Masters of the Renaissance
Little change of plans this morning. I made contact with a family who lives in Vienna through a mutual friend, so we checked out of the hostel early and headed up to their place. They live in a lovely little suburban area on the edge of the city called Grinzing. After we dropped our stuff at the house, we proceeded to head back into town and make our way to the Albertina, the world famous art museum.
The demonstration in front of town hall
As I mentioned yesterday, today was a national holiday, the Austrian version of Labor Day. As such, there were several rallies and demonstrations. We walked by the Parliament building as well as the town hall and found that a large stage had been erected with banners and balloons, and there was an Austrian politician of some kind who's voice boomed over several blocks.
Once we arrived at the Albertina, we started with the Picasso exhibit. This consisted of his work as well as many others who held similar styles in their work. We spent the next few hours reading about and viewing many different kinds of art from many different time periods. Much of this art was woven into the history of the royal families of Europe, and was displayed in a sort of timeline. This is because the Albertina actually began as the great art collection of Albert the "I-forget-which-number-ith", the Archduke of Austria. My favorite part of the museum was getting to see a few works of the Renaissance masters up close and personal. Below are just two examples: Leonardo da vinci and Michaelangello.
The Hare by Albrecht Burer
We were also very fortunate to the the painting of The Hare, the sellingpiece and mascot for the museum. I say fortunate because this painting is only shown to the public every 25 years.
Afterward we hit a local park per-usual and got a really special treat that put the artwork to shame. A crazy homeless man set his clothes on fire and began to dance around it in a Native American kind of way. The fire department was called and put the fire out and then the police to take him away. The hundreds of people in the park were all applauding. It was good old-fashion quality fun.