museum building on the Ringstrasse. At that time, the first time most of the imperial collections were housed under one roof, the monumental building itself being conceived as a memorial to Habsburg patronage. The architects Gottfried Semper (1803 - 1879) and Karl von Hasenauer (1833 - 1894) for selected forms of the Italian Renaissance to create the sense of historicism, the reference to the art and science are particularly important era. The building is rectangular in shape, and topped with a dome that is 60 meters high. The inside of the building is lavishly decorated with marble, stucco ornamentations, gold-leaf, and paintings, making it a spectacular work of art in its own right. The magnificent architecture creates a fitting setting for the by the Habsburgs for centuries collected art treasures. Because of the immense wealth of these treasures, the Kunsthistorisches Museum is one of the largest and most important museums of the world. His eight different collections, which are located partly in the New Castle and the Castle Schoenbrunn include objects from ancient Egypt, ancient, medieval and modern times until about 1800. Special focus is the art of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The high rank of the collections and their diversity are largely the result of preferences and interests of people from the house of Habsburg. The library of the Kunsthistorisches Museum is a scientific reference library with specialist collections and libraries in all departments of the house. The total collection of the library currently contains around 296,000 volumes. The proportion of historically valuable 15th to 19th Century books is about 38,000 titles. The main topics are incunabula, manuscripts, maps and historical printing and portfolios on the history, cultural history and art, also special collections such as the Maximilian library with a large collection of pamphlets or the graphic history of the collection and documentation for architecture and interiors of the former imperial collections. The library expanded and continually updated inventory of literature, audio-visual media and objects, corresponding to the collection targets of the Kunsthistorisches Museum: Egyptology, Archaeology, numismatics, old and new art history, weapons and costume design, wagon construction and crafts, musical instruments, history and cultural history . Learn more and visit : http://www.khm.at/khm/

Cabinet of Curiosities: The art and curiosities of the Renaissance and Baroque periods were encyclopedic collections of Universal, who tried to capture the full knowledge of their time. Above all, the rare, curious and unusual was seen as desirable. The princes collected exotic and rare materials, which is often attributed to magical effects - like precious stones, ostrich eggs, coral, or shark teeth, which were thought to be dragons tongues. The artists from these natural products virtuoso art chamber pieces. The Viennese art collection is unique worldwide. Their objects are of exceptional quality, as the emperor or members of the imperial family, they gave in order or purchased. Among the highlights of the art chamber includes fine gold work such as the famous Saliera by Benvenuto Cellini, excellence of the sculpture as the Madonna of Krumlov, masterful bronze statuettes, delicate and bizarre ivories, virtuoso stone vessels, but also watches, complicated machines, strange scientific instruments, precious games and much more. The Vienna Numismatic goes back to the Imperial Habsburg collection, the oldest preserved furniture from the 1547 dates. Today it is one of the five largest and most important coin collections in the world. With some 750,000 objects from three thousand years, it included not only coins but also premonitory forms of money, paper money, stocks, medals, decorations and medals. In addition, a rich collection replaces stamping tools. The exhibition is divided into three halls: Hall I offers an overview of the history and development of the story from its beginnings in 1400 in Italy to 20 Century. In addition, this Austrian and European medals are presented. In Hall II is the history of coin and paper money at the center, and the music ranges from prämonetären forms of money and in kind of money on the invention of coinage in the 7th Century BC to the present. Noteworthy is also still the famous collection of portraits of the Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol (r. 1564-1595), the coin and medal portraits can be compared.

The Art Gallery of the Kunsthistorisches Museum emerged from the art collections of the Habsburg dynasty and has become one of the largest and most important of its kind. The core of the collection as well as their main priorities were in the 17th Century defined: the Venetian painting of the 16th Century (Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto), the Flemish paintings of the 17th Century (Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck), Early Netherlandish Painting (Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden), and the old German painting (Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Cranach). Other highlights of the Art Gallery today, include the unique collection of paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. and masterpieces by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Raphael, Caravaggio, Velázquez and the Italian Baroque painting. The extensive art collections of Baron Louis and Alphonse de Rothschild had to in effect be given away by the heirs to the Republic of Austria. Complicated laws and bureaucratic red tape made a full restitution almost impossible. The heirs were forced by the State to sell off their belongings since they were, in effect, bankrupt. Since Austria regarded itself as a victim of Nazism, and not one of the perpetrators, Austrian Jewish victims could barely appeal to the courts on their status. Often the judges sitting in the court were former Nazis themselves, who were reinstated to the bench after the end of the war. Much of the former Rothschild art collection was either taken to the Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM) or the Austrian Gallery in the Belvedere palace. Only in the late 1990s, due to outside pressure from the United States, a more thorough examination of its role and behaviour during the Second World War took place in Austria. After long and tedious negotiations the Austrian government agreed in 1999 to return or pay for the roughly 250 Rothschild art treasures that were looted by the Nazis and absorbed into Austrian State Museums. The images were restituted to the heirs in 1999. Works of the Rothschild collection that used to be kept at the Kunsthistorisches Museum included.