A Morning Jog, Viennese Diet, and The Kunsthistorisches Museum

Doonerstag, 3. August 2006

I took a morning jog to the Volksgarten and back, and was amazed by the beauty of this city upon awakening. Quaint, clean, quiet and cheerful, Vienna wakes up beautifully.

Quaint, clean, quiet and cheerful, Vienna wakes up beautifully.

I saw many connections between our morning lecture and the course work completed while at IUP. I recognized that Viktor Adler, the fin-de-siecle Viennese politician, supported vegetarianism, the ascetic practice of the elite which was intended to keep sexual passions at bay. This practice fits well with the notion that Vienna silenced and ignored sexuality during this time. Yesterday, we discussed that manner in which women were expected to be ignorant of their sexuality, and today, we discussed the manner in which cuisine aided in keeping sexuality out of society. Franz Joseph was one of there ascetic eaters, and Otto Weininger, whose ideas were discussed yesterday supported ascetic vegetarianism. It was mentioned this morning that there were many foreign influences on Viennese cuisine, relating to the multi-ethnicity of the Hadsburg Empire. The assumed differences between men and women which were discussed in yesterday’s lecture became clearer today when it was mentioned that the Viennese believed that men required more meat than women.

After discussing the relationship between cuisine and cultural identity, it became clear that one obligation of the educated citizen is to recognize the links between “everyday life” and societal identity. One should not ignore the relationships between these.

Our afternoon trip to the Kunsthistorisches Museum was overwhelming. In my 3-hour visit, I only viewed 2 sections: the painting gallery (not all of it by any means) and the coin collection. The painting gallery blew me away. The progression – room after room – seemed endless. I felt like an irreverent, ungrateful observer, passing over paintings so quickly and, at times, forgetting to consider that mastery required for the production of such work. How many hours were necessary for the production of a single Van Dyck painting? The cartoon of the crusade of Tunis was unbelievable in every sense of the word. I feel that any descriptions or explanations to my family and friends at home will be useless. The work in this museum exhausts all superlatives.

The historic artistic traditions, from which the Secessionists broke, were quite evident to me today. Experiencing a “mega-dose” of “traditional” art from a variety of periods helped me to understand the monolithic tradition which was questioned by the Secessionists. How could Klimt have done what he, in fact, did? How could he hope for success? Yet, he found success – is it nearly inevitable that revolutionary artists win the attention and favor which all artists crave? Certainly, there was a concert of events which allowed for the popularity of the Secessionists. The experimental, radical nature of their work, however, shocks me. The shock became more acute today because of my visit to the KHM.