During the time I travelled in Austria, I visited Hallstatt - the most picturesque town where the oldest salt mine is. Also, I had a glance of the place where Mozart used to live in Salzburg. The last but not the least is the capital of Austria, Vienna. It is known as 'the capital of classic music', having a specific area where all the significant heritages located including palaces, galleries, museums, gardens and monuments. I went to an enchanting music concert in Schönbrunn Palace and witnessed its splendour while taking one day to visit Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna (German: Wien) - an art history museum.
Architecture
Architecture is always a drive for me to explore the place as possible as I can while travelling. It can be observed that there are full of Baroque, Rococo and Gothic building in Austria - actually among several European countries such as Italy, Czech, Germany, Poland and France because Austrian territory used to be across these areas in its flourishing period. Schönbrunn Palace was Habsburg's official residence back in the days. It is worth to mention, by the way, that House of Habsburg was one of the most prominent royal houses among Europeans - they had reined Austria for nearly 6 centuries from the time before Holy Roman Emperor to the extinction of Austro-Hungarian Empire. This palace is a Baroque architecture in Vienna, also containing 44 rooms in Rococo style, including Great Gallery where the music concert I attended to. Great Gallery's central panel of the ceiling fresco by the Italian artist Gregorio Guglielmi depicts the flourishing of the Habsburg Crown Lands. This process of ceiling fresco is more difficult than secco - the artists put a layer of wet lime plaster as base before painting the colours - but the colours could keep vibrant much better even after decades and centuries.
Back to the art history museum, this festive architecture is built by architects Hansen, Löhr, Ferstel, Hasenauer and Gottfried Semper in 19 century where Austrian Empire transited to Austro-Hungarian Empire during the period of Franz Joseph I's rule. Splendid this museum is as Renaissance architectures, it is among the world's most important collections while owning a considerable number of historic relics including French, Spanish, Italian and House of Habsburg's paintings, Greek and Viennese sculptures and Egyptian and Near Eastern antiquities. I will emphasise on the most interesting part that I have seen in light of thousands of collections worth more than one days to go through.
Arts and Antiquities
Egyptian Collection was my first stop. Couple years ago I went to a mummy exhibition in National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan. I have a rough idea of how Ancient Egyptians made mummy depending on the deceased's social status and what the meanings of sacrificial giving. Among all the antiquities, I was amazed by Egyptian Book of the Dead for its drawing and narrative. Egyptians believe that death is just another beginning of life. There would be a trial to determine whether a deceased is eligible for rebirth. The whole journey was demonstrated in an illustration. Basically, the deceased will follow the route of sun, along with animal sacrifices and other offerings. 'Weighing of the Heart' is the most vital ritual led by god Anubis to judge the life of a deceased. The dead's heart would be weighted on a pair of scale against goddess Maat, who embodied truth and justice. If balance, the dead would be deemed having a good life then led to find a place in afterlife; otherwise they would be found guilty and vanish for good for their sins.
Interestingly, it has been found the similarity between oriental religions and ancient Egyptian belief. Generally speaking, they are all believe in multiple gods/goddesses, spirits of the nature (e.g. animals, plants and stars) and the concept of afterlife. Dead people would be judged at that moment based on alive behaviour. On the other hand, hieroglyph for written system was developed in terms of the shapes of natural creatures, which is seemly related to idolatry in a part of their lives - these attributes are pretty much opposite to the mainstream in west.
In terms of European history, stylistic context is historically developed and changing era by era reflecting contemporary social structure, the economic situation and the culture in its genre, format, design and style. I was extremely fascinated by Baroque sculptures after going through different stages of art. Back into 17 century where Baroque style is in its golden age, it originated from Italy, following Renaissance style and adding virtuoso sculptures and extravagant ornaments as the praise of their regime and religion. Baroque style dramatically emphasises on light, form, shape and movement, exploring the use of colour in terms of paintings - it can be seen that the statues and figures' faces and gestures vividly express their emotions. From skill perspective, artists' craft skills could be scrutinised in their artworks via light source, meticulous detail, realistic structures combined with the utilisation of sensuous surface texture, which is extremely impressive for me imagining how those sculptors could accomplish such masterpieces.
The stories of these three artworks are, from left to right, Apollo and Daphne, King Joseph I as Victor over Furor, and Triumph of Emperor Leopold I. All of them are made of ivory that was an exotic material imported via the sea routes and Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands or some other northwestern and central European cities during Middle Age. Not only to memorise narratives or depict legends, sculptures made of wood, glass, gold even ostrich eggshell were also to decorate furnitures/tools such as drawers, closets, clocks, containers even board games, mostly based on real stories or the inspiration of it.
Finally, another precious collection, Saliera (also Cellini Salt Cellar), was completed in 16 century for Francis I of France. An essential of Baroque art is allegory; every single painting or sculpture tells a story or delivers a message. So, more than just a decorative container for salt and pepper which was made of gold, enamel, ebony and ivory, Saliera is also an allegory of the Cosmos, represented here by the deities Neptune (sea) and Tellus (earth) as well as by the depictions of the times of day and the four winds on the base.
Past, Present and Future
It is quite stunning how marvellous European history is from the point of their arts. Looking into every detail, we can discover surprises even secrets lying in the smaller-scaled world in front of us. Reflecting ourselves in this fast-moving and modern age as a visual designer, I am thinking about the purpose to design - are we designing for pure aesthetics, humanity or some social causes? Why and how it connects art with design but what the differences in between? Does stylistic context matter to us all the way from the beginning or is it just a preferred approach to convey? Are they meaningful, useful or helpful? It reminds me of a lecturer from branding management course of my master programme saying that luxury always follows a restrict guideline and barely requires creativity or new design elements for utility. Nowadays, most European countries are still constantly dedicating in heritage preservation. Thanks to that we are lucky to find out the ancients' lives and realise where these cultures derive from. But still, how would it exactly affect our present, even our future? What people here are always saying is, Austrian lost their lands in the end of the golden age after Habsburg proceeded to extinction, and now they still live in the past by commemorating their glorious history.
Personally, I was aware of myself relying too much on digital work and getting numb about the feeling of creating things purely by hands. I have been practicing hand drawing since I realised the importance of craft skills. Indeed, I truly believe that we will not be refusing the trend of digitalisation; therefore, the development of new technology ought to be an opportunity to bring these craft skills to a wider scale - on the contrary, the truth is that some of historic buildings actually remain enigmas of their architectural technique even in this advanced-tech era. Art mirrors the timeline of history as a reminder of our origins. Experts from several industries could see the things used to happen from different respects, and I hope I have the chance to train my eyes to see it through from the angle of art and design.
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