The Stable Palace as an art gallery

Archduke Leopold Wilhelm’s famous art collection

Archduke Leopold Wilhelm (1614-1662) was named Governor of the Spanish Netherlands in 1646. During his nine year regency in Brussels he assembled one of the most significant art collections of the 17th century, thus laying the foundation for today’s art gallery. Alongside over 400 paintings and several hundred artefacts, his collection also comprised tapestries and drawings. Famous names like Teniers, Rubens, van Dyck or Jordaens are as at home in the collection as unknown artists whom Leopold Wilhelm supported and supplied with commissions. 1397 paintings and 542 statues are mentioned in an inventory from 1659, which includes the copper engraving in the image above.

After returning to Vienna in 1656 he had a great Kunstkammer (or cabinet of art) installed in the Stallburg, which was then home not only to his acquisitions but to numerous objects from the Imperial Treasury. The arcades on the top floor were chosen as one of the exhibition spaces; they were walled up and had windows added for this purpose.

In 1776 the imperial art collection was moved to the Belvedere under Maria Theresa and was accessible to the public for the first time. Between 1871 and 1891 Gottfried Semper (1803-1879) and Karl Hasenauer (1833-1894) built the museum on the Ring, where, on the main floor, the painting gallery has been housed ever since. Most of the paintings from Archduke Leopold Wilhelm’s collection can still be found there today.