Austria Arts Part II


Geographically located in Austria, even if it involved artists from various backgrounds, it is the so-called “Danube school” (Altdorfer, W. Huber), characterized by the vivid sense of nature, while the work of R. Frueauf proves independentthe Younger (plates by Klosterneuburg). The absolute dominance of generations of Italian architects of Lombard-Ticino origin begins with the early sixteenth century (the Aglio and Carlone families, active until the eighteenth century) who worked mainly in Styria and Carinthia (Villach, Graz, Klagenfurt, Spittal), but also present at the first works of the royal palace in Vienna, the Hofburg. In the early seventeenth century there was an artistic revival of Salzburg, under the bishops Wolf Dietrich and Mark Sittich von Hohenems (Residenz, Neubau, Rathaus, Mirabell and Hellbrunn castles), culminating in the reconstruction of the cathedral (1614-28) in ways similar to the Roman church of the Gesù in Vignola. The civil architecture of Vienna traces the Prague Baroque in the Leopoldinische Trakt of the Hofburg and in the Starehmberg palace, while the sacred one, especially in the church of Maria Annunciata dei Serviti (1651-70), with a longitudinal oval plan, is linked to the Roman Baroque. From these models the great eighteenth-century baroque will be elaborated by JB Fischer von Erlach, JL von Hildebrandt and J. Prandtauer. Fischer will travel all the way from the Borrominism of the Salzburg works (Trinity and Collegio churches) to the classicism of the church of St. Charles Borromeo in Vienna, while colossal and Berninian was his first project for the new imperial palace of Schönbrunn, then reduced to its current size and shape, more similar to Versailles. By now Rococo masterpieces are the palaces and the Belvedere park by Eugenio di Savoia, by Hildebrandt, and the magnificent Melk abbey on the Danube, by Prandtauer. Massimo sculptor is GR Donner, author of the neo-Mannerist Donnerbrunnen (fountain of rivers) in Vienna. For painting dominate the frescoes of Roman education (in the seventeenth century) and then Venetian (in the eighteenth century) with M. Altomonte, JM Rottmayr, P. Troger (flanked by Italians such as Father Pozzo, A. Lanzani, C. Carlone, GA Pellegrini, G. Guglielmi). The greatest of all, with its fantastic chromatism and luminism, is FA Maulbertsch. The Austrian nineteenth century, more than by European styles (neoclassicism of the Burgtor, neogothic of the Rathaus and of the Votivskirche) is typically represented by the bourgeois “small art” of the Biedermeier style, with the narrative paintings of M. von Schwind and the delicate naturalism of GF Waldmüller. Architectural eclecticism asserted itself after 1857 with the urban reform of G. Semper, to which the ” Vienna secession ” reacted from 1897 with O. Wagner and JM Olbrich, to be followed, already on the path of rationalism, by J. Hoffmann and above all A. Loos, while in painting the symbolism of G. Klimt dominatesand the harsh graphics of E. Schiele, which opens the way to the total expressionism of O. Kokoschka. These Austrian contributions to the historical avant-gardes are eminently recalled in a current key by Hundertwasser, while the major figure of contemporary Austrian sculpture, harsh in its neoprimitive figurative synthesis, is that of F. Wotruba. In the seventies, with artists such as A. Rainer and H. Nitsch, the phenomenon of body art found its most violent manifestations in Austria, in the heart of old Europe. At the beginning of the Eighties in the pictorial field we witnessed the contrast of two alignments: on the one hand theWilde (Selvaggi), led by A. Klinkas, A. Mosbacher, S. Anzinger, J. Kern; on the other the Stille (Pacifici), represented in particular by H. Schleib, F. Bergler, JJ Tompe. Furthermore, H. Brandl, P. Kogler and W. Oblholzer, among others, contributed to the breaking down of the traditional boundaries between the various genres, in whose works painting, installations and computer graphics coexist. Among the most appreciated exponents of contemporary architecture are H. Hollein (plan for the arrangement of Michaelerplatz, Vienna, 1991), W. Holzbauer (Bank Austria, Vienna, 1993), G. Peichl (Burgtheater, Vienna, 1991-93).

Austria Arts 2

Lower Austria

According to payhelpcenter, Lower Austria, is an Austrian federal state with anarea of19,186 km 2 and 1.67 million residents; The capital is Sankt Pölten. Lower Austria stretches on both sides of the Danube between Enns and March and includes, among others. the Waldviertel, the fertile hill country of the Weinviertel, the alluvial plain of the Tullner Basin, the Marchfeld and the wide, almost treeless Vienna Basin. In addition to agriculture, Lower Austria mainly has metal, food, textile and chemical industries as well as oil and natural gas production. Tourism also plays a major role. State governor has been Johanna Mikl-Leitner (* 1964, ÖVP) since 2017.

Linz

Linz, capital of Upper Austria, on the Danube, with (2019) 205 700 residents.

As an educational center, the city has universities and colleges. Linz is known for the annual Bruckner Festival (Anton Bruckner) and the Ars Electronica (Festival of Media Art). In addition to the service sector (trade, public service, etc.), the economy is primarily determined by the steel industry.

In addition to one of the oldest churches in Austria (Martinskirche, 8th century), other important churches, a castle and old noble houses, especially from the Baroque era, are worth seeing. Examples of modern architecture are the Lentos Art Museum and the Music Theater.

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