Page - 400 - in Die kaiserliche Gemäldegalerie in Wien und die Anfänge des öffentlichen Kunstmuseums - Europäische Museumskultur um 1800, Volume 2

400 Meijers From an International Perspective Fig. 14 Panorama of Vienna, with the (Unteres) Belvedere highlighted on the lower right and the two new museums projected on the Ringstrasse to the left. Engraving after Gustav Veith, c. 1873. Wien, ÖNB, Inv.no. 128.917B Lhotsky indicates that, in view of the tradition of the artistic policies of the Hapsburgs, the Kunsthistorisches Museum could not become a systematic museum with universal preten- sions; instead he defines it as one of the last private Kunstkammern. He endorses the de- clared aim of 1875 of “bearing witness to the generosity and artistic sensitivity with which the rulers of Austria had dedicated themselves from times immemorial to protecting and pat ronizing the arts and sciences.”49 Beatrix Kriller subscribes to this by describing the museum as “a watertight statement of intent, exclusively determined by the aim of proclaiming the sovereignty of the Haps- burg dynasty. [...] Art is attributed the power here of maintaining the state and archi- tecture, painting and the decorative arts are treated as means for conveying a self-image of sovereignty.”50 In this sense this museum differed fundamentally from the trend in Europe, and if our British visitor had lived that long, he would have been surprised once again in 1891. He would then have been confronted with an enlarged version of the thing that had already impressed him in 1855 when the gallery was still housed in the Belvedere. However, he would no longer have seen anything of the country-estate setting of its former location. (Figs. 14 and 15) The rustic character had vanished long ago due to the demolition of the town ramparts and the rapid growth of the suburbs.