Renaissance in vienna

Not only in Augsburg! – Renaissance in Vienna

In comparison with Augsburg, present-day Vienna shows few traces of the Renaissance. However, this does not mean that Vienna around 1500 was a completely medieval city: here too, the burghers displayed a newly gained self-confidence, scholars taught humanist concepts at Vienna University, and the creation of art was increasingly influenced by new forms and worldviews in a state of flux.

Business connections – the Fuggers in Vienna

Under Jakob Fugger ‘the Rich’, the Fuggers set up an agency in Vienna that played an important role in trade, with Hungary in particular. The Vienna branch of the Fuggers’ international business was based at the Kölner Hof. This complex of buildings grouped around several courtyards was located on the inner-city street now called Köllnerhofgasse but was demolished in the eighteenth century. In 1511, Viennese merchants set up the traders’ federation known as the ‘Wiener Handelsgesellschaft’, which maintained close business contacts with the Fuggers.

The Kölner Hof in 1794 after numerous reconstructions, from: Wilhelm Kisch, Wien, Die alten Strassen und Plaetze Wien’s und ihre historisch interessanten Haeuser. Ein Beitrag zur Culturgeschichte Wiens mit Rücksicht auf die vaterländische Kunst, Architektur, Musik und Literatur (Vienna, 1883), 394, fig. 141

Intellectual communities – Konrad Celtis at Vienna University

Konrad Celtis was one of the best-known humanist scholars in German-speaking Europe. He was in close contact with Konrad Peutinger and issued art commissions to Albrecht Dürer and Hans Burgkmair. Shortly before 1500, Emperor Maximilian I appointed him as lecturer at Vienna University, then located in the area of the present-day Dr.-Ignaz-Seipel-Platz in Vienna’s 1st district.

Albrecht Dürer, Konrad Celtis presents Emperor Maximilian I with an edition of his ‘Amores’ [bottom centre: the coat of arms of the city of Vienna], from: Konrad Celtis, Quatuor Libri Amorum (Nuremberg, 1502)

Travelling acquaintances – art and ideas in the European network

Numerous pieces in the collections of the Kunsthistorisches Museum show evidence of the travels undertaken by European artists and scholars around 1500 and the exchange of ideas between them. Lucas Cranach the Elder, for example, who came from Franconia and had probably worked previously in Nuremberg, spent an extended period as a young man in Vienna, where he moved in the circle of the humanist Konrad Celtis. Paintings such as the Crucifixion known as the Schottenkreuzigung (because of its association with the Abbey of the Schotten) use a new, strongly expressive visual language and show people in very close connection with nature. These innovations had a lasting impact on German art and are also to be found later – for instance in the works of the ‘Danube School’.

Lucas Cranach the Elder, Crucifixion (known as the Schottenkreuzigung), around 1500/01. Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Picture Gallery, inv. 6905

Formally related – Italian architectural forms in the heart of Vienna

The magnificent surround – with stepped reveals, richly decorated columns, and monumental architrave with segmental pediment – of the portal to the Chapel of the Holy Saviour is an early example of Renaissance architecture in Vienna. Inscriptions in Latin name the church’s patron, Christ the Saviour, and the two donors. A knight in armour stands above each column; the shield held by the figure on the right originally featured the coat of arms of Maximilian I. The portal of the Salvatorkapelle was completed in 1519 – a year after the dedication of the Fugger Chapel in Augsburg.