History Tales. Fact and Fiction in History Painting
27.9.2023–26.5.2024

Paintings Gallery
Schillerplatz 3
1010 Vienna
In autumn 2023, the exhibition History Tales. Fact and Fiction in History Painting will focus on the representation of history with respect to narratives governing national identities. How is the rise and fall of civilizations presented historically? How has human hubris been allegorized in history paintings since the 17th century? And what have been the changes in depictions of myths, heroes and heroines, rulers male and female, and decisive historical events up to the present day – in the light of technological change and the invention of photography and film?

The exhibition examines the history painting with a view to the historical Art Collections – Paintings Gallery, Graphic Collection, Plaster Cast Collection – on the one hand and works by contemporary artists on the other. In so doing, it will shed light on the capacity of the history painting and its variations in the media age to oscillate iridescently between fact and fiction and its potential for focusing on historicity as an artistic theme in its own right.

Venue: Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Paintings Gallery, Schillerplatz 3, 1010 Vienna 
Hours: Daily except Monday, 10–18 h

More information about the content of the exhibition can be found in the > Press Release pdf
 
Press photographs for download >
 

  • Johann Peter Krafft, David with the Head of Goliath, 1852 © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
    Johann Peter Krafft, David with the Head of Goliath, 1852 © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

  • Ana Torfs, Révolution, 2003 © Ana Torfs
    Ana Torfs, Révolution, 2003 © Ana Torfs

  • Unknown artist after Paul Delaroche, Napoleon I at Fontainebleau on 31 March 1814, after 1840 © Graphic Collection of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
    Unknown artist after Paul Delaroche, Napoleon I at Fontainebleau on 31 March 1814, after 1840 © Graphic Collection of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

  • Michael Wutky, Eruption of Vesuvius, seen across the Golf of Naples, c. 1780 © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
    Michael Wutky, Eruption of Vesuvius, seen across the Golf of Naples, c. 1780 © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

  • Heinrich Friedrich Füger, Alkeste sacrifies herself for Admetos, 1805 © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
    Heinrich Friedrich Füger, Alkeste sacrifies herself for Admetos, 1805 © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

  • Jacques Courtois, called Le Bourgignon, Riding Battle, c. 1650 © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
    Jacques Courtois, called Le Bourgignon, Riding Battle, c. 1650 © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

  • John Leech, Substance and Shadow (Cartoon No.1), 1843, Courtesy Melton Prior Institut
    John Leech, Substance and Shadow (Cartoon No.1), 1843, Courtesy Melton Prior Institut

  • Theophil von Hansen, Athens, Academy of Sciences, elevation drawing of a lateral façade, 1859 © Graphic Collection of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
    Theophil von Hansen, Athens, Academy of Sciences, elevation drawing of a lateral façade, 1859 © Graphic Collection of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

  • Johannes Klaus after Siegmund L’Allemand, Headquarters of Archduke Albrecht in the Battle of Custozza on 24 June 1866, 1888 © Graphic Collection of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
    Johannes Klaus after Siegmund L’Allemand, Headquarters of Archduke Albrecht in the Battle of Custozza on 24 June 1866, 1888 © Graphic Collection of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

  • Hendrick Goltzius, The Great Hercules, 1589 © Graphic Collection of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
    Hendrick Goltzius, The Great Hercules, 1589 © Graphic Collection of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

  • Eleanor Antin, Constructing Helen from ”Helen´s Odyssey”, 2007, Courtesy Richard Saltoun Gallery, London and Rome
    Eleanor Antin, Constructing Helen from ”Helen´s Odyssey”, 2007, Courtesy Richard Saltoun Gallery, London and Rome

  • Danica Dakić, LA GRANDE GALERIE 2, 2004 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
    Danica Dakić, LA GRANDE GALERIE 2, 2004 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

  • Head of Farnese Hercules, plaster cast of the head of the roman copy of Glycon of Athens (early 3rd cent. A.D.) after a lost Greek bronze of Lysipp, marble, Naples, Archaeological Museum, Plaster Cast Collection © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Plaster Cast Collection
    Head of Farnese Hercules, plaster cast of the head of the roman copy of Glycon of Athens (early 3rd cent. A.D.) after a lost Greek bronze of Lysipp, marble, Naples, Archaeological Museum, Plaster Cast Collection © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Plaster Cast Collection

  • Peter Paul Rubens, Boreas and Oreithya, c. 1615 © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts
    Peter Paul Rubens, Boreas and Oreithya, c. 1615 © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts

  • Lucas Cranach the Elder, Lucretia, 1532 © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
    Lucas Cranach the Elder, Lucretia, 1532 © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

  • Tiziano Vecellio, called Titian, Tarquinius and Lucretia, c. 1572–1576 © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
    Tiziano Vecellio, called Titian, Tarquinius and Lucretia, c. 1572–1576 © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

    • Note: The photographic material may be used free of charge exclusively for editorial reporting on the Art Collections of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and must be marked with the copyright of the originator when published.
    Rückfragen:
    Claudia Bauer
    Kommunikationsleitung Kunstsammlungen 
    Gemäldegalerie Kupferstichkabinett Glyptothek
    +43(1)58816-2211
    c.bauer@akbild.ac.at
    kunstsammlungen_presse@akbild.ac.at