Content Creation & Fine Art Photography
Content Creation & Fine Art Photography
The Schloss Eggenberg (Eggenberg Palace) is a down-and-out joy to explore. It has meandering gardens, peacocks in heat, astrological wonders, archaeological bits and bobs, and one stupendous art museum – the Alte Galerie. Not bad for a suburban complex. Early Days The Schloss wasn’t always in suburbia, of course. When
The Schloss Eggenberg contains the Alte Galerie – a world class art museum with none of Vienna’s crowds. It has work by Michael Pacher, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Giovanni Pietro de Pomis, and an extensive collection of stained glass, Maria statues, and panel paintings. If you’re a medievalist, you’re not
It’s hard to go a day in Austria without running headfirst into a Baroque bonbon. You’ll find this one, the Mariahilferkirche, in the Mariahilferplatz, close by the Murinsel and the Kunsthaus. It is still home to Graz’s Minorites – their monastery is located to the south of the church. The
Minorites (a.k.a. Friars Minor Conventual) are heirs to St. Francis of Assisi and disciples such as St. Anthony of Padua. Both of these men are honored in statues beside the door of the Mariahilferkirche. St. Francis is one of my favorite Catholics – a pleasure-seeker and a soldier who renounced
Like the Dreifaltigkeitskirche, the gable on the Mariahilferkirche depicts the Archangel Michael sending Lucifer to hell.
If nothing else, the Habsburgs believed in making a grand exit. In 1614, Archduke Ferdinand commissioned his beloved court architect Giovanni Pietro de Pomis to build his Mausoleum and St. Catherine’s Church (both pictured here). But when Ferdinand became Emperor and de Pomis died, the half-finished Mausoleum was left to
Continue readingMausoleum & St. Catherine’s Church, Graz, Austria 1
The golden Mausoleum of Ferdinand II and its church are the brainchild of Giovanni Pietro de Pomis. Muli-talented Italians have a long history of prettifying Graz. A Lombardian by birth, de Pomis was the court artist and favored pet of Ferdinand II. Like Domenico dell’Allio, de Pomis earned his keep as
Continue readingMausoleum & St. Catherine’s Church, Graz, Austria 2
Here lies Emperor Ferdinand II, scourge of the Protestants, protector of the faith, and – to be honest – a Class A twit. Born in Graz in 1578, Ferdinand II was educated by Jesuits. At that time, Protestantism was the dominant religion in his homeland: “According to later estimates, no