The architecture of the History-Art Museum (Kunsthistorisches Museum)
With the beginning of the Ringstrasse planning in 1857, it was now possible to present the imperial collections in a proper, independent and equipped with modern hanging and building technology new building - up to the actual construction competition, but still ten years pass. It took part in 1867: the working in Vienna architects Hansen, Löhr, Ferstel and Hasenauer. Since the jury members and the client could not agree on one of these projects for months, in 1868, the internationally renowned Gottfried Semper, who had experience in museum construction, was included in the project. At the imperial request, he led the designs Hasenauer in a majority-capable and baureifes stage. In addition, he extended it - in the last resort to ancient urban planning - to the so-called Kaiserforum: in extension of the two museum buildings he suggested - also symmetrically arranged, provided with segment-like structure. The leopardinian tract of the Hofburg, which was located at right angles to it, was to receive a façade adapted to this new building and to accommodate the throne room in its center. In fact, the two museum buildings and the south-east, to the castle garden located part of the "New Castle" were realized. 1871 began with the construction of the museums, 20 years later, 1891 could be opened. Under Semper's influence, the facades of Hasenauer's museum design had been smoothed out and covered with an art-historical sculpture and relief program. The internal structure of the building combines several architectural traditions: the vestibule, staircase and cupola hall form a dramaturgical unit celebrating the imperial builders and their predecessors. An additional refinement: the circular ceiling cut-out in the vestibule, which already gives the entrant a first glimpse into the dome hall. The staircase leads the visitor past Antonio Canova's Theseus group to the dome hall, the culmination of the imperial self-presentation. On this central axis, baroque decorative elements condense into one of the most solemn and precious interiors of late Viennese history, and indeed of the entire European museum building.
Mr. Moo /@impressable
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