Kunsthistoriches Museum

The Kunsthistoriches Museum is a museum that predominantly displays the art from the upper Belvedere collection, which was opened by Maria Theresia. The museum features many famous works of art from the Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque art periods. The building the museum is located in is part of the Hofburg. It is one of two identical buildings facing one another, part of a bilateral system. The other building now houses the Natural History Museum. The two buildings are built in a Neo-Renaissance style.
Carnival is considered the period after Christmas and before Easter and Lent is the period after Easter in which people would have to engage in fasting. Many historians used Bruegel’s painting in order to look at the daily life of the 16th century. During the reformation there is a tightening of moral screws and people become more and more conservative. It is interesting to see how indulgent the people were and then how very conservative they became.
Other interesting works by Bruegel on display at the Kunsthistoriches Museum include: Gloomy Day, The Return of the Herd, and Hunters in the Snow. Each of these three paintings conveys one of the four seasons. Gloomy Day represents spring, The Return of the Herd represents autumn, and Hunters in the Snow represents winter; the summer representation: Haymaking is on display in Prague. These season paintings are revolutionary because they demonstrate the period after the Reformation in which there is a shift from religious paintings to one of daily life scenes and landscapes.
Catholic and Protestant paintings differ in many areas. Because the Protestant faith preaches a “sola scriptura” ideology; it follows the idea that you don’t need to do anything for salvation and will receive salvation by grace alone. However, the Catholic faith incorporates the use of rosaries, saints, pilgrimages, and confessions to reach salvation. Because of the differences in ideology, the Protestant art does not focus at all on saints, but the Catholic art does. Furthermore, a lot of the Catholic art features visions of the Virgin Mary and demonstrates other Catholic practices, such as public Catholic exorcisms. An interesting feature of Catholic art is that after the Counter-Reformation saints have to have visions of the Virgin Mary as part of the painting. In these paintings, the Virgin Mary is usually featured very discretely as a triangle near the top of the painting.
The more interesting paintings of the museum are the portraits of the Habsburg. The most interesting of course is the portrait of Charles II. It is very evident that “you, happy Austria, marry” the Habsburgs had married into many royal families in order to acquire lands and kingdoms, instead of waging many wars. The portrait of Charles II very clearly shows the consequences of interbreeding between royal families. He is very pale, has a large nose, plump lips, and an enormous under-bite.
It was cool to actually see the differences between the different art periods that we had talked about in class. Before, when I visited art museums, such as the Louvre or the Prado, I could not really enjoy it because I had no knowledge or appreciation for art. But even just learning some basic characteristics of art styles and the history behind how they came to be and how they evolved, whether it is through religious movements or imperial influences, has really helped me to appreciate and enjoy looking at art. I can appreciate the hard work the artist put into his painting and I can also appreciate the history behind the art form used. This makes visits to art museums a lot more enjoyable.