Anchor Clock

"Anker" was a major insurance company (still is: Helvetia Insurance AG) and in the early 1900s invested in the famous Jugendstil Ankeruhr clock, a sort of bridge between their two buildings at the Hoher Markt. Sort of an advertising stunt, the design of painter and professor Franz von Match and clock-maker to the King und Kaiser, Franz Morawetz. Many other firms and individuals were employed in fashioning all the many components of the clock.  In addition to keeping and displaying the time, it features a parade of historically-significant Viennese personalities, one at the top of each hour and then all twelve at high noon. Always bargain-conscious, we were there for the full parade. Each figure is accompanied by appropriate music, too. The clock had its debut just prior to WWI, was turned off for those years, and then had its assorted Habsburg items removed after the war. It was damaged in WWII and did not resume operation until 1956. As usual, Wikipedia has a fine article on it all.

Warning: best fix yourself a cup of very strong coffee before embarking on this post (eine Tasse kaffee...).

Our route had us approach the clock from its rear, so you get to see
a wealth of features not to be seen on other blogs

For example, these toddler caryatids/atlantines...

Why are both girls facing inward?

And these...praying...thinking...

Munching on a golden apple...and...huh?

Obviously there is some deep Jugendstilly symbolism here beyond our
understanding

Underside of the bridge

Proper side of the Anchor Clock...very Art Nouveauy; we arrived
15 minutes early and had plenty of time to explore

Can't tell the players without a program...

And so, at precisely 12:04, the show begins; there's Emperor Marcus
Aurelius, who used to hang out here; we're in a crowd of a couple
hundred, and Vicki is going to video the whole thing; the whole
thing moves rather slowly, and she never got to #2; didn't want to
use up her whole storage allotment on Google

Charlemagne; yes, these all will be on the quiz

Leopold VI

Walter von der Vogelweide...leading German poet of the Middle Ages;
also best male actor/singer in a supporting role in Tannhauser, with one
of Wagner's greatest hits

King Rudolf

Hans Puchsbaum; master architect, associated with St. Stephens;
died after falling from scaffolding; something about a pact with the
Devil...

Emperor Maximilian

Mayor Johann Andreas von Liebenberg

Count Ernst Rudiger of Starhemberg

Prince Eugene of Savoy

Empress Maria Theresa; and hubs Franz I of Lorraine

Lastly, and somewhat surprisingly, Josef Haydn, who composed
the national anthem; personally, I think they missed a great opportunity,
that of playing the second movement from Haydn's "Clock" Symphony,
#101, which I know from my days as last oboist in the Miami Symphonic
Society (if no one else was there, I was first oboist); here's a great 
analysis and exposition from the London Philharmonic, including 
some notes on Haydn's place as father of classical music

Thanks, Anker!

Jugendstil Walk 1

The two days following our Kunsthistorischemuseum visit offered fine weather, with temps in or approaching the 70s. Thus we resolved on two days of walks exploring some of Vienna's Jugendstil architecture. Jugendstil (young style) is the German version of Art Nouveau, also known here as Secessionist, although all these art and architecture terms are squishy, nationality-dependent, and imprecise. Art Nouveau, Liberty, Modernisme, stil Horta, stil Sapin, stil Mucha, Tiffany Style, depending on where you are and what you're looking at (a building, a painting, decorative arts, etc.). Hey, if you're just interested in beauty, who cares about precision? Besides we also like some of the Neo-classical stuff that the Art Nouveau types were rebelling (seceding) against, particularly if it has enough caryatids, atlantines, etc.

The problem with such targeted, self-directed walks such as we planned is that, in a city like Vienna (or Prague, or Paris, etc.), you're constantly being distracted by other sights, monuments, restaurants, cafes, shops, cathedrals, museums, art and architecture not on the prescribed list. So you go out for pix of six buildings and a clock and come back with 300 pix, most of which are not what you planned on seeing. Serendipity is the greatest, but it really complicates the narrative thread. So to speak. Anyhow, below are the Jugendstil pix from our first day's architecture walk. I'll work the other 250 into a miscellaneous Vienna scenes post. Or two.

Ever wondered what a Jugendstil observatory would look like? Of course
you have! Here is Max Fabiani's Urania building, 1910, originally to
be the Royal Observatory

Fabiani was one of (Otto) Wagner's associates; the place is now
the city planetarium and was mobbed with students so we did not
venture inside; we rated it a meh anyway

Otto Wagner is the big name in Jugendstil architecture and this is
among his putative masterpieces, the Postparkasse building

Acquired by one of the universities and now undergoing some renovation

This puppy covers an entire large city block, is five or six stories
high, and is "decorated" with 87 gazillion little aluminum rivet-
like things...the principal process for making aluminum (the Bayer
process) was invented by an Austrian chemist...

Entry

In the main hall; the NBA-class R2D2 devices adorn the whole place

Thus

It's now being used as a sort of student center...with mirror-top tables
throughout

Closer-up of the overgrown R2D2

Industrial grade pillars also adorn the main hall;
note the glass block flooring...which directs light
to the hall below

"White, white, white is the color of our carpet"

The place also houses the Otto Wagner Museum, which I ventured
into briefly

I'm not seeing the beauty here

Moving right along, another beauty that is not, alas,
on our list

What is on our list, however, is the Anker (Anchor) Clock, so
surpassingly interesting and great as to merit its own post

Another beauty

By now something had attracted us down one of

upscale pedestrianized boulevards, the Graben,* and 

then we got caught up in the cathedral's tractor beam...

Which was definitely not on the Jugendstil list but ultimately OK
since I wanted a picture of the pretty part of the roof (over the chancel) 

Moving right along...

To the Angel Pharmacy

Lastly (omitting the Clock, a fabulous Billa Corso

supermarket, a leisurely stroll down the Graben, the Julius

Meinl gourmet supermarket, Demel, and assorted

other non-Jugendstil sites), the Artaria House, by (again)

Max Fabiani, whose other claim to fame was in 1912

briefly employing a young drawing assistant named

Adolf Schicklgruber (aka Hitler)

*not Smashen und Graben: all the upscale stores, and there are many, have armed guards stationed at the door.

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...