Belvedere Museum, 2022: 1

We visited the Belvedere in 2010 and were not overly impressed. In 2022, we figured, we had learned a great deal more art history and should give the Belvedere another shot. What you get from such visits depends a great deal on what you bring to them, right? So we visited on October 23rd and indeed appreciated far more than in 2010. But still not overly impressed: we're just not into the Klimt/Schiele/expressionist thing. But there was plenty else to appreciate.

A big complex, outside the Ring, on high ground,
a position the field marshal would choose

The palace, now mostly the museum

Lots of neo-classicla/Baroque sculpture, including half a dozen
atlantines not included the Vienna caryatid post

Prince Eugene of Savoy: Louis XIV considered
him too short and ugly to be of military use, so
he volunteered his services to the Habsburgs, first
driving the Turks out of Austria, and then, with
Marlborough, defeating Louis' forces at Blenheim;
Belvedere was his reward, just as Blenheim was
Marlborough's

Helpful model

White, white, white is the color of our entry hall

Baroque, Baroque, Baroque...

The treaty that established Austria as an independent republic,
in May of 1955, was signed by the Great Powers, here

And announced from this very balcony

And now, on to the art collection: Hans Makart, The Five Seasons,
1872-1879; wait, no, The Five Elements

Edward Munch, Men on the Seashore, 1908

Monet, The Chef, 1882; why Monet didn't do portraits;
had a big bill at the restaurant...

Another nice Monet...alas, I didn't get the title

August Rodin, Gustav Mahler,1909

Gustav Klimt, Fritza Riedler, 1906

Klimt, Adam and Eve, 1917-1918

Klimt, The Smooch, 1908; at the height of his gold period; the Judith
was apparently on loan somewhere