At the Congress of Vienna from sep. 1814 to June 1815, the powers of Europe re established the pre-Napoleonic borders of Europe and attempted to squash out any more revolutionary ideas. For the period of time from 1813 to 1848, Prince Clemens von Metternich tried to silence any revolutionary action. The result of this effort was that people began withdrawing into their homes and gathering away from public areas to speak and gossip in private. This era is known as the Biedermeier period, so named because 'Bieder' means simple, and Meier is a common last name. An ideal Biedermeier lifestyle would consist of a simple, suburban lifestyle, caught up in your own world and not paying attention to what is going on around you, gemuetlichkeit, and the idea of locking everything up to keep it from others. In this world there was also a double standard, and women would often follow the three K’s: Kinder, Kueche, und Kirche.
In class today we also learned about the Ringstrasse architectural movement. This movement followed the deconstruction of Vienna’s walls. These fortifications had in the past proved necessary for Vienna’s defense during the Turkish sieges of 1529 and 1683. As Vienna was expanding, the walls were needed less and less (they didn’t stop Napoleon from taking Vienna), until they were done away with completely by emperor Franz Joseph in the mid 19th century. The destruction of the walls in 1857 created a large amount of land that was bought up by a new emerging social class: the Ringstrasse Barons, who were attempting to mimic the lifestyles of the old aristocracy. To accomplish this, they built many new buildings on the area that the walls used to occupy, called the Ringstrasse. These buildings, built in classical greek and Roman styles, were supposed to compare its commissioner with these bygone rulers and empires. The Parliament building, built in the classical Greek style, recalls democracy's Greek Roots. The University was built in the neo-Renaissance style, referring to the new advent of learning that accompanied the Renaissance. The Rathaus, in neo-Gothic, according to Parsons, the "free burgher cities of medieval Flanders." The Secession movement, of which Otto Wagner played an important role (see Kirche am Steinhof), was a rejection of this architectural idea and asserted that every era should have its own art.
Today we got to tour the inside of the baroque Belvedere Palace. Before, we had only viewed the outside and the gardens, but today we were able to go inside and see its art and architecture. As I wrote previously, the Belvedere was a gift to Prince Eugene of Savoy for finally driving the Turks back in the late 17th century. Now, the palace is home to a large collection of art and sculpture. Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures inside. The palace houses a large collection of art from the Biedermeier period, depicting scenes from family life or scenery.
This building also houses many works by the famous Art Nouveau artist and later Expressionist Gustav Klimt. Klimt, who lived from 1862 to 1918, was good friends with the expressionist painter Egon Schiele. Klimt was the son of a goldsmith, and his early works for the Vienna Secession demonstrate this. Many of Klimt's works deal with the so-called "feminine mystique," the idea that one can never truly understand what goes on in a woman's head. One of his most famous works, der Kuss, depicts a couple locked in an embrace and enveloped by a shimmering gold shroud. The man in the painting is giving the woman a kiss. Through this painting Klimt teases the viewer through his representation of the "feminine mystique" by painting the woman's face in such a way as to obscure her feelings. On the surface, it seems like she is enjoying herself, but subtle hints like the way her hand seems to be pulling away his arm and her facial expressions make us doubt ourselves. I think Klimt wanted us to never know and always be guessing, to keep with the theme of the female mystique.
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