Page - 402 - in Die kaiserliche Gemäldegalerie in Wien und die Anfänge des öffentlichen Kunstmuseums - Europäische Museumskultur um 1800, Volume 2

402 Meijers From an International Perspective * This article was translated from the Dutch by Donald Gardner and Kate Williams. 1 Alphons Lhotsky, Die Geschichte der Sammlungen. Festschrift des Kunsthistorischen Museums zur Feier des fünfzigjährigen Bestandes, Vienna 1941–1945, Vol. I; Beatrix Kriller/Georg Kugler, Das Kunsthistorische Museum, die Architektur und Ausstattung: Idee und Wirklichkeit des Gesamtkunstwerkes, Vienna 1991. 2 In the brief scope of this article, any discussion of international issues is bound to remain limited. For a more exhaustive treatment of international patterns in the world of nineteenth-century museums, see: Ellinoor Bergvelt, Debora J. Meijers, Lieske Tibbe and Elsa van Wezel (eds.), Napoleon’s Legacy. The Rise of National Museums in Europe, 1794–1830 (Berliner Schriftenreihe zur Museumsforschung, 27), Berlin 2009; Ellinoor Bergvelt, Debora J. Meijers, Lieske Tibbe and Elsa van Wezel (eds.), Museale Spezialisierung und Nationalisierung ab 1830. Das Neue Museum in Berlin im internationalen Kontext/ Specialization and Consolidation of the National Museum after 1830. The Neue Museum in Berlin in an International Context (Berliner Schriftenreihe zur Museumsforschung, 29), Berlin 2011, and Debora Meijers/Ellinoor Bergvelt/Lieske Tibbe/Elsa van Wezel, National Museums and National Identity, seen from an International and Comparative Perspective, c. 1760–1918: an Assessment, Huizinga Institute Amsterdam, 23 January 2012: http://www. huizingainstituut.nl/beheer/wp-content/uploads/National-Museums-and-National-Identity.pdf. 3 The term ‘encyclopedic’ is used to mean ‘covering all fields of knowledge’, namely naturalia, scientifica and artificialia. In this article I use the term in a more limited sense, to refer to a wide range of only artistic artefacts, including various sorts of antiquity; coins and medals; cut stones and precious stones, shells and bone objects; wood and metal carving; ceramics; sculptures, paintings, drawings and prints. 4 As early as 1841 one can trace a relation in Vienna between museum attendance and the emergence of modern means of transport, as can be seen in the statement of Josef Ritter von Arneth, keeper of the cabinet of coins and antiquities in the Hofburg. Von Arneth argued successfully that the cabinet should stay open in August, by pointing out that with the introduction of steamboats and trains it was in this month that great numbers of foreign visitors came to Vienna. See Lhotsky 1941–45 (note 1), vol. II, p. 542. By 1856 Vienna could be reached by train from Berlin via Krakau, Olmütz (1841), Brünn (1839) and Wagram (1838) in the north; and by 1857 from Triest in the south via Laibach (1849), Graz (1844), Gloggnitz (1842) and Wiener Neustadt (1841). The eastern line, though planned on Austrian initiative via Raab on the southern banks of the Donau, was instead build by the Ungarische Centralbahn, connecting Vienna with Pest via Pressburg on the northern side of the river by 1852/54. Although the railways were built for military and economic reasons rather than for tourism, it was an incidental stroke of fortune that the eastern and southern terminuses were located not far from the main entrance of the Belvedere complex. Our British visitor in 1855, coming from Munich in the west, would however have had to rely on other means of transport for the final leg of his journey, as this route was only completely developed in August 1860. See Wolfgang Kos/Günter Dinhobl (eds.), Großer Bahnhof. Wien und die weite Welt, Ausst.-Kat. Wien-Museum, Vienna 2006, 215, 220; Ludwig Neunlinger, 150 Jahre Eisenbahn in Österreich, hg. von Franz Patzer, 210. Wechselausstellung der Wiener Stadt- und Landesbibliothek, Wien 1987, 9–11. 