Pictures in the staircase of the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna)
The stairwell of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna is decorated with spandrel and intercolumn pictures by Gustav Klimt , Ernst Klimt and Franz Matsch , lunette pictures by Hans Makart and a ceiling painting by Mihály Munkácsy .
Plan and gallery
Emergence
In the middle of 1881, the Vienna Hofbau-Comité commissioned Hans Makart with the complete furnishing of the large staircase. However, since he died in 1884, only the lunette pictures he had completed by then could be attached to the walls of the museum. For the other pictures you had to look for other artists. In 1885 Hans Canon was initially entrusted with the ceiling painting, but he too died a few months later. Finally, Mihály Munkácsy was commissioned to paint the ceiling, Apotheosis of the Renaissance , which was completed in mid-1890. The painter's company , in which the brothers Gustav and Ernst Klimt as well as Franz Matsch had come together, was to carry out the gusset and inter-column paintings. The order for this was placed in February 1890 and should be completed within five months, but the works were not finished until 1891. The difficulties encountered by the client in finding artists who could carry out projects of this magnitude should be mentioned here. The order placed was therefore also a sign of the professional skills of the young painting company
The concept and naming of the interior are from Albert Ilg .
Ceiling painting: Mihály Munkácsy
Munkácsy's apotheosis of the Renaissance seems like a Renaissance building with a dome that opens to the sky. In a loggia is Pope on display, including Michelangelo , Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael . Titian gives painting lessons, Paolo Veronese is shown standing on a scaffold while painting. Above it float personified representations of the fame and honor of the arts - Fama and Gloria .
Bezel pictures: Hans Makart
Makart's twelve bezel pictures painted on canvas and a gold background consist of ten paintings by Italian, Spanish, German and Dutch artists from the 16th to 17th centuries and their models or favorite subjects, as well as two personified representations, the allegories of painting and sculpture. Although the individual works are neither directly related to the content nor are they arranged chronologically, it is noticeable in the positioning of the images that the allegories of painting and sculpture in the north-south axis and Velázquez and Rembrandt in the east-west axis are juxtaposed.
North face
- left: Michelangelo with the awakening of Adam
- Middle: Allegory of religious and profane painting
- right: Titian
South wall
- left: Holbein ( Hans Holbein with Jane Seymour )
- Middle: Allegory of Sculpture
- right: Dürer ( Albrecht Dürer with model)
East wall
- left: Van Dyck or Murillo (topic not fully clarified)
- Middle: Velázquez
- right: Leonardo da Vinci
West wall
Zwickel and inter-column pictures: Klimt brothers, Matsch
The content of the paintings by Matsch and the Klimt brothers is based on different stylistic epochs, a reference to the diverse art collection of the Habsburgs. On display are costumes, jewelry, applied arts, weapons and plastic. The pictures are painted on canvas and glued to the walls of the staircase. The client made the following demands on the painter's company: The gusset and intercolumned pictures should harmonize with both the proportions of the representations and the coloring of the already existing works by Munkácsy and Makart. In addition, the young artists should consider the material and color of the columns of the staircase. The works of the then twenty-eight-year-old Gustav Klimt are particularly noteworthy in terms of art history, because they are considered an example of the development from history painting to Art Nouveau . His brother Ernst and Matsch, on the other hand, remained true to historical traditions in their representations.
North face: Gustav Klimt
- left: Roman and Venetian Quattrocento
- Middle: Ancient Greece and Egypt
- right: Old Italian art
South wall: Franz Matsch
- left: Nordic Gothic of the later Middle Ages
- Middle: Romanesque and Byzantine art , Roman antiquity
- right: Carolingian and Burgundian times
East wall: Ernst Klimt
- left: The German Renaissance
- Middle: Spain and the Netherlands
- right: Italian high renaissance
West wall: Klimt brothers, mud
- left: Gustav Klimt - Florentine Cinquecento and Quattrocento
- Middle: Franz Matsch - Baroque and Rococo
- right: Ernst Klimt - Dutch and Flemish School
literature
- Otmar Rychlik: Gustav Klimt, Franz Matsch and Ernst Klimt in the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Catalog for the special exhibition (Klimt Bridge). Edition Kunst on behalf of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna 2012.
- Beatrix Kriller, Georg Johannes Kugler: The Art History Museum, the architecture and furnishings . Verlag C. Brandstätter, Vienna 1991, p.
- Patrick Bade: Gustav Klimt. Parkstone International, 2011, pp.? -? Book preview on google.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Otmar Rychlik: Gustav Klimt, Franz Matsch and Ernst Klimt at the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Catalog for the special exhibition (Klimt Bridge), page 12. Edition Art on behalf of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna 2012.
- ↑ Making the invisible visible. Article by Beatrix Kriller-Erdrich, p. 5. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna 1991.
- ↑ The lunette pictures in the staircase of the KHM Article by Hedwig Abraham on the website of the Viennatouristguide, February 2009. With photos of all the lunette pictures. Retrieved December 23, 2013.
- ^ Staircase / Lünetten / Hans Makart. Brochure by Rotraut Krall and Ilona Neuffer-Hoffmann, page 9. Kunsthistorisches Museum , Vienna 2011.
- ↑ The lunette pictures in the staircase of the KHM Article by Hedwig Abraham on the website of the Viennatouristguide, February 2009. With photos of all the lunette pictures.
- ^ The gusset and intercolumned pictures in the stairwell of the KHM. Article by Hedwig Abraham on the Viennatouristguide website, July 2002. Accessed December 23, 2013.
Web links
- Gustav Klimt in the Kunsthistorisches Museum. KHM press articleon the special exhibition (Klimt Bridge) 2012. Accessed on December 23, 2013.
- KHM: Bridge brings visitors closer to Klimt. Article by the courier on the special exhibition 2012. With photos of the murals as a slideshow. Retrieved December 23, 2013.
- Vienna / KHM: Gustav Klimt in the Kunsthistorisches Museum. New Merker article on the 2012 special exhibition. Accessed December 23, 2013.
- Divine summit: Above with Gustav Klimt. Article by Anne K. Fessler in Standard , February 13, 2012.
- Bridge to Gustav Klimt's high art wien.ORF.at
- Munkácsy Mihály: Apotheosis of the Renaissance. Diploma thesis by Bernadett Doór, University of Vienna, 2013.