Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Grey skies & gorgeous art

 Day 26

Yesterday had been gloriously sunny with clear blue skies – today dawned cold, and overcast and stayed that way the whole day.  According to the thermometer app on Tony’s phone Vienna was 2-3deg for most of the day.  Thankfully no wind to make it feel even colder.

We headed off after breakfast, first stop the Haputbahnhof to convert our confirmation email into tickets and then walked towards the Belvedere Palaces.  Modern Vienna is springing up all round this part of the city.




The Belvedere Palaces were built in the late 1600’s and early 1700’s as a summer palace by Prince Eugen of Savoy with money he had earned for his part in the defeat of the Turks in 1683. Prince Eugen died in 1736 it was passed to his niece and in 1752 it was acquired by Empress Maria Theresa.  In In 1776 Maria Theresa and her son, Emperor Joseph II transferred the Imperial Picture Gallery to the Upper Belvedere.  It was however, the Lower Belvedere that continued to grow as an art museum.  Various collections were transferred there throughout the first 2/3 of the 1800’s before many of the were moved to the newly built Kunsthistorisches Museum (Art History Museum) in 1889.





In 1896 Emperor Franz Joseph I decided that the Upper Belvedere should serve as a residence for, his nephew Franz Ferdinand and the palace was remodeled as his residence. After WW1 and the end of the Hapsburg rule, both Palaces were nationalised and returned slowly to gallery space for the Austrian National Collection.

The palaces suffered considerable damage during World War II. Parts of the Marble Hall in the Upper Belvedere and the Hall of Grotesques in the Lower Belvedere were destroyed by bombs. After reconstruction work was completed, the Österreichische (Austrian History) Galerie reopened in the upper palace in 1953.


Divine ceilings throughout the Palace


In the gardens the massive statues & ponds remain and work is being done to return the partare gardens to their former glory.  Clipped yew cones and domes punctuate the garden and line the grand vista that runs between the Upper and Lower Palaces.



The collection of artworks shown in the Upper Belvedere is extensive – lots of painters that I have never heard of, and plenty I have. 

There’s an extensive collection of works from the 1400 & 1500’s – mostly religious in content but stunning, even for me!

1445


Adoration of the Magi  1470

St Blasius (middle) with Saints Rupert & Virgil 1518


Works by Eduard Munch (no it wasn't his famous ‘The Scream) sit side by side with works by Monet& Renoir. 


Munch 1908


Renoir 1876

Monet's 'Path at Giverney' 1902
The colours in this Van Mertyns from 1760 were amazing!


Close up of one section of the Anton Romenko painting above - the detail in the faces is amazing!



 And this monster (took up a whole wall)  … by Max Klinger (no, not the one from MASH)




We came round one corner into the magnificent marble hall only to run into a wedding photo shoot.  It really was something else.  We came across them again later, outside where the groom and his groomsmen were doing some kind of elaborate dance.  A little Amercian boy in the crowd that had gathered to watch wanted to “go and say hello to the Princess” ..






But it’s the Klimt collection that most people go to see – particularly his most famous work ‘The Kiss’ .. a glorious Art Nouveau piece using copious quantities of gold paint.  The galleries with the Klimt works were insanely busy and sometimes getting any photo at all meant taking it on an angle and waiting to avoid the inane Japanese selfies.... why you have to have your photo taken, complete with cheesy grin and lame peace sign in front of every famous painting is utterly beyond me!








Down through the formal gardens to the Lower Belvedere. The original rooms here are every bit as impressive as those up the hill. They were currently showing a special  exhibition of modern art comparing Vienna and Zagreb in the years from about 1890 to today.   Everything from rough sketches to massive canvases and many photos.  Not as impressive as the Upper Belvedere collection but impressive none-the less.  It was also considerably less crowded and we were able to get a much better look at some of the paintings.








A close up of the little girl right at the front showing the incredible detail in this painting





By now it was heading towards sunset (4pm) so we wandered our way back – coming across the gorgeous Russian Orthadox Church of St Nikolas,  the British Embassy Compound and the Swiss Embassy.



Tomorrow its off to Budapest.

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