Kunsthistorisches Museum and the Schoenbrunn, Vienna

Today we drove along Vienna's famous Ringstrasse and the Danube River, and visited the vast Habsburg art collections on a guided visit to the Museum of Fine Arts (Kunshistorisches). The Gemaldegalerie has the character of a private princely collection, reflecting the centuries of European history both in its richness in certain areas of painting as well as its gaps in others. While the Hapsburgs had a preference, for example, for Flemish and Venetian painting, their collections contain hardly any English of French works. Particularly well represented are dynastic portraits, some of them-such as the paintings by Valaquez of the young princes and princesses of the Spanish court-are at the same time artworks of the absolutely highest quality. Notable works in the picture galleries include:
Jan van Eyck: Portrait of Cardinal Niccolo Albergati (c. 1431)
Albrecht Durer: Adoration of the Trinity (1511)
Tintoretto: Susanna and the Elders (1555-56)
Giuseppe Arcimboldo: Summer (1563)
Antonello da Messina: San Cassiano Altarpiece (1475-1476)
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio:
  Madonna of the Rosary (1606/07)
  The Crowning with Thorns
  David with the Head of Goliath
Peter Paul Rubens:
  Ildefonso Altar (1630-32)
  The Fur (1638)
Raphael: Madonna of the Meadows (1506)
Rembrandt: Self Portrait (1652)
Johannes Vermeer: The Art of Painting (1665/66)

Jan

Peter Paul Rubens 1577-1640. "The four great rivers of Antiquity." Contrary to the traditional title of this picture, "The four continents" more recent research makes it seem probable that it is not the female personifications  of the four continents that known, Africa, Asia, Europe and American, with their 'male' main rivers that are being depicted, but the four rivers documented in the literature of Antiquity and associated with the four rivers of paradise: the Nile (front left), Tigris (front right), Euphrates (back left) and Ganges (back right), accompanied by their attendant naiads.

Jan Vermeer van Delft 1632-1675. "The artist in his studio" (Allegory of the art of painting). Jan Vermeer's undramatic art, concentrating purely on looking, was regarded as a reflection of the Dutch middle class, now self-sufficient and satisfied with that they had. But the simplicity of Vermeer's pictural concepts is deceptive. Their clarity and tranquility is the result of carefully calculated consideration, also involving the use of the newly developed technical aids such as camera obscura. The "Allegory of painting" created ca. 1666/68, a high point in the use of colour in Vermeer's work, must also be his most ambitious picture. The process that had started with Jan van Eyck, a native of the northern Netherlands, the passive, distanced gaze at the immobilized world, always remained a fundamental theme of Dutch painting, and in the work of Vermeer became an allegorical as well as a real apotheosis of looking. It is interesting to note that the model in this painting, Vermeer's favorite muse and most often painted, was the housekeeper of the Vermeer's. She is the same model used in his other famous work "Girl with the pearl earring." The layers of meaning in the allegory are overland on one another in a complicated way. Clio, the Muse of History, poses as the painter's model. The objects spread out on the table-a treatise on painting, a mask or sculptor's model, a sketchbook and a map of the seventeenth provinces of the Netherlands before their separation in 1581-should also be woven into the interpretation. Thus the Muse of History inspires the painter while at the same time proclaiming the fame of the art of painting in the old Netherlands which she is entering into the book of history. This is probably the most famous and valuable painting in the entire collection. This painting is never allowed to leave the gallery.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder 1525/30-1569. "Peasant Wedding, c. 1568. A rich peasant wedding in accordance with Netherlandish or Flemish sixteenth-century customs. The bride is sitting under the paper bride's crown, the notary required to draw up the marriage contract is in the high armchair, above at the the table on the far right is the landowner dressed in Spanish style. The bridegroom is missing, as he was not united with the bride until the evening of the wedding. As was custom in the fifteenth century, the landlord consummated the marriage before the groom. The bride is probably about 16 in this painting. It is a interesting detail to note, and one that has never been explained. that the gentleman carrying the panel of food (on right with red jacket) is depicted with three feet.

Hyacinthe Rigaud 1659-1743. "Count Philipp Ludwig Wenzel of Sinzendorf, 1728. The diplomat (1671-1742), shown wearing the insignia of the Golden Fleece, took part in the negotiations at the Soissons Peace Conference in 1728. He was a high-ranking official under three emperors, Leopold I, Joseph I and Charles VI. A rare example of the Austrian field of the French portrait type found in the reign of Louis XIV and his immediate successors.

Raphael (Raffaello Santi) 1483-1520 "Madonna in the Meadow" 1505 /6. In 1504 young Raphael came from Perugia to Florence, where Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo dominated artistic life. Especially under the influence of Leonardo's compositions, the newcomer created a series of Madonna depictions. Particularly in Florence, the Madonna image had experienced a change in function: it was no longer mainly a religious item for practical use, but primarily an exquisite expression of artistic achievement. Raphael gave the Madonna in the Meadow to his Florentine patron Taddeo Taddi as a gift, in 1662 it was acquired at its place of origin by Archduke Ferdinand Karl of Tirol.
In keeping with the Sienese type of the Madonna Humilitatis the Virgin Mary is sitting on an elevation of the ground. Supporting the infant Jesus with both hands, she looks at little John the Baptist. The encounter of the two children has been mentioned in Tuscan devotional literature since the late 13th century. The cross is simultaneously a toy, an attribute of John the Baptist and a Passion symbol. The latter is also true of the conspicuously positioned poppy on the right. In the present painting, which was created at the beginning of his series of full-length Madonna depictions, Raphael decided on a strictly geometrical structure: the group is incorporated in an equilateral triangle. However, within the seemingly rigid structure, a lively scene unfolds. Parallel and opposing movements and glances blend with the landscape in the background to create a composition that is in keeping with the demands of the High Renaissance for perfect balance and harmony.

Caravaggio (1571-1610) "David with the Head of Goliath" c. 1607. The exact moment depicted appears to be that referred to in l Samuel 17:57 "When David came back after killing the Philistine, Abner took him and presented him to Saul with the Philistine's head still in his hand." The pose is a usual one for the episode, showing David striding in triumph with the head in his hand. In the Boghese version that has changed to an unconventional frontal presentation of the head toward the viewer, who is thereby placed in the position of Saul. The pinging can be compared with "David with the Head of Goliath" in the Galleria Borghese, which dates from either 1607 or 1609/10. The two are very similar - Caravaggio frequently explored a subject in multiple variations, most notably his many versions of John the Baptist - but the Vienna painting is less "dark" in mood, the David more triumphant than the introspective and oddly compassionate David of the Borghese, and the head of Goliath, widely accepted as self-portrait of the artist in the Borghese, is more generic.  

The Schoenbrunn Palace, built by Empress Maria Theresa to rival Versailles; boasting 1,400 rooms, including the Hall of Mirrors, it served as the summer residence for Austria's Habsburg emperors. Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina was the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominons and the last of the House of Habsburg. Empress Maria Theresa had sixteen children, thirteen of which survived infancy. She was advised by her  physicians to eat twelve meals a day, to ensure healthy children that would survive full term births. She was so obese at the end of her life that she could not walk the stairs to her bedroom. She was never painted or sculpted in her real likeness, so every surviving image is one of her looking very svelte.