Every year, the museum of contemporary art in Vaduz mounts a special exhibition of works from the Private Collections of the Prince of Liechtenstein and in doing so spans a bridge to the world of the Old Masters.
Works and items related to hunting have been gathered down the centuries in the Collections of the Prince of Liechtenstein: paintings, hunting weapons and porcelain, all of which bear witness to the royal house's preoccupation with the hunt. In the artistic handling of this theme a link can be traced from the great hunters of mythology, to the popular depictions of Saint Hubertus, to the most realistic representations possible of the hunt and the hunt still-lives but on the dead prey in varying settings. This exhibition covers the whole range; famous pairs from Antiquity, Diana and Actaeon, Venus and Adonis, Meleager and Atalante, experienced a rebirth in the Renaissance and the Baroque eras.
The presentation in the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein will be complemented by valuable hunt-related utensils, crossbows, hunting instruments and powder horns, some of them of carved ivory, like those preserved in large numbers in the Schönborn Collection, a partner collection of the Private Art Collections. Finally, the hunt also left its mark on the Princely Collections' porcelain. Various hunting themes can also be found on these fragile masterpieces: the delight and joy taken in the hunt are expressed in these scenes captured on dishes from which the prey was later consumed as food. The theme of all these images and objects is the Baroque zest for life which is addressed at the most varied of levels.
The exhibtition is produced by the Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna, and curated by Johann Kräftner, Director Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna, and Princely Collections, Vaduz.
