Sunday, 10 January 2016

Artistic beauty in film: Museum Hours

As promised, I visit Vienna and the Kunsthistoriches.

Just so you know, Johannes Holzhausen's 2014 behind the scenes documentary was entitled The Great Museum.

Security guard Johann (Bobby Sommer) befriends Anne (Mary Margaret O'Hara), whose arrival in Austria's capital is not for pleasure, but to visit her coma struck cousin in hospital.

Art begins to shape perspective and everyday issues are dissected.

Jem Cohen's 2012 film is odd and ponderous, but beautifully shot.

Split into four terrific slices, please observe the meat of a simply sublime collection.

1. Majestic Miscellany

The Great Forest - Jacob van Ruisdael
A Village Barber Pulling Teeth - Adriaen van Ostade
View of Dordrecht - Jan van Goyen
Cain Kills Abel - Bartolomeo Manfredi
Big Bouquet of Flowers in a Wooden Vessel - Jan Brueghel the Elder
Adam and Eve - Hans Memling
The Art of Painting - Johannes Vermeer
Vanitas Still-Life - Maria van Oosterwijck
Lot and his Daughter - Albrecht Altdorfer
The Apple Peeler - Gerard Terboch II
Susanna and the Elders - Tintoretto
Hero Mourning the Dead Leander - Domenico Fetti
Calling of Matthew - Mattia Preti
The Suicide of Lucretia - Joos van Cleve
Laura - Giorgione
The Prodigal Son - Johannes Baeck
St. Michael Vanquishing the Devils - Luca Giordano
Christ Carrying the Cross - Jusepe de Ribera
Head of Medusa - Peter Paul Rubens
Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his Gallery in Brussels - David Teniers the Younger
Salome with the Head of John the Baptist - Andrea Solario
Judith with the Head of Holofernes - Lucas Cranach the Elder
Salome with the Head of the Baptist - Cesare de Sesto
2. Magnificent Multiples

a) Paolo Veronese

Judith with the Head of Holofernes (left) and The Anointment of David (right)
Christ and the Samaritan Woman at the Well
b) Giovanni Bellini

Presentation in the Temple
Young Woman at her Toilet
c) Titian

Woman in a Fur Coat (left) and Danaë (right)
Portrait of Fabrizio Salaressa (left) and Diana and Callisto (right)
d) Bartholomeus Spranger

Minerva Victorious Over Ignorance
Venus and Vulcan
Venus and Adonis
e) Rembrandt

Various Self-Portraits and Apostle Paul (far right)
f) Caravaggio

Madonna of the Rosary (left) and Christ Carrying the Cross (right)
The Crowning with Thorns
David with the Head of Goliath
3. Magical Mixture

An Elderly Woman (left) and The Deposition (right), both from Anthony van Dyck, and middle, Gaspar de Crayer's The Lamentation of Christ.
Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand (far left), Johannes Kleberger, Aged 40 (left) and Portrait of a Young Venetian Woman (middle), all from Albrecht Dürer, and far right, Lucas Cranach the Elder's Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
4. Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Works of Netherlandish renaissance master dominates proceedings.

Hunters in the Snow
The Peasant Wedding
The Peasant Dance
Return of the Herd
The Conversion of St. Paul
The Battle Between Carnival and Lent (left) and Children's Games (right)
The Tower of Babel (left) and The Procession to Calvary (right)
Yes, a fitting finale.

Tourist attractions are done, but is the silver screen?

Not really...

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