The Grand Staircase and the Klimt Spandrels
Gustav Klimt, Ernst Klimt and Franz Matsch (paintings); Antonio Canova (Theseus group); Mihály Munkácsy (ceiling) (Gustav Klimt 1862 to 1918; Antonio Canova 1757 to 1822; Mihály Munkácsy 1844 to 1900) · Building 1871 to 1891; spandrel paintings 1890 to 1891
From the entrance hall a broad flight of marble steps climbs to a landing where Antonio Canova's white marble Theseus fights a centaur, then divides and rises again under an enormous painted ceiling. Coloured marble columns, gilded stucco and black and gold balustrades surround you on every side. This is the Kunsthistorisches Museum's own first work of art, built to convince a visitor that the empire's collections deserved a palace. Look up. The ceiling by the Hungarian painter Mihaly Munkacsy shows the Apotheosis of the Renaissance, with Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo and Titian at work under an open sky.
The real treasure is lower down, in the narrow spaces between the columns and above the arches on the upper level. In 1890 and 1891 three young Viennese painters, Gustav Klimt, his brother Ernst and their friend Franz Matsch, were commissioned to fill these spandrels with figures representing the history of art, from Egypt and Greece to the Italian Renaissance. Gustav Klimt, then in his late twenties, painted eleven of them. His Egyptian woman stands naked with a falcon headed god behind her; his Girl from Tanagra holds a flower and gazes out like a Viennese society beauty; his Athena wears a gold helmet. The gold backgrounds and flat decorative patterns look forward twenty years to The Kiss, and this is where Klimt's golden style began.
The paintings are high up and hard to see, so bring binoculars or use the museum's mobile guide, which zooms in on each figure. Occasionally the museum builds a temporary bridge across the stairwell so visitors can see the spandrels at eye level. Canova's Theseus was carved for Napoleon and bought by the Austrian emperor after Napoleon's fall; it originally stood in a temple in the Volksgarten before being moved here in 1890. Pause on the landing, turn round, and you have the best view in the building.
Did You Know? Gustav Klimt painted these figures at twenty eight, and the golden background of his Egyptian woman is the first appearance of the gold that later made him famous.
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