Aug 5 - Day 5 in Vienna

Today featured a return to a wonderful museum as well as a visit to a place I never imagined I would go in Vienna – the zoo.

Of course, Tiergarten Schönbrunn is no ordinary zoo. It features baroque architecture as well as giant pandas, giraffes, and many other animals! Founded in 1752, this zoo holds the title of the oldest zoo in the world. It began as an imperial menagerie thanks to the Habsburgs (Francis I, husband of Maria Theresia, ordered it built). I certainly never expected to go to a zoo when I signed up for a summer in Vienna, but that was part of the joy of going. I love all the new experiences I have had here, whether it is looking at art, architecture, or even animals. It was also fun to be at what is clearly a tourist attraction for Austrians and not simply for foreigners.

After several hours enjoying the zoo, a few of us headed off to the Museums Quartier (MQ) for two of my favorite Viennese delights – ice cream and museums. The MQ is a great hang out spot, with places to relax that are not only benches and lounges, but moveable artwork. I went again to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, this time purchasing the absolutely essential audio guide for one section that I had yet to explore, which featured Netherlandish, Flemish and German paintings. The audio tour provided a wealth of information and made my few hours there truly special. Once again, having knowledge of what I was looking at proved to be a much more enjoyable and worthwhile experience.

While there, I was also able to complete the assignment of comparing Catholic and Protestant sensibilities in art. However, I only did it in the one art section, so I will probably go back into the Italian, Spanish and French side in the future and see what that has to offer (although I’m assuming the Catholic sensibility will be in full force there).

Finding ones filled with overt aspects of the Catholic Counter-Reformation was rather easy. Three of my favorites were Reymerswaele’s St. Jerome in his Study, Gaspar de Crayer’s The Lamentation over Christ, and Van Dyck’s Mary with Child and St. Rosalie, Peter and Paul. Of course, all the Reubens were opulent and embodied the Catholic Counter-Reformation as well, with the depictions of angels and saints, as well as ecstasy and judgment.

St. Jerome is considered one of the Fathers of the Catholic Church. One of his claims to fame is translating the Bible into Latin and he is the patron saint of scholars such as translators, librarians and encyclopedists. The picture in question clearly embodies the Counter Revolution, featuring a skull (maybe symbolic of saints’ relics), a picture within the picture of the Last Judgment, and he is dressed in the red outfit of a cardinal. Additionally, Jesus is depicted on the cross on the picture, and Protestants choose to only have a simple cross without portraying Jesus on it. Of course, one of the most obvious aspects linking it to Catholicism is the subject – a saint.

Crayer’s The Lamentation over Christ (right) screamed baroque and Counter-Reformation. I also enjoyed comparing it to Rubens’ (left) own Lamentation over Christ. However, Crayer’s is immense in size while Rubens designed his for private use. An interesting fact from the audio guide is that the Rubens is one of the few he signed and dated, thus suggesting that it was of high personal importance to the great artist. Both provide powerful examples of Catholic art, albeit one on a grand scale and the other a more personal. Both, however, seek to provoke a strong emotional response in order to make the viewer not only see the scene of Jesus after his death, but feel and experience it. They depict the suffering of Christ and the spiritual anguish of his followers. The images are both extremely powerful and pictorially invoke the holiness of Jesus.

The third Catholic image I found was Van Dyck's St. Rosalie (sadly, no image could be found online). He created it for his Counter-Reformation order’s house, the House of Vows of the Jesuit Lay Brotherhood of Celibate Men in Antwerp. To start off, the painting’s history reveals its religious origins by linking it to a Catholic organization – in fact, the key Counter-Reformation order of the Jesuits. Additionally, the painting prominently features the veneration of Mary, as well as loyalty to the Pope and Rome symbolically shown through the rosary and the presence of major saints in the art as well. The audio guide let me know that the House of Vows held a reliquary of St. Rosalie, the saint who protects against the plague. As discussed in class, saints serve as intercessors for Catholics and are a major part of their faith; additionally, they represent the diffusion of spirituality that Catholics believe in (Mary, Jesus, Pope, saints, etc) compared to Christo-centric Protestantism. This painting is one of the best representations of the key elements of the Catholic Counter-Reformation: the adoration of Mary, worship of the saints, and absolute loyalty to the Pope in Rome.

Protestant art rejected depictions of spirituality, and of course, saints altogether. Religious art was most often against religious policy, so artists switched to still life, portraits, landscapes, and genre paintings. Pictorial representations of religion were rejected, and individuals and landscapes became the focus. It was very exciting to see a Vermeer in person, as the museum holds The Artist’s Studio. The subject is art itself, as its own entity – the painter and his subject are both seen. The girl is modeling as Clio, the Muse of History, and religious adoration is not the focus. The shining light (as in all Vermeer) of the painting illuminates the otherwise rather regular scene.

The museum also has three Rembrandt self-portraits. Once again, these are an example of Protestant sensibility rather than Catholic. The focus is the individual – himself, in this case – and not a major figure of the Catholic Church. With the emphasis on individuality, Rembrandt appears to be mirroring a Protestant belief - that one is alone before God, saved only by grace and one's own personal faith. The Protestant belief is that the relationship with God as well is a matter of the individual and Christ. As in his painting, the portrait is a matter of private examination, not a massive and opulent ritualistic relationship with God or art.

As churches did not want depictions of religion, religious art is not the choice of Protestant artists.

After studying the art, I bought myself a small version of the museum's famous blue Egyptian hippo. I just had to include a photograph of me riding the U-Bahn with him. It was, as I'm sure you can guess, one of many photoshoots with the little guy.

After a major day of animals and art, I headed back to the dorm for a few leisurely hours. A group of us then headed out to the Rathausplatz for the film festival. Every night in the summer a music film is projected onto a huge screen in front of one of the most amazing buildings Vienna has to offer. The film was a bizarre modern dance production of Romeo and Juliet. Combined with the music, architecture, stunning dance sequences and a delicious meal, I had an extremely enjoyable evening. The festival is enormous, filled with all kinds of people enjoying the film and a nice meal from one of the ethnic restaurant stands. It’s the kind of thing that my part of the U.S. seems to lack – a unique daily program in a central, open air location. Clearly, this is the place to hang out and I know I’ll be found there many nights in the future.