Making a special trip to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta can be an easy trip for most of us in the United States. I encourage everyone to see this remarkable exhibition of ninety masterpieces from the Habsburg collection which has traveled from the Kunsthistoriches Museum in Vienna, Austria. The Habsburg Empire ruled most of Europe for six hundred years and collected and commissioned some of the finest art you’d ever be fortunate to see and experience. Many of the pieces never before exhibited in the U.S.
As one enters the exhibition two young boys in armor are jousting on horseback.Gorgeous intricate carvings in ivory to stunning Old Master paintings are visually and spiritually uplifting for their exquisite beauty and expert craftsmanship.
I loved Peter Paul Rubens' “The Lamentation of Christ”; not a large painting, but an extremely intimate and emotional description of the three Marys lamenting Christ after he is removed from the cross. The story is acutely poignant and Rubens painted with such reverence and attention to light, pureness of color, vulnerability of human flesh, and suffering from loss that you will want to spend some time in front of this splendid work.
Other brilliant Old Master painters represented in this show are Correggio, Velasquez, Caravaggio, Titian, and Tintoretto! Each painting by these artists is a wonderful example of his work, and the paintings are in excellent condition. Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velasquez's portrait of Infanta Maria Teresa, 1653, displays effortless brush strokes that seem to float across a sea of soft atmospheric colors and underlying form.
The Lamentation of Christ by Peter Paul Rubens Flemish 1577-1640 Kunsthistorisches Museum,Vienna, Austria
Boy in Armor
The Exhibition continues until January 17, 2016. From there it travels to the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston Texas through September 13, 2016.