Lecture Access

This lecture will be available to view until 3 August 2026

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OVERVIEW

Watch on Demand | Online Lecture

Vienna's origins as a Roman military camp on the Danube frontier, Vienna developed into one of the most powerful centres of the Holy Roman Empire. 

As imperial power strengthened, the city became a centre for art patronage, collection, and display, driven by the ambitions of emperors, aristocrats, and an increasingly confident bourgeois public. Art served to communicate themes of continuity, legitimacy, and cultural dominance amid a shifting political scene.

Vienna’s museums grew from this rich history of accumulation. Court collections laid the foundation for public institutions, while 19th-century civic pride and imperial legacy influenced how art was curated and showcased. Baroque palaces, princely galleries, and modern museums illustrate evolving ideas about taste, education, and national identity, marking the transition from private dynastic collections to a shared cultural heritage.

In this lecture, art historian Tom Abbott explores Vienna through the collections of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, the Belvedere, and the Leopold Museum, analysing how architecture, collection practices, and display methods mirror Vienna’s imperial history and its modern transformation, and the city itself becomes a living record of artistic ambition.

LECTURER

Biography

Thomas Abbott is a specialist in architectural history from the Baroque to the present day, with a wide knowledge of the fine and performing arts. He has an intimate knowledge of Germany, residing in Berlin since 1987, making him the ideal interpreter of the language, the history and the culture of this unique country. Thomas graduated in ‘Psychology and Art History’ from Carleton College, Minnesota, and completed his graduate studies in the ‘History of Art and Architecture’ at the Technical University of Berlin (Honours) with an emphasis on both Roman and German art and architecture.

Thomas Abbott

Historian