We got up bright and early, ate the amazing breakfast and hit the road by 9:30 in order to get tickets for the Lipizanner Stallion’s practice. But they weren’t selling today. So, instead we went to the Kunsthistorisches, the Museum of Fine Arts. We haven’t looked at paintings in a few days. This museum was built at the end of the 19th century. It is palatial and the star of the show. It makes Boston’s MFA look like a gate house. After all the marble, granite & other stone structures I’ve seen on this trip, I’m surprised the earth hasn’t collapsed. The top of the main stairway presents Canova’s Theseus and the Centaur. Above the stairs are works in the spandrels by Klimt & Match and in the lunettes by Makart. The collection is dominated by European 15th & 16th century works. They also have a wonderful Egyptian & Roman collection. The list of works that impressed is quite long, but here goes.
Rembrandt – 3 self-portraits, his son & his wife
Cranach – a roomful
Holbein – a roomful + Jane Seymour
Bruegel – a roomful among them the 3 cycles of the Seasons, The Peasant’s Dance, The Peasant’s Wedding, Tower of Babel
Mategna – St Sebastian
Caravaggio – Crowning of Thorns & Madonna of the Rosary
Durer – a roomful
Room after room of the Venetians – Titian, Veronese, Bellini, Tintaretto
Rooms of Rubens
Tonight we braved the underground and took it to the opera to see Ariadne auf Naxos, which was a serendipity because we saw the Roman floor mosaic that illustrated their story today at the museum.
We are going to Vienna, no doubt about it. I’ve never been and I’m so impresssed by your reports on the paintings.
It is a world class city. To do this again, I would add days in Vienna and deduct from Prague.