An exhibition organised by the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna in collaboration with the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung Munich.

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1 DÜRER CRANACH HOLBEIN The German Portrait around 1500 May, 31 - September 4, 2011 Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna An exhibition organised by the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna in collaboration with the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung Munich. Five hundred years on, the exhibition attempts to retrace the footsteps of and his celebrated fellow artists, Lucas Cranach and Hans Holbein the younger. Until now, early German portraiture has never been the focus of a major exhibition, said directorgeneral Sabine Haag, which is why we are proud that the KHM has been able to present this show. Important masterpieces illustrate how at the turn of the 16 th century Man became the focus of artistic endeavors, turning artists into inventors and explorers of humanity. This unique presentation combines highlights from the extraordinary holdings of the Picture Gallery of the Kunsthistorisches Museum with artworks from our Kunstkammer and other in-house collections, as well as with celebrated masterpieces from important international collections. Over 140 main works from the time of invite visitors to enter into a fascinating dialogue with early German art. The exhibition includes loans from the world s forty most important collections and museums, among them the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the British Museum in London, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, the Picture Gallery in Berlin, and the Städel Museum in Frankfurt. The curator of this exhibition is Karl Schütz, the former director of the Picture Gallery of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, in collaboration with Christof Metzger (KHM) and Roger Diederen (Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung). The comprehensive exhibition catalogue comprises seminal essays by renowned scholars and short catalogue entries on all the artworks in the exhibition that place them in their artistic and historical context. The Beginnings of Portraiture in Germany The exhibition looks at the artists focus on Man in the German-speaking countries at the turn of the 16 th century, i.e. the waning of the Middle Ages and the dawn of the Modern Era. For far too long the shadow cast by Old-Netherlandish and Italian portraiture has obscured the German contributions to this genre. However, German portrait painting with Albrecht

2 Dürer, Lucas Cranach the elder, and Hans Holbein the younger as its most important representatives made a number of important and independent contributions, among them the careful recording of a sitter s appearance conjoined with a subtle psychological understanding of his character. The exhibition focuses both on how artists in the 15 th century began to analyze the individual, and on important images of people from the early Renaissance. We look at both the different geographical areas, and the role and influence of the outstanding masters who form the core of this show. We discuss personal and regional stylistic developments and illustrate them with the help of characteristic masterpieces. A Look at Society at the Beginning of the Modern Era The portraits on show here also tell us a great deal about society in the late Middle Ages and at the beginning of the Modern Era; in them we encounter sitters defined by their roles and position in contemporary society. In addition to representatives of various social classes there are portraits of groups normally not deemed worthy of an individual portrait but depicted instead as part of an anonymous group - members of the lower clergy, monks, peasants or craftsmen. The show includes examples of artists examining their sitters analytically as well as ironically or even condescendingly. The exhibition presents pivotal artworks paintings, graphic work, sculptures or medals by the foremost artists of the period; they document what contemporary art theory called the different genera dicendi of art: the sublime and the significant, represented by Albrecht Dürer; the simple and unadorned that contemporaries found in the works of Lucas Cranach the elder; and, last but not least, Hans Holbein the younger s radically new interpretation of reality that allowed him to depict space and three-dimensional bodies so realistically that one felt one could reach out and touch them. This means we encounter three different positions or approaches that inspired each other, and that continue to influence our image of early German art and its foremost representatives. September 16, 2011 January 15, 2012 the exhibition will be on show at the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung in Munich.

3 PRESSEFOTOS Johannes Kleberger c x 36,6 cm Lucas Cranach the elder Princesses Sibylla, Emilia and Sidonia of Saxony c x 89 cm Hans Holbein the younger Jane Seymour c. 1536/37 65,4 x 40,7 cm Wilhelm Haller (?) x 29 cm

4 Hans Holbein the younger A Young Merchant ,5 x 34,8 cm Lukas Furtenagel The Painter Hans Burgkmair and his Wife Anna, née Allerlai x 52 cm Portrait of a Young Venetian Lady 1505 datiert 32,5 x 24,5 cm Jakob Seisenegger Emperor Charles V 1532 canvas 203,5 x 123 cm

5 Bartel Beham ( ) Hans Urmiller and His Son c 1525 oil on 64,9 x 47,3 cm Städel Museum, Frankfurt/Main Städel Museum - ARTOTHEK Portrait of an Eighteen-Year-Old Youth 1503 charcoal,smudged, white highlights 29,9 x 21,6 cm Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Print Collection Anonymous Master from Prague or Vienna Archduke Rudolf IV c. 1360/65 parchment over Erzbischöfliches Dom- und Diözesanmuseum, Vienna Dommuseum, Vienna Master of the Portraits of the Thenn Children Ruprecht Thenn, Son of the Master-Coiner Thenn 1516 Städel Museum, Frankfurt/Main U. Edelmann - Städel Museum - ARTOTHEK

6 Portrait of a Lady Wearing the Order of the Swan southern Germany, c Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid Head of a Smiling Woman 1505 London, British Museum, Department of Prints and Drawings The British Museum Hans Holbein the younger. Benedict of Hertenstein 1517 New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art bpk / The Metropolitan Museum of Art Hans Daucher (?) Bottom of a Receptacle Featuring a Portrait of Duke Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony pearwood, nutwood diameter 22 cm

7 attributed to Jörg Muskat King Maximilian I c bronze, dark brown natural patina 34 cm x 31 cm x 20 cm, 11,3 kg OPENING HOURS AND ENTRANCE FEES Kunsthistorisches Museum Maria Theresien-Platz 1010 Vienna Tuesdays Sundays 10 a.m. 6 p.m. Thursdays 10 a.m. 9 p.m. (The Coin Collection closes at 6 p.m.) June through August open every day! adults concessions Vienna Card Groups of 10 or over guided tour, p.p. children under 19 annual ticket Audio Guide (German, English) 12, 9, 11, 8, 3, free 29, 4, EXHIBITION CATALOGUE exhibition catalogue: 35,- PRESS OFFICE Nina Auinger-Sutterlüty Director of the department of communication and marketing Kunsthistorisches Museum mit MVK und ÖTM 1010 Vienna, Burgring 5 Tel.: Fax: info.pr@khm.at