The Imperial Picture Gallery in Vienna, Vol. 1

This publication focuses on the radical and influential new installation of the Imperial Picture Gallery in Vienna at the turn of the 19th century, a seminal time of change both for art-history and European civilization. Function, internal structure and presentation of the Imperial Picture Gallery evolved in a way that was to prove exemplary: the princely gallery was transformed into a public art museum, with a new installation at the Belvedere Palace that reflected art-historical principles. The two-volume publication presents important recent research that focuses on and discusses this museological sea- change. The chronological focus is on the period around 1800, the geographical focus is on Vienna. The installation concept devised by Christian von Mechel, an art-dealer from Basel, is analysed in relation to the contemporary historical process, in which a number of different actors and media were involved. In order to demonstrate what is exemplary and unusual about the developments in Vienna several essays examine what was happening in other galleries at the same time for example, Düsseldorf, Paris, Florence and Berlin. It is also important to focus on the museological developments that took place around 1780 in a larger historical context. Therefore the history of collecting in the pre-modern period as well as the innovations introduced in the 20th and 21st century are analysed by several authors included in this publication. Volume 1 attempts to document and reconstruct the installation of the Imperial Picture Gallery in Vienna at the turn of the nineteenth century, whilst also drawing attention to a number of its art-historical or cultural implications. The volume comprises essays and documents from the archives as well as a visualization of the actual installation in the twenty-two rooms of the Belvedere Gallery as described in Mechel`s catalogue published in 1783. Volume 2 offers a comprehensive survey of contemporary examples and thus provide a basis for understanding the historical significance of the changes that took place in Vienna at such an early date. Generally speaking, Vienna carried through a number of concepts that were only beginning to be developed in other locations and adopted them systematically. The new installation in Vienna coincided with a museological debate that was to influence museums all over Europe. The reconstruction of this historic presentation and the re-examining of its developments provide fundamental perspectives on the state of the museum today.

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