| Lichtenstein Museum(Liechtenstein Museum) (picture by Peter Watts) |  |
Lichtenstein Museum(Liechtenstein Museum)
Photographer Description of Lichtenstein Museum(Liechtenstein Museum)
This panorama shows the Liechtenstein museum in Vienna. The panoramic image was taken from the courtyard in front of the building. It is not on the tourist beaten track of Vienna, and takes a small amount of effort to get to. But, it is well worth the effort, not only for the paintings in the museum itself, but also for the grounds behind it.Lichtenstein Museum(Liechtenstein Museum) - Further Information
The Liechtenstein Family was very wealthy and in the built a summer palace for them in Alsergrund, which was at the time still a rural area outside Vienna. The building was intended to house the family's private art collection and became Vienna's first museum in 1807. The ticket office of the Liechtenstein Museum is in the Sala Terrena, an impressive room flanked by two marble staircases decorated with frescoes as outlined below. The room was originally open to the elements and now houses the Liechtenstein's gilded coach.Liechtenstein Museum
The Liechtenstein (Lichtenstein) Museum was re-opened in 2004. It contains the private collection of the Liechtenstein family and is best known for the collection of works by Pieter Paul Rubens. The largest room in the museum, the Saal VII, is almost entirely taken up with the Decius Mus Cycle Rubens created depicting the life of Roman consul Decius Mus. Central to this cycle is the Death of Decius Mus, showing how the consul had to sacrifice himself to secure victory for his army. Other works throughout the career of Rubens are found elsewhere in the museum, including the early Venus at a Mirror to the late Mariahimmmelfahrt and Mars and Rhea Silva.
Saal I contains paintings by Bellotto which show the area around the palace before the city encroached upon it. Saal II houses work by Antonio Canova, whose bust of Napoleon's 1 year old son and a large statue of an Esterhazy princess who married into the Liechtenstein family. The west wing of the palace still contains the vast family library.
The Herkulessaal (Hercules Hall) at the top of the east staircase is the largest Baroque hall in Vienna. It is lined with red marble half pillars and various paintings and gilded reliefs. The single dominant highlight of this hall is the ceiling fresco by Andrea Pozzo which he started in 1704. This fresco depicts the life of Hercules starting with him strangling a snake in his cot and ending with his suicide.
About the Liechtenstein Palace
Prince Johann Adam Andreas I of Liechtenstein (1657–1712) instructed the building of the palace, conceived as villa rustica and designed by Domenico Egidio Rossi and then adapted by Domenico Martinelli to form a Roman style palace. The building itself is a work of art. The stuccowork inside the Liechtenstein Palace is by Santino Bussi and free from later embellishments, which is rare in Vienna.
In 1705 Johann Michael Rottmayr was commissioned to do frescoes in the Sala Terrena and in the stairway. These frescoes were later covered up by the 19th century ceiling paintings by Antonio Bellucci or plaster. They were only recently uncovered during renovation works. The Hercules Hall of the Palace houses an impressive ceiling fresco by Andrea Pozzo, a great master of Roman Baroque.
Originally the gardens of the Liechtenstein Palace were, along with the Belvedere Gardens, the most impressive Baroque gardens in Vienna, stocked with works by Giovanni Giuliani.
Address
Lichtenstein Museum
Alserbachstrasse 14-16
A-1090 Wien
Travel Directions and Getting There
U-Bhan : (U4) Roßauer Lände, Friedensbrücke
Bus / Tram : 5, 33, 40A, D
