The Belvedere houses the greatest collection of Austrian art dating from the Middle Ages to the present day. Medieval Art The displays in the Upper Belvedere focus on panel paintings and sculptures from the late Middle Ages. All the other superb works from this collection can be seen in the Medieval Treasury study collection in the former Palace Stables at the Lower Belvedere. Baroque Art The collection of Baroque art conveys an impressive picture of seventeenth and eighteenth century art from the region governed by the Habsburg monarchy. The famous “Character Heads” by the sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt are one of the collection highlights. Neoclassicism – Romanticism The art of early-nineteenth-century Neoclassicism and Romanticism is represented by many significant works at the Belvedere. Deep and profound landscapes by Caspar David Friedrich, one of the key painters of Romanticism, are among the most important images of this period. Biedermeier Biedermeier covers the period dating from the Congress of Vienna in 1814–15 to the year of the revolution in 1848. The Belvedere houses the world’s largest collection of paintings by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller and masterpieces by other key Biedermeier artists, including Friedrich von Amerling, Josef Danhauser, and Friedrich Gauermann. Historicism In Vienna the epoch of Historicism, in the second half of the nineteenth century, is also known as the Makart era, named after the city’s greatest exponent of this style. Housing the greatest collection of art from the period of the Ringstraße, many of Hans Makart’s masterpieces are on display at the Belvedere. Impressionism Impressionism analyzed the effects of color in order to capture fleeting atmospheres of light. At the Belvedere you can find masterpieces by French Impressionists, such as Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir and follow subsequent developments in the work of artists like Paul Cézanne and Vincent van Gogh. Fin de Siècle and Viennese Secession The world’s largest presentation of Gustav Klimt’s paintings lies at the heart of the collection of “Art around 1900” on show in the Upper Belvedere. Its glittering highlights are Klimt’s golden pictures "Kiss" and "Judith", and masterpieces of Jugendstil and the Viennese Secession, which was founded by Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann, and others in 1897. Expressionism Expressionism supplanted illusionistic surface effects with expressions of inner emotion. The Belvedere’s collection covers key early-twentieth-century Austrian artists, such as Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka, as well as major exponents of the German artist groups Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter. Between the Wars The period after the First World War witnessed a return to realistic representation. In Austria the greatest exponents of this Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) include Rudolf Wacker, Herbert Ploberger, Marie-Louise Motesiczky, and Franz Sedlacek, whose works can be seen at the Belvedere. Art after 1945 The Viennese School of Fantastic Realism was a variation on Surrealist painting and was shaped by artists such as Albert Paris Gütersloh, Ernst Fuchs, and Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Abstract painters, including Josef Mikl, Wolfgang Hollegha, Arnulf Rainer, and Markus Prachensky, formed an important group within Austria’s avant-garde. Contemporary Art The Belvedere’s collection of contemporary art at the reopened 21er Haus showcases trends and developments in Austrian art since 1970. The younger generation of Austrian artists is represented in the collection by the works of gelatin, Brigitte Kowanz, Lois Renner, Rudolf Stingel, Lois Weinberger, and Elke Krystufek, among others.