While I had been to many, many museums by the time November and December rolled around, there were some I hadn't gotten to yet that I really wanted to see, and a few that I had been to already that I was interested in revisiting. Part of the drive for this was also to show Catherine some of the best, most interesting museums in the city.
One such museum I went to due not because I had originally intended to, but because the professor for my class
Europe Beyond the Nation State wanted us to go there. This was the War History Museum, which was a bit further out in a more modern part of Vienna that took a few connections to get to. I don't have pictures of the interior or the exhibits, but this is a picture of the exterior of the old barracks in which the museum is housed. The Turkish influence (one of Austria's great enemies) is fascinating. The museum itself was interesting too, possessing weaponry and defensive pieces from every period of Austrian history through the present. For someone fascinated by military history, it was amazing (and a bit awe-inspiring in a scary way) to see the tools with which warfare has been carried out firsthand. There weren't too many pieces that were, on an individual level, worthy of mention, but the whole experience, from small knives to full suits of armor to tanks and artillery, was quite impressive. Catherine was happy to come along, though this might not have been her favorite topic.
I wanted to make sure to take another tour through the Kunsthistorisches Museum. This was, of course, something Catherine had to see because of the concentration of highest quality, famous art work in one place. It was for that same reason that I wanted to be sure to return, myself. My earlier post on the museum has plenty of pictures of artwork, so I have put only this one Vermeer, here. It was great taking another tour through though, and reconsidering my assumptions, thoughts, etc. on the art in the different sections, by painters of by different nationalities. One great new thing, however, was the specific Winter exhibit that included a lot of impressionist artwork dealing with Winter topics by artists such as Monet, Renoir, and Pissarro.
 |
| Hi! |
Another thing that I got to do by returning to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, however, was to see another wing I had not seen previously, dealing with Antiquity (particularly Egyptian, though Roman or Greek is mostly portrayed here). It's interesting because the elements in this exhibition were usually three dimensional art such as sculpture, and in some cases more along the lines of artifacts that might be seen in a history, rather than an art, museum. It was quite fun, though, and a different experience from my first visit.
I also returned to the Imperial Treasury, mostly to show Catherine what was there and all the amazing artifacts that it contains. The cool thing was that this time I was able to get my camera to work (having gained much more experience taking low light photos across Europe) and therefore I was able to capture some of these incredible artifacts without the damaging effect of a camera flash. I have attached them all below with corresponding captions, but will not go into detail because the details do exist in an earlier post.
 |
One of many cloaks,
probably for coronation |
 |
A "unicorn horn"
actually a narwhal tusk |
 |
| A bed for Napoleon's son |
 |
| Huge. Jewel. |
 |
| One of the Imperial Crowns |
 |
| The classic trinity of power |
 |
| A trinity for religious items |
Finally, one place that I had not been before but that I went to in part because I was with Catherine and we were trying to see all
the places was the Albertina Museum (of modern art, more or less, although they don't call it that). This museum focuses on much of the abstract art from the late 19th century and the 20th century. We went through countless exhibits of Cubism, Surrealism, Symbolism, Dadaism, etc. I won't recall these in detail, but I loved the temporary exhibit currently showing there of the works of
René Magritte. Magritte is one of my favorite painters, especially in the modern era, and so I was extremely happy to see his works in person. Some prime examples to end this post:
 |
Actually, just kidding. There were also some famous Monet paintings on the top floor (WATERLILIES?!!!!)
Go figure... |
One such museum I went to due not because I had originally intended to, but because the professor for my class Europe Beyond the Nation State wanted us to go there. This was the War History Museum, which was a bit further out in a more modern part of Vienna that took a few connections to get to. I don't have pictures of the interior or the exhibits, but this is a picture of the exterior of the old barracks in which the museum is housed. The Turkish influence (one of Austria's great enemies) is fascinating. The museum itself was interesting too, possessing weaponry and defensive pieces from every period of Austrian history through the present. For someone fascinated by military history, it was amazing (and a bit awe-inspiring in a scary way) to see the tools with which warfare has been carried out firsthand. There weren't too many pieces that were, on an individual level, worthy of mention, but the whole experience, from small knives to full suits of armor to tanks and artillery, was quite impressive. Catherine was happy to come along, though this might not have been her favorite topic.
Comments
Post a Comment