09.08.12

09.08.12

The Baroque period was a perfect expression of the desires of the Habsburg empire. Church and state were fully unified, and the artists and cultural expression arose to back them up. Coming out of the Counter-Reformation, and after the Defenestration of Prague, Catholics now had complete dominance in politics and culture within the Holy Roman realm. Architecture, music, requiems, mass, burial rituals, all were very extravagant and outwardly expressed worship, in comparison to Protestant culture which kept worship much more private.

This aided the absolutist regime of the Habsburgs, who now had a firmer grip on legitimacy due to divine right blessed by Catholicism.  Baroque tendencies were an explosion of wealth at the very top and abject poverty at the bottom, something revealed within the Schatzkammer. I’ve discussed the Schatzkammer in an earlier post, but I would again draw attention to the jewel-encrusted, gold fringed Gospels that were for the royalty, as well as the crown, or the scepter sword and robe specific to each ruler. 

At the Kunsthistorische Museen, Doctor O arrived once more to take us on the tour. Unfortunately my notebook I took the notes on was lost at war in the laundry, but coming off of memory she led us through a lot of the bigger artists, showing us Arcimbaldo, Peter Paul Rubens, Bruegel, Rembrandt, a whole list of artists. Though I do wish she’d talked a bit about Hieronymus Bosch. Bruegel, it turns out, was influenced heavily by him, as one could see in all the minute activities occurring throughout each townscape painting. I think she avoided speaking about Bruegel’s ‘the Fight Between Carnival and Lent’ because it is Professor Stuart’s specialty, but she has yet to give a lecture on it either. Rembrandt’s self-portrait stood out to me the most. I like the difference between Catholic and Protestant painting, as it represents the difference in their general expressions of religion. Catholicism is more external, following rituals and society, and thus the paintings do not focus as much on an individual, instead on famous scenes from the bible, or, as with Bruegel, deliver a lesson on what is wrong in society. In Protestant painting, the focus is more on the individual, without a specific message, just understanding and feeling. Rembrandt’s self-portrait, the pain in his eyes, was far more direct and disturbing to me than all the pain and blood and anguish painters had poured into their depictions of Christ on the Cross. Doctor O asked me what painting I would like to steal; that is the one I would have. 

I swung by the Peterskirche today, but mass was in session so I could not stay long. There is a legend that when the funeral is held for one of the Habsburgs, their emissary would knock on the door of Stephensdom, and the Habsburg titles would essentially be belittled down in answering, until the emissary would have to answer, ‘a man, as any other, waiting to get into heaven’. This little fable, if true, is a process which helps define the relationship between Habsburg and Church. It actually instills leadership in the Habsburgs, as the peasants understand that if the Church is greater than the emperor, but dub him emperor, then the peasants should follow him as well, as it is granted by a yet greater power. This definitely helps establish the all-encompassing absolutism the emperor came to love.