Kunsthistorisches Museum Presents Upcoming Exhibition

The Kunsthistorisches Museum presents upcoming exhibitions in 2017.

THE FIRST GOLD ADA TEPE: EUROPE'S OLDEST GOLDMINE

On March 7th the Kunsthistorisches Museum opens an exhibition showcasing Europe's oldest goldmine together with the largest Bronze Age gold hoard ever discovered, which comprises around 330 artefacts.

A few years ago the sensational discovery of Europe's oldest goldmine at Ada Tepe (Bulgaria) made international headlines. In collaboration with the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and using state-of-the-art technology, scholars are trying to determine if this is where the gold used for the artefacts comprising Priam's legendary treasure and those found in the royal graves at Mycenae was mined.

Recent scholarly findings form the basis for this exhibition, which looks at, among other things, transnational Bronze Age trade routes and the role of gold as an elite status symbol. A virtual reconstruction and finds from the mine document how the people who toiled there lived. A reflection of the period's wealth and technical skills, the Valchitran Treasure comprises around 12,5 kilograms of gold and forms the core of the show. Selected gold masterpieces produced during the late classical/Hellenistic period and the Roman Empire document the importance of Bulgarian gold, which can look back on 3500 years of history.

This exhibition is organised by the Kunsthistorisches Museum in collaboration with the National Archaeological Institute and Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Science, Sofia (NAIM), and the Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology of the Austrian Academy of Science(OREA).

MARCH 15 - NOVEMBER 29, 2017

MARIA THERESA

STRATEGIST - MOTHER - REFORMER

IMPERIAL CARRIAGE MUSEUM, SCHLOSS HOF,

SCHLOSS NIEDERWEIDEN AND HOFMOBILIENDEPOT -

VIENNA IMPERIAL FURNITURE COLLECTION

A major new exhibition marking the third centenary of the birth of Maria Theresa explores the life and work of this monarch and empress-consort. The Maria Theresa exhibition will be taking place from 15 March to 29 November 2017 at four locations in Vienna and Lower Austria. One of the outstanding personalities from the House of Habsburg, she assumed an almost mythical status a short time after her death in 1780. The exhibition Maria Theresa: Strategist - Mother - Reformer presents a nuanced exploration of the bright and dark sides of the ruler, examining her life, family, political achievements and legacy.

Imperial Carriage Museum:

High Office and High Spirits

At the Imperial Carriage Museum, the focus will be on Maria Theresa's projection of her own image, caught as she was between the sometimes conflicting priorities of her identity as a woman and the 'masculinity' of her power as a ruler. Ornate coaches, liveries, uniforms and gowns will recreate the resplendence of formal court occasions and exuberant festivities.

Vienna Imperial Furniture Collection:

Family and legacy

In the 'Hofmobilieninspektion', an institution founded by Maria Theresa in 1747 to administer the court holdings of furniture, the exhibition examines the family circle, the personal destinies and the dynastic marriage policy pursued by Maria Theresa together with the legacy of her status as a mythic figure that continued long after her death.

Schloss Hof:

Alliances and enmities

Around 1775 Maria Theresa had a dower apartment furnished for herself at Schloss Hof, her country residence in Lower Austria. On the piano nobile of the palace the exhibition deals with her initial difficulties in establishing her rule, wars and peace agreements, losses and gains of territory as well as Maria Theresa's powerful creative political will.

Schloss Niederweiden:

Modernization and reforms Also located in the Marchfeld region of Lower Austria, the small and intimate Schloss Niederweiden was used for hunting parties and celebrations. At this exhibition venue the focus will be on the major domestic reforms enacted by Maria Theresa that were to change the state substantially.

MARCH 28, 2017 - FEBRUARY 18, 2018

IN HER MAYJESTY'S HANDS

THE MEDALS OF MARIA THERESA

The Kunsthistorisches Museum's Coin Collection holds both the largest and by far the most important collection of coins minted under Maria Theresa; it is the best place, and now is the best time, to host an exhibition that presents the monarch's life in medals to celebrate what would have been her 300th birthday on May 13, 2017.

The exhibition focuses on the most important topoi in Maria Theresa's private and public life. It presents her in the company of her large family, running the gamut of events from dynastic marriages to heart-breaking calamities. It showcases her role as a ruler forced to fight several wars for her inheritance and, together with her son and co-regent Joseph II, as a pioneering social reformer. The artefacts on show also illustrate the extent of Maria Theresa's realm, which comprised many different ethnicities and cultures.

All these topoi are reflected in medals that emblematise historical events with the help of allegories. Maria Theresa was already widely glorified and celebrated during her lifetime, but the exhibition also documents how she was portrayed by her enemies. So-called satirical medals, which were passed around in private, turned Maria Theresa into an object of derision.

The exhibition focuses too on the historical background of medal production to illustrate the requisite technical skills, expenditure and effort, introduce the most important protagonists, and document range, purview and media-value of Maria Theresia's medals.

OCTOBER 17, 2017 -JANUARY 21, 2018

PETER Paul Rubens

THE POWER OF TRANSFORMATION

Peter Paul Rubens (1577 -1640) was already renowned throughout Europe during his lifetime; today he is rightly celebrated as the greatest painter of the Flemish Baroque. The Kunsthistorisches Museum owns around forty paintings by himand his workshop. They include both exuberantly coloured, multi-figured masterpieces such as, for example, the huge altarpieces heproduced for the Jesuit church at Antwerp, and intimate compositions like The Fur, Head of Medusa or his late Self-Portrait.

In the autumn of 2017 the Kunsthistorisches Museum is honouring this giant of European art history with a major exhibition. The Museum's extensive holdings will be augmented by numerous international loans, creating a spectacular ensemble. Visitors will be able to discover Rubens' oeuvre in a wide range of media, such as drawings, oil sketches, panel paintings and large-scale canvases.

The maIn Focus of the exhibition is on the master's creativity: Rubens had an uncanny ability to utilise, to be inspired by the works of other artists. He continued this dialogue with the paintings of precursors and contemporaries throughout his life, and it impacted his work throughout a career that spanned five decades. The artist continually changed and altered his own compositions, and often these recourses make his work appear modern and dynamic. However, these relationships and connections are not recognizable at first glance: the exhibition therefore invites the visitor to comprehend and experience Rubens' surprising perspectives by himself.

This is why the show features not only works by Rubens but also classical and Renaissance sculptures as well as paintings by great masters such as Titian or Caravaggio, works that helped Rubens to develop his idiosyncratic and radically novel pictorial formulas.