The Habsburg Wonders

Hosted at the Museo del Corso–Polo Museale – Palazzo Cipolla, From Vienna to Rome. Habsburg Wonders from the Kunsthistorisches Museum offers an extraordinary encounter with more than fifty masterpieces drawn entirely from the prestigious collections of Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum. Through a refined selection of works collected or commissioned between the 16th and 18th centuries by prominent members of the Austrian imperial family, the exhibition reveals the historical and cultural identity of the Viennese museum—an institution that embodies the splendor of an empire and the intellectual ambition of a dynasty. A special section is devoted to the Viennese museum’s architecture itself: the majestic building was designed by Gottfried Semper and Carl Hasenauer and is a true temple of art whose monumental presence stands as one of the most fascinating architectural achievements of the 19th century. Tracing the origins of the museum and the magnificence of its collections, the exhibition brings together works by the greatest masters of European painting—Peter Paul Rubens, Diego Velázquez, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Anthony van Dyck, and Lucas Cranach—along-side Italian geniuses such as Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, Arcimboldo, and Orazio Gentileschi, each represented by masterpieces of rare beauty and expressive power. Completing the exhibition is a precious selection from the Kunstkammer, one of Europe’s most extraordinary “cabinets of curiosities,” where the marvels of nature and the triumphs of human ingenuity coexist in a universe of splendor, curiosity, and contemplation. Until July 5. palazzocipolla.com