Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum houses a first class Old Masters collection with paintings by Titian, Rembrandt, Velázquez and Holbein, to name just a few of many, as well as magnificent collections including Ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities, Medieval Art, and of course Renaissance and Baroque art.  The museum has eight collections in total, representing centuries of the Hapsburg dynasty’s passionate art collecting and patronage.  Facing the Natural History Museum in the Maria Theresien-Platz of Vienna’s Ringstrasse, the building was designed in an Italian Renaissance style and after twenty years of construction, opened in 1891 to hold the imperial Hapsburg collections.

Entering the building is equally impressive as its regal exterior.  The impressive marble staircase which leads to the galleries is decorated with murals by Gustav Klimt, Mihaly von Munkácsy and Hans Makart.

Johannes Vermeer van Delft, The Art of Painting, 1665-1666,

Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Picture Gallery

A recent exhibition centers around Vermeer’s iconic work The Art of Painting.  Johannes Vermeer van Delft kept this work displayed in his studio from the moment he painted it up until after his death.  The work, considered an allegory of the art of painting, shows the artist painting his model posing as Clio, the Muse of History, as he faces a map with the historical 17 provinces of the Netherlands.  This very map by Claes Jansz Visscher is displayed in the exhibition, along with other props from the scene as well as documents from historical Dutch archives.  The exhibit displays an in-depth study of Vermeer’s possible techniques for the work.  The question of whether he used a camera obscura, for example, is analyzed along with the pigments he used.  Other works of art influenced by The Art of Painting join the masterpiece in an intriguing exhibit in the Kunsthistorisches Picture Gallery.

Tags: art exhibition, Kunsthistorisches Museum, The Art of Painting, Vermeer