Vienna: Art and Architecture (Art & Architecture). Cet article n’est pas disponible.Vienna: Art and Architecture (Art & Architecture)

Notes; Includes bibliographical references (pages 442-444) and index. Subjects; Art, Austrian — Austria — Vienna. Architecture — Austria — Vienna.

Vienna is one of the great art centers of the world and one of the most visited cities in Europe. It is renowned for its music, art and architecture. However, what distinguishes Vienna from other European capitals is the fact that its artistic treasures are concentrated in such a small area - almost exclusively in the historic First District. The city center is thus one large open-air museum, presenting a staggering range of architectural styles, from Romantic and Gothic to Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Classicism and the multiple offshoots of Historicism as well as Art Nouveau and the modern contemporary styles. The radical urban developments of the nineteenth century caused the city walls -having served more as a source of confinement rather than protection- to be torn down and the fondations of the stunning Ringstrasse to be laid, thereby encouraging the concentric growth of the city. The second half of the century saw the blurring of geographical and sociological boundaries in Viennese society, which later produced a general cultural upheaval and led to the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918. Vienna at the turn of the century represents one of the most turbulent and fascinating chapters in European cultural and art history.

The highlights in Viennese art and architecture can be divided into three periods: the Baroque whose best-known exponents are Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt; the era of the Ringstrasse with its imposing official buildings and, of course, the early nineteenth century (1900-1918). The leading contributors of the latter period were Otto Qagner, Josef Hoffmann and Adolf Loos in architecture, and Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka and Egon Schiele in the visual arts.