Art History Museum Vienna [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION FRIDERIKE KLAUNER Director of the Picture Gallery of the Art History Museum The operation of this great Viennese museum, especially the picture gallery of some one thousand paintings, has ceased to be a routine matter during the past several decades because of a growing number of problems. For one, the relationship between the public and the museum is undergoing profound changes. This does not mean that the painting of the past — our main concern here — has lost its appeal. The contrary is shown by the great number of visitors to the galleries and the public's interest in the internal problems of the museum. To give even an approximate idea (more would not be possible here) of the changing relations between public and museum, it is necessary to go back in time and observe past developments in order to understand the present situation. To state the terms of the question: on one side there is the collection; on the other, the observer. The collector — assuming that he is one and is not a curator — more and more takes on the role of observer, a particularly critical observer generally with a specific orientation in taste. In this orientation, the artist himself carries no weight. The Picture Gallery of the Kunsthistorisches, or Art History, Museum is one of the few long-established art galleries with an international range. And, like all great collections, it has its own history of progressive change in the organization of its heritage. By the second half of the 16th century the Emperor Rudolph II (1552-1612) had already collected, at his residence in Prague, an inestimable group of works, including masterpieces by Dürer, Correggio, etc. Following the taste of the time, he displayed in his so-called Kunstkammer, or Art Chamber, curiosities and "marvels" of nature as well as paintings and other objects. The imperial coimoisseur surrounded himself with these treasures for his own delight. His clear preference for certain painters and subjects was determined, at least in part, by his own personality. The persistence with which he pursued the subjects he wished to possess had something obsessive about it. Of course, a huge collection, and a very famous one as in this case, served to increase the prestige of a Renaissance prince. Yet it was not only