Vecellio, gen. Tizian (und Werkstatt), Mars, Venus und Amor, um 1530, Leinwand, 97 x 109 cm / Rahmenmaße: 110,8 x 128,5 x 7,8 cm, © Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

Bernardo Bellotto, gen. Canaletto, Das kaiserliche Lustschloß Schloßhof, Ehrenhofseite, 1758-1761, Leinwand, 138 x 237 cm / Rahmenmaße: 154,5 x 257 x 9,5 cm, © Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

Hendrik Avercamp, Winterlandschaft, um 1605, Eichenholz, 29,5 x 46,4 cm / Rahmenmaße: 44,5 x 62,5 x 2,5 cm, © Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

Giovanni Battista Moroni, Der Bildhauer Alessandro Vittoria, um 1552-1553, Leinwand, 87,5 x 70 cm / Rahmenmaße: 98 x 81 x 6 cm, © Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez, Infantin Maria Teresa, um 1652-1653, Leinwand, 127 x 98,5 cm / Rahmenmaße: 150,5 x 123 x 8 cm, © Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

Museum Frieder Burda
Lichtentaler Allee 8 b
(00)49–(0)7221–39898-0
Baden-Baden
The Emperors' Artists
February 20-
June 14, 2009

For the first time since its inauguration in 2004, old masters move into the Museum Frieder Burda exhibiting masterpieces of the Kunsthistorische Museum in Vienna never shown before in Germany. Under the title The Emperors’ Artists, the exhibition presents a wide cross-section of the royal collections amassed by the Habsburg dynasty, from emperor Maximilian I to Maria Theresa.

Together with the curators of the Kunsthistorische Museum in Vienna, renowned art expert Götz Adriani conceived the exhibition specifically for the Museum Frieder Burda. Approximately 70 paintings, six large tapestries and 50 objects from the Habsburg treasury vault will be exhibited. Among the over 40 artists represented are of course Dürer, Titian, Rubens and Velazquez, but also Veronese, Tintoretto, Adrian de Vries, Jan Brueghel, Van Dyck and Canaletto are to be found. The six precious large-scale tapestries of the early 18th century, that had been commissioned by emperor Charles VI in Brussels to honor his ancestor Charles V, measure eight to five meters and have never been shown to public before.

Frieder Burda says “I am really longing to see the combination of those old masters with Richard Meier’s light and spacious modern architecture. The contrast thrills me. I myself don’t have any old masters in my collection, but I have always been fascinated by these painters. When traveling, I seize every opportunity to visit Museums that exhibit old master paintings. Often, these artists still are a yardstick, role model and inspiration for contemporary painters. In painting only quality is crucial; in the long run, it doesn’t matter if it is old or new painting.”

The Baden-Baden exhibition comprises a selection of the sumptuous Habsburg treasury, covering the period from 1500 to 1750 - a quarter of a millennium! Götz Adriani, curator of the exhibition: “From medieval times until the 19th century, the Habsburg dynasty contributed fundamentally to the development of a common occidental consciousness. Dürer, Titian, Rubens, Velazquez — all the great artists were working for the Habsburg dynasty, who, as patrons, sponsors or collectors, used the fine arts as a mirror of their self-esteem and good reputation, as well as a means of glorification of the house of Habsburg.”

The house of Habsburg, that rose from a noble family of Swiss origin with its ancestral country in the Upper Rhine valley, brought forth 23 kings and emperors during the over six century-long period of the Holy Roman and the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Therefore, the exhibition also gains a European perspective.

Thanks to the immense opulence of its treasury, the Kunsthistorische Museum in Vienna counts among the largest and most important museums worldwide and is mentioned in the same breath as the Museo del Prado in Madrid, the Louvre Museum in Paris, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The Kunsthistorische Museum was pompously inaugurated in 1891. For the first time, the greater part of the royal collections amassed by the Habsburg dynasty could now be presented under the same roof. The monumental building that was designed by the architects Gottfried Semper (1803-1879) and Karl von Hasenauer (1833-1894) became a symbol for the emperors’ patronage in itself. Its neo-renaissance Italian style was supposed to be a historic reference to a period that had been particularly important for the scientific and artistic development in Europe.

With the exhibition The Emperors’ Artists the Museum Frieder Burda shows a selection of exemplary masterpieces of the past that have never been shown in Germany before.

A comprehensive catalogue (around 350 pages and 150 colored pictures) will be available.

Die Musterung des Heeres in Barcelona durch den Kaiser, Ausführung: Jodocus de Vos, 1712-1721, Entwurf: Jan Cornelisz. Vermeyen, 1546-1550, Tapisserie (Wolle, Seide, Gold und Silber), 518 X 686 cm, © Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.