Vienna is deservedly renowned for its majestic classical and neo-classical architecture, and can best be appreciated by taking a walk along the Ringstrasse where the Museum of Fine Arts is located. The museum is a good example of this type of architecture and everything about the building and its contents is impressive.

Those of you who read my previous post about the museum might remember the marble staircase that leads from the entrance lobby up to the cupola. The first thing you’ll see is Canova’s Theseus Slaying the Centaur, but your eyes will soon be drawn towards the Lunette pictures by Hans Makart at the top of the stairs. What might not be quite so obvious are forty spandrel paintings underneath them by Gustav Klimt, his brother Ernst, and Franz Matsch.

These paintings were created on the narrow sections of wall between the arches and columns: So what? I hear you ask. Well, these paintings are the exact opposite of classicism – and here they are in the most (neo)classical of buildings in the centre of Vienna. Gustav Klimt is the most famous exponent of this style of art which was part of the Secession movement, and is a term that you will constantly come across in Vienna.

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Originally posted 2023-01-14 12:07:16.