The German word of the day is Beantwarten, which translates into "too answer".
Class was canceled today, which might have something to do with the amount of wine consumed at the Heuriger, but I won't speculate.
Due to this unforseen "break" I have decided with a group of students to go back to Stephansdom and visit the catacombs. Being in a Catholic country has confronted me with a death culture unlike I have have ever expereinced before. I feel that Americans don't talk about death or confront their fears on the subject, while in Vienna there are countless sites and very extravagant burial grounds that are suposed to lead to the after life. The Katakomben at Stephansdom are no exception. In 1732 a plague epedemic was taking hold in Vienna and Emperor Karl VI closed the cemetary because of the overflow of dead bodies. Over 11,000 people in the 18th century were "burried" in the catacombs and "Duke's Crypt", which holds remains of the Hapsburgs. It is hard to understand the amount of death that went on in the city, but a giant hole was placed at the center of Stephansplatz that led into the catacombs so that bodies could be dumped and disposed of properly. By having the catacombes under the church it made the Catholic Viennese less fearful of death because their bones would be in a sacred place. It was strange to see the amount of bones and skulls that were stacked upon each other and try to comprhend the amount of death that the plague brought to Europe.
After the trip I went on a tour of the Kunsthistorisches museum, one of the most important museums built in Euope in the 19th century. It was built along the Ringstraße, the site where the old wall of Vienna used to stand. It is built in the style of the Italian Renaissance and has collections that date back to ancient antiquity. The artists that are represented in this museum are extensive and include: Jan van Eyuck, Albrecht Dürer, Caravaggio, Raphael, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, and many more. I was able to see Raphael's Madonna of the Meadow, Velázquez's Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Blue Dress and Pieter Bruegel the Elder's The Fight Between Carnival and Lent. It is difficult to describe what it is like to see these works of art in person after studying them in Davis, CA. It almost seems like you are in a different world, and in many ways when looking at these paintings you are. The class lecture about art during the Reformation and Counter Reformation was also clearly visible in the Kunsthistorisches. Two baroque artists that were compared side-by-side during the museum tour were Rebrandt and Peter Paul Rubens; both prolific artists in their styles of art. Rembrandt was a Dutch painter and etcher who focused on portraiture, landscape and narrative painting. His paintings are characteristically "real-life" and more subdue, representing the Reformation and its move away from the grandiose excess of the church. Below are Rebrandt's Self-Portrait as well as Portrait of Titus, reading.
Rubens, on the other hand, is a Flemish painter who gravitated towards "movement, color and sensuality", with art work that clearly shows a move towards mythological and allegorical subject. You can clearly see the difference in styles between the two artists who are simualating the styles popular with the Reformation and Counter Reformation. Below are Rubens' The Head of Medusa and Cymon and Iphigenia.
I think one of the best paintings that captured the struggle between the Reformation and Counter Reformation is Pieter Bruegel the Elder's The Fight Between Carnival and Lent. It represents the peasant in a struggle between self-indulgence and excess while at the same time becoming mixed with self-denial, penitence and being one with the church. Bruegel lived during the Protestant Reformation and was (I believe) painting the split that he saw within the religious world.
**All of the images on this blog have been grabbed from Google Images because my camera sucks.
Class was canceled today, which might have something to do with the amount of wine consumed at the Heuriger, but I won't speculate.
Due to this unforseen "break" I have decided with a group of students to go back to Stephansdom and visit the catacombs. Being in a Catholic country has confronted me with a death culture unlike I have have ever expereinced before. I feel that Americans don't talk about death or confront their fears on the subject, while in Vienna there are countless sites and very extravagant burial grounds that are suposed to lead to the after life. The Katakomben at Stephansdom are no exception. In 1732 a plague epedemic was taking hold in Vienna and Emperor Karl VI closed the cemetary because of the overflow of dead bodies. Over 11,000 people in the 18th century were "burried" in the catacombs and "Duke's Crypt", which holds remains of the Hapsburgs. It is hard to understand the amount of death that went on in the city, but a giant hole was placed at the center of Stephansplatz that led into the catacombs so that bodies could be dumped and disposed of properly. By having the catacombes under the church it made the Catholic Viennese less fearful of death because their bones would be in a sacred place. It was strange to see the amount of bones and skulls that were stacked upon each other and try to comprhend the amount of death that the plague brought to Europe.
After the trip I went on a tour of the Kunsthistorisches museum, one of the most important museums built in Euope in the 19th century. It was built along the Ringstraße, the site where the old wall of Vienna used to stand. It is built in the style of the Italian Renaissance and has collections that date back to ancient antiquity. The artists that are represented in this museum are extensive and include: Jan van Eyuck, Albrecht Dürer, Caravaggio, Raphael, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, and many more. I was able to see Raphael's Madonna of the Meadow, Velázquez's Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Blue Dress and Pieter Bruegel the Elder's The Fight Between Carnival and Lent. It is difficult to describe what it is like to see these works of art in person after studying them in Davis, CA. It almost seems like you are in a different world, and in many ways when looking at these paintings you are. The class lecture about art during the Reformation and Counter Reformation was also clearly visible in the Kunsthistorisches. Two baroque artists that were compared side-by-side during the museum tour were Rebrandt and Peter Paul Rubens; both prolific artists in their styles of art. Rembrandt was a Dutch painter and etcher who focused on portraiture, landscape and narrative painting. His paintings are characteristically "real-life" and more subdue, representing the Reformation and its move away from the grandiose excess of the church. Below are Rebrandt's Self-Portrait as well as Portrait of Titus, reading.
Rubens, on the other hand, is a Flemish painter who gravitated towards "movement, color and sensuality", with art work that clearly shows a move towards mythological and allegorical subject. You can clearly see the difference in styles between the two artists who are simualating the styles popular with the Reformation and Counter Reformation. Below are Rubens' The Head of Medusa and Cymon and Iphigenia.
I think one of the best paintings that captured the struggle between the Reformation and Counter Reformation is Pieter Bruegel the Elder's The Fight Between Carnival and Lent. It represents the peasant in a struggle between self-indulgence and excess while at the same time becoming mixed with self-denial, penitence and being one with the church. Bruegel lived during the Protestant Reformation and was (I believe) painting the split that he saw within the religious world.
**All of the images on this blog have been grabbed from Google Images because my camera sucks.
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