Permanent Collection - Liechtenstein Museum

Current Exhibition

Permanent Collection - Liechtenstein Museum

Library

The neoclassicist library was one of the jewels of the Liechtenstein Palace in Herrengasse. Between 1788 and 1792 the earlier Baroque building was rebuilt from the ground up under the direction of the princely architect Joseph Hardtmuth (1758–1816). It was considered the most important early-classical building in Vienna. The demolition of the palace began in 1912 and the priceless library furnishings were adapted for their contemporary location.

Gallery 04: The religious Art of Gothic and Renaissance Italy

This room offers an overview of the principal themes in Italian religious art from the 14th to the 16th centuries. The works of Italian painting from the early 14th century, such as those by the Sienese Naddo Ceccharelli or by Giovanni Baronzio, who worked in Rimini, are not to be found in any other Viennese museum.

Gallery V: The Portrait in the Late Gothic and Renaissance Periods: The Dialogue between Northern and Southern Europe

The Princely Collections are rich in examples of 15th and 16th century portraiture. Written records document an intense exchange of artistic ideas between northern and southern Europe during this period. This dialogue was based on the transfer of pictures and the wide-ranging travels of artists, and its impact extended to portraiture. The realism of the north, with its mercilessly revealing depictions, meets the colourism of the south. Raffael meets Cranach. The portraits exhibited here show rulers, nobles and burghers, scholars and artists — in short, a mirror of society at the time. Their presentation ranges from narrow, simple busts to full-figure representational images. The Italian sculpture of the period works on the same principles, with its output ranging from equestrian portraits to idealised depictions.

Gallery VI: The major Schools of the Italian Baroque

Italian Baroque painting developed in two directions, which differed in their respective approaches to the relationship between nature and art. The classical manner tended towards a stylised, often idealised form of depiction. This approach was essentially inspired by the imitation of nature, Antiquity and Raphael. It was propagated by Annibale Carracci and adherents included Pietro da Cortona, who is represented here with a work from the Schönborn-Buchheim Collection. The naturalistic tendency placed realism above any ideal of beauty, and usually portrayed dramatic scenes, with a correspondingly theatrical use of light. The founder of this style was Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. The artists who followed him in his rebellion against the classical ideals were known as Caravaggists. Their number include Valentin de Boulogne, Gerrit van Honthorst and many more.

Gallery VII: Peter Paul Rubens, Adrian De Fries and Massimiliano Soldani Benzi

The series on the victory and death of the Roman consul Decius Mus is the first of four series in the oeuvre of Peter Paul Rubens. In the culture of Antiquity this story was a frequently cited exemplum virtutis, an example of an exceptionally virtuous deed. The church founder Augustine also held up Decius Mus as an exemple for Christians. Accordingly, Rubens presented the Roman consul’s self-sacrifice as the martyrdom of a saint. This was probably the reason for displaying the Rubens series together with the unique, almost life-size bronze figures by Adrian de Fries when the Princely Collections were exhibited in 1807. A contemporary of Rubens, de Fries created a work depicting the man of sorrows and a Saint Sebastian for Karl I von Liechtenstein. Coming at the same time as Karl’s ennoblement as a hereditary Prince, the figures mark the inception of the Princely Collections, which have been systematically expanded down to today.

Gallery VIII: Flemish Painting and the artistic Development of Peter Paul Rubens

The opening of the Liechtenstein Museum marks the return to Vienna of most of the 30 or more works of Peter Paul Rubens in the Princely Collections. The focus is on the master’s early work, the paintings on show in this room dating from between 1602 and 1627. Rubens’ stay in Italy, from which he returned in 1608, represents an artistic watershed in his oeuvre. The three-dimensional, strongly-modelled figures of his monumental compositions result from a close study of classical art, while the stronger colours and new painting technique are evidence of Rubens’s extensive study of Italian painting. The pictorial composition is often characterised by dynamic diagonals. The works displayed in this room have predominantly religious subjects.

Gallery IX: Peter Paul Rubens as History Painter and Portratist and his most important Collaborator, Anthonis van Dyck

Besides the 33 autograph paintings by Peter Paul Rubens that the Princes von Liechtenstein have assembled over a period of three centuries, the Princely Collections also provide the opportunity to get acquainted with the wider artistic context Rubens was working in. With his "Raising of Lazarus", Maerten de Vos, a representative of the Antwerp school of painting, is an example of one of Rubens's forerunners. The juxtaposition in this room of portraits by the young Anthony van Dyck with portraits painted at the same time by Rubens quickly makes evident the parallels and differences between the two artists. An extensive school developed out of Rubens's large studio, represented here by Theodoor van Loon's "Adoration of the Magi" and Erasmus Quellinus's "The Meeting of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba".

Gallery X: The Badminton Cabinet and the Art of Pietre Dure

The main highlight of this gallery, which is intended to convey something of the atmosphere of a princely Kunstkammer, is the Badminton Cabinet. Its wealth of pictorial panels made out of semi-precious hardstones and known as commessi di pietre dure, as well as its unsurpassed ormolu decoration make this cabinet the most important work of decorative art to be commissioned during the past 300 years.
In an evocation of the princely Kunstkammer this magnificent piece of furniture is surrounded by unique objects of precious materials such as the ivory reliefs of Ignaz Elhafen, Dionysio Miseroni's Maienkrug (a large ornate vase with cover) or exquisite examples of still-life painting.

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