15 August-- Kunsthistorisches Museum Part II

I knew today I was completely over my jet lag, because I woke up at 12:30. The internet wasn’t working today, meaning that I had an excuse that I hadn’t posted my blog on time.

Today, I went to the Kunsthistorisches Museum again. This time around, I was looking to see if I could spot the differences in Protestant and Catholic art. This is easier said than done. Most of the art in the museum was Catholic art, meaning it was difficult to sort through all the baroque art to find something that wasn’t Catholic. The Holy Roman Empire was considered ‘holy’ because the leaders worked with the Pope and the Catholic Church and considered themselves defenders of the Catholic faith. Therefore, there are not many Protestant paintings present. Most of the protestant works I found were portraits. In this museum there is a large collection of portraits by Rembrandt. These are portraits of individuals not of royalty or religion, but of merchants and ordinary citizens. Because Protestants did not know if they were to be saved by God, they would work hard to succeed (material prosperity is a sign of divine favor). This resulted in a new class of individuals with enough wealth to commission art for themselves. Normally, an artist would be commissioned by the Church or by the current rulers, but Protestants began being able to commission works for themselves, opening up a totally new market for artists.

(<--Protestant art)

(Catholic Art-->)

If I had the ability to summon Ocean’s eleven and steal a painting, I would definitely steal Anthonis van Dyck’s Capture of Samson. I really like the interplay of emotions on Samsom’s and his wife’s faces. Even though I am not religious, I can appreciate this work. It also is an example of one characteristic of Catholic art that was very prevalent at this time: that art should be easy to understand. For catholics, paintings should convey a clear, direct message so the illiterate peasants who came to the church for mass would accept whatever the Church said as reality, because they could convey ideas to them in a way that they could easily understand. In this painting it is so easy to read the sorrow on Samson's face as he gazes at his traitorous wife. The artist of this painting did an excellent job conveying the sadness on both figures' faces.