Cologne - While walking around the old town, I stumbled upon this museum (I heard of it when I did my google research), paid the 8euros and visited this beautiful museum. What was amazing is that the art pieces are put into a collection in a section and a panel that explains the meaning and era of these paintings, and how they came into existence. I think one of the best art museums in the work - the curation was very well organised and made the walk around the museum enjoyable.
The Wallraf-Richartz museum has existed since 1824. However, the history of its collection can be traced back to the extensive collection of graphics from the former Jesuit Museum in Cologne, which was added to the inventory in the 1980s Traced back to mid-16th century.
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| reading the wall panel bring meaning to the art |
The impressionists transformed the landscape from the reproduction of nature into a fleeting splash of colour on the retina. Simultaneously the Pointillists (from the word 'point') drew on scientific findings to introduce system to these methods, and pieced together the objects in their paintings from tiny dots of colour which only merge together inside the viewer's eye. Both directions led to a liberation of colour from the object.
Mythological and biblical stories provided the script for pictorial narratives, dramatic and sensual alike. Painters staged them on their canvases as they would on an actual stage: theatrically and on a large scale. The beholder was to be shocked or moved by merciless horror or sublime beauty.
The artist Rubens uses a bloodthirsty tale from Ovid's Metamorphoses to glorify sight and the sensuous power of painting. In the foreground lies the headless body of Argus. Juno is adorning the plumage of the peacocks with his hundred eyes, assisted by Iris, a messenger of the gods. Her name hints not only at the rainbow, but also at the iris in the human eye. The splendid harmony of the primary colours blue, red and yellow recalls the colour theory of the day. Our eyes can also feast on the virtuoso rendering of the rustling fabrics, velvety feathers and voluptuous bodies.
Some of the paintings were so lifelike.
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| used in church ceremony |
Christianity was a very important symbol and religion in Germany, there were many precious art pieces and churches in Cologne.
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| chair to be pulled down and admired at this... |
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| a massive collection of paintings |
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