5 See Adrian von Buttlar, The museum and the city: Schinkel’s und Klenze’s contribution to the autonomy of civic culture, in: Ellinoor Bergvelt, Deborah J. Meijers, Lieske Tibbe and Elsa van Wezel (eds.), Napoleon’s Legacy. The Rise of National Museums in Europe, 1794–1830 (Berliner Schriftenreihe zur Museumsforschung, 27), Berlin 2009, p. 173–189. 6 Semper had in fact designed a forum for Dresden comparable to that of Vienna, but it wasn’t implemented. Winfried Nerdinger/Werner Oechslin (eds.), Gottfried Semper 1803–1879. Architektur und Wissenschaft, Munich/Zurich 2003, p. 149–157. 7 See Jonathan Conlin, The Nation’s Mantelpiece. A History of the National Gallery, London 2006. 8 In Prince Eugene’s day (c. 1725) the ceremonial (but little used?) main entrance to the entire gardens was at the top end on the south side of the Oberes Belvedere. In the 1780s visitors to the painting gallery still entered the building from this side, although “auch ein andrer Eingang von unten durch den Garten angebracht [ist], welcher der Nähe und grösseren Bequemlichkeit wegen allgemein gebraucht wird“ (Pezzl 1786–90, vol. I, p. 436 in Bénédicte Savoy (ed.), Tempel der Kunst. Die Geburt des öffentlichen Museums in Deutschland 1701–1815, Mainz 2006, p. 489). Since then the numbers of people going to and through the park increased considerably, especially after the two stations at the Linienwall were built (see note 4). For this reason the director of the gallery, Peter Krafft, created two entrances in around 1850 – above from the Heugasse (today’s Prinz Eugen-Straße) and below on the Rennweg. Katrin Harter, Der Garten im 19. Jahrhundert. Vom Garten des Prinzen Eugen von Savoyen zum „Belvedere“, in: Agnes Husslein-Arco/Katharina Schoeller (eds.), Das Belvedere. Genese eines Museums, Weitra 2011, p. 194. Gertrude Aurenhammer, Geschichte des Belvedere seit dem Tode des Prinzen Eugen, in: Mitteilungen der Österreichischen Galerie, Vienna, 13, no. 57, 1969, p. 83, and Hans and Gertrude Aurenhammer, Das Belvedere in Wien. Bauwerk, Menschen, Geschichte, Vienna/Munich 1971, p. 28 point out that the entrance from the Rennweg was at the time already very much in use as it was the shortest route to the stations and the industrial developments in the Favoriten district. Karl Baedeker, Handbuch für Reisende in Deutschland und dem Oesterreichischen Kaiserstaat, I: Oesterreich, Süd- und West-Deutschland, 6th ed., Coblenz 1855, p. 6 and John Murray (ed.), A handbook for travellers in Southern Germany: being a guide to Würtemberg, Bavaria, Austria, Tyrol, Salzburg, Styria, [ ...], 8th ed., London 1858, p. 212 advise museum visitors to take “one of the Süd-Bahn omnibuses, which set you down at the upper Belvedere”. Further research may well reveal more detail about any relations between the siting of these stations and the increased numbers visiting the collections, as well as the change in the composition of this public. 9 See Joseph von Bergmann, Übersicht der kaiserlich-königlichen Ambraser-Sammlung (im unteren k.k. Belvedere) nach ihrer dermaligen Aufstellung, 4th ed., Vienna 1858 (1st ed. 1846), p. 5. 10 The National Gallery was founded in 1824, with the purchase by the British Parliament of the Angerstein collection. Conlin 2006 (note 7); Ellinoor Bergvelt, De Britse Parlementaire Enquête uit 1853. De “modernisering” van de National Gallery in Londen, in: Ellinoor Bergvelt/Debora J. Meijers/Mieke Rijnders (eds.), Kabinetten, galerijen en musea. Het verzamelen en presenteren van naturalia en kunst van 1500 tot heden, Heerlen et al. 2005, p. 319–42. In this regard the question also arises of whether the Hapsburg collections were even regarded abroad as a ‘museum’ prior to the new development of 1867–91. Vienna for instance isn’t mentioned in the findings of the British Parliamentary Enquiry which was forwarded to all the ‘national’ museums of Europe in 1853. This can indicate two equally interesting possibilities – either Vienna was ignored when the enquiry was sent out, or else the enquiry was not responded to. See also note 42.