Kunsthistorischemuseum, 2022: The Out-Takes

Great party until the guy on the left started puking...

Is this an orgy? See below

Click to enlarge

Every room in the KHM has busts of famous persons...this is
Buffalo Bill Cody

Mark Twain; he probably really did visit the KHM...

Sadly, the KHM has only 2% of the world's known Rembrandt
self-portraits

So we're in the stately and glittering restaurant in
the great art museum...

And they bring me this unimaginative presentation...at least they
could have done a couple mustard eyes, a bread nose, a horseradish
moustache...something Arcimboldo might have appreciated...
wait! maybe it's a Picasso rendering...

Actual Canaletto of dry land, no waters, no boats

"Jerome, for the last time, please put on some clothes
when you're translating the Word of God!"

"Let's all put ribbons in our hair!"

"You said it, man, nobody fucks with the Jesus"

"It says here you fucked with the Jesus" "Yeah? Well,
you know, that's just like, uh, your opinion, man"

"You can look but you can't touch!"

Companion to the van Veen above; definitely not an orgy; see below

Interesting guy, van Veen; 16th-17th century humanist/painter;

very influential; Rubens' teacher, no less

Attempted artsy-fartsy

Ever popular Anne Boleyn

Trying for a selfie against the ceiling...

Kunsthistorischemseum, 2022: The Rest

And now, for some never-before-seen-on-this-blog pix of paintings we liked on our recent visit to Vienna's Kunsthistorischemuseum...

Before beginning the regular collection, we visited
a special exhibition on the young Cranach, his 
earliest work and influences on him; here, Rest on the
Flight to Egypt, 1515; not something you'd attribute
to the mature Cranach

Jan Steen, Beware of Luxury, 1663; we love Steen's gently
moralizing humor

Never miss an Avercamp...Hendrik Averamp's Winter Landscape,
1665

Cranach's inappropriately titled Paradise, 1530; actually it's about 
all the incidents that got Adam and Eve thrown out of Paradise

Cranach's Lot and Hs Daughters, 1528

Albrecht Durer, Madonna with the Pear, 1515

Durer, The Torment of the Ten Thousand Christians,
1508; it's a long story

Love the way Durer painted himself into the
scene as a spectator, along with the humanist 
Conrad Celtis

Titian, Christ with the Orb, 1520

OK, it's break-time and we are heading for the restaurant; but
also looking for the spandrel with the Klimt ladies...I know I
pictured one in 2012 or so, but here's both of them...seemingly very 
out of place in this museum of art history, but so welcome, too

Caravaggio, Crowning of Thorns, 1603

Poussin, Destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by Titus, 1628;
never miss a Poussin

The KHM has several portraits of the Infanta Margaret, sent to
her bethrothed, Emperor Leopold, so he could see how she was
growing; Velasquez' blue dress version, is second from the left

Workshop of Velasquez, Philip IV of Spain, 1656

Juan Bautista Martinez del Mazo, Family of the Artist, 1664;
del Mazo was Velasquez' son-in-law and successor as royal painter;
on the left are children by his first marriage; on the right his wife
and their children; what's interesting are the numerous allusions
to Las Meninas, Velasquez' great masterpiece

Arcimboldo, Fire, 1566, from his Elements series;
alternate title: Hair on Fire

Obligatory Rafael, Madonna of the Meadows, 1505

Luini, Mary with Child, 1510; never miss a
Luini

Finally (we missed it earlier), Bosch,
Christ Carrying the Cross, c. 1490; the
details with Bosch are always illuminating...
note, e.g., the priest, bottom right, with
Bible...

On the reverse (always look on the reverse
on panels), Baby J with his baby walker;
alluding to the Trinity, of course

Half the KHM is other stuff, not painting, plus
room after room of classical, near eastern, and
Egyptian stuff...next time, allow two days for the
KHM

Great museum!

Kunsthistorischemuseum, 2022: The Breughels

The Kunsthistorischemuseum is one of the great museums and also one of our favorites, primarily for its northern collection and its unsurpassed collection of Breughels, Peter the Elder, that is. An entire hall of big canvasses. We visited in 2010 and again in 2012. I have reviewed those two posts and have decided not to knowingly repost anything in the following two posts that I posted in those earlier years. Except the Breughels, of course. Unusual restraint for me. We were in the museum from opening to nearly closing, 7+hours, and took 300+ pix. You'll have to look at those two previous posts for most of the assorted van Eycks, Cranachs, Durers, Rogier van der Weidens, Rubens, Rembrandts, Caravaggios, Vermeer, Velasquez, etc., we saw at the KHM on October 16th. Not to mention the half of the collection that is not paintings.

At the Louvre, this sign would be for the Gioconda; at the Prado,
Bosch (and not Velasquez!), the Rijksmuseum, Night Watch, etc.

The Suicide of Saul, 1562; many Breughels are basically landscapes
with a postage stamp-sized holy scene thrown in for whatever 
reasons; there's Saul on the left, falling on his sword (so to speak)

Massacre of the Innocents; possibly a copy by one of his talented
sons, e.g. Jr. or Jan, some of whom made a career of copying and
selling dad's popular masterpieces

Tower of Babel, 1563; a study of mid-16th century civil engineering

The Peasant and the Nest Robber, 1568; a rare sort of close-up

The Peasant Wedding, 1567; no divinities, saints, kings, queens,
princes nor princesses, generals, et al.; just normal people living
their normal lives in the mid 16th century

Peasant Dance, 1567; Peter the Elder is sometimes known as
"peasant Bruegel"

Children's Games, 1560; 230 children, 83 games

The Fight Between Carnival and Lent, 1559; another of his
"encyclopedic" works

Detail

Procession to Calvary, 1564; Jesus really is in there, somewhere

There, in the middle...

The Return of the Herd (Autumn), 1565; one of a seasonal
series

Hunters in the Snow, 1565; often said to be the first winter landscape
in European painting

Gloomy Day (Early Spring), 1565; panorama of seasonal activities
and events

The Conversion of Paul, 1567; he's in there, really...

There he is, in the middle, again

Winterland with Bird-Trap, 1564

Two walls of the four...there are elder Bruegels all over the world,
and a few of our favorites are elsewhere (just search Breughel or
Bruegel on this blog); the KHM collection is unsurpassed, however