The Sala Terrena
Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt (architect); Lorenzo Mattielli (sculpture) (Hildebrandt 1668 to 1745; Mattielli about 1687 to 1748) · 1717 to 1723
You enter the palace from the garden through a low, cool hall whose vault is carried on the shoulders of four muscular stone giants. They crouch and strain under the weight, faces twisted with effort, and the stucco above them curls into shells, trophies and foliage. This is the Sala Terrena, the garden room that every Baroque palace had for summer receptions, and Hildebrandt made it the most dramatic space in the Upper Belvedere after the Marble Hall above it. The stairs at the back lead up to the state rooms, and the effect was meant to be that of passing from the earth into the sky.
The giants are atlantes, named after Atlas who carried the heavens, and they were carved by Lorenzo Mattielli, the Italian sculptor who also made the figures on the garden staircase. Look at the way each one is different: one presses a hand against his own thigh, another grips the capital above his head. They are not purely decorative. In seventeen thirty two the vault of the hall began to crack, and the four figures were inserted as structural supports, which is why they look as if they are truly working. The white of the stucco was intended to be cool in the Viennese summer, and the doors could be thrown open to the garden.
The hall also holds a small selection of the medieval and Baroque sculpture that continues in the rooms to either side, so you can begin the tour of the collection here before climbing the stairs. Most visitors rush through on their way up to Klimt; stop for a moment under the giants and look back out at the garden, because this is the view Prince Eugene planned for his guests.
Did You Know? The four giants were added in seventeen thirty two when the vault began to crack, so they really are holding up the ceiling.
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