Kunsthistorisches Museum
| Kunsthistorisches Museum | |
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| Established | 1872-1891 |
| Location | Vienna, Austria |
| Visitor figures | 619,318 (2007) |
| Website | http://www.khm.at |
The Kunsthistorisches Museum (English: "Museum of Art History", also often referred to as the "Museum of Fine Arts") in Vienna, housed in its festive palatial building on Ringstraße, crowned with an octagonal dome, is one of the premier museums of fine arts and decorative arts in the world. The term Kunsthistorisches Museum applies to both the institution and the main building. It was visited by 619,318 people in 2007.[1]
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It was opened in 1891 at the same time as the Naturhistorisches Museum, by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary. The two museums have identical exteriors and face each other across Maria-Theresien-Platz. Both buildings were built between 1872 and 1891 according to plans drawn up by Gottfried Semper and Karl Freiherr von Hasenauer.
The two Ringstraße museums were commissioned by the Emperor in order to find a suitable shelter for the Habsburgs' formidable art collection and to make it accessible to the general public. The façade was built of sandstone. The building is rectangular in shape, and topped with a dome that is 60 meters high. The inside of the building is lavishly decorated with marble, stucco ornamentations, gold-leaf, and paintings, making it a spectacular work of art in its own right.
Collection
Picture Gallery
The museum's primary collections are those of the Habsburgs, particularly from the portrait and armour collections of Ferdinand of Tirol, the collections of Emperor Rudolf II (the largest part of which is, however, scattered), and the collection of paintings of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm.
Among the most important works in the picture gallery are (see also Category:Paintings of the Kunsthistorisches Museum):
- Jan van Eyck: "Cardinal Niccolò Albergati" ("Kardinal Niccoló Albergati"), 1438
- Albrecht Dürer: "Adoration of the Trinity" (Anbetung der heiligen Dreifaltigkeit), 1511
- Giuseppe Arcimboldo: "Summer" (Sommer), 1563
- Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio:
- "Madonna of the Rosary" (Die Rosenkranzmadonna) 1606/07
- "The Crowning with Thorns"
- "David with the Head of Goliath"
- Peter Paul Rubens:
- "Ildefonso Altar" (Der Altar des hl. Ildefonso), 1630–32
- "The Fur" (Das Pelzchen), 1638
- Raphael: "Madonna of the Meadow" (Madonna im Grünen), 1506
- Rembrandt: Self Portrait, 1652
- Johannes Vermeer: "The Artist in his Studio" (Die Malkunst), 1665/66
- Diego Velázquez: Several portraits of the Spanish royal family, a branch of the Habsburg, sent to Vienna.
- Pieter Brueghel the Elder:
- "The Fight Between Carnival and Lent" (Kampf zwischen Fasching und Fasten), 1559
- "Children's Games" (Kinderspiele), 1560
- "The Tower of Babel" (Turmbau zu Babel), 1563
- "The Procession to Calvary" (Kreuztragung Christi), 1564
- "The Gloomy Day (Feb.-Ma.)" (Düsterer Tag (Vorfrühling)), 1565
- "The Return of the Herd (Oct.-Nov.)" (Heimkehr der Herde (Herbst)), 1565
- "The Hunters in the Snow (Dec.-Jan.)" (Jäger im Schnee (Winter)), 1565
- "The Peasant and the Nest Robber" (Bauer und Vogeldieb), 1568
- "The Peasant Wedding" (Bauernhochzeit), 1568/69
- "The Peasant Dance" (Bauerntanz), 1568/69
The collections of the Kunsthistorisches Museum are the:
- Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection
- Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities
- Collection of Sculpture and Decorative Arts
- Coin Cabinet
- Library
Hofburg
- Ephesus Museum
- Collection of Ancient Musical Instruments
- Collection of Arms and Armour
- Archive
- Secular and Ecclesiastical Treasury (in the Schweizerhof)
others
- Museum of Carriages and Department of Court Uniforms (in Schönbrunn Palace)
- Collections of Ambras Castle (in Innsbruck)
- the Austrian Theatre Museum in Palais Lobkowitz
Also affiliated are the:
- Museum of Ethnology in the Neue Burg (affiliated in 2001);
- Lipizzaner-Museum in the Stallburg
Recent events
One of the museum's most important objects, the Cellini Salt Cellar by Benvenuto Cellini, was stolen on May 11, 2003 and recovered on January 21, 2006, in a box buried in a forest near the town of Zwettl, Austria. It had been the biggest art-theft in Austrian history.[2]
The Kunsthistorisches Museum appears in considerable detail in the final mission of the Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven, developed by Illusion Softworks.
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