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The Danube Art Cruise A Voyage to Remember BY PETER TRIPPI

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he Danube Art Cruise, Fine Art Connoisseur’s second adventure Tabroad (October 2-9, 2011), delivered exactly what it promised, and then some. Conceived by FAC publisher B. Eric Rhoads, this journey proved an ideal way to mix the world-class art and architecture of five Danube-region nations with five-star comforts and a delightfully cohe- sive group of 27 passengers who eagerly shared with each other their passion for artistic beauty and quality. On the sunny morning of October 1, this merry band of collectors, artists, and enthusiasts from the U.S., Canada, and Australia gathered for the first time in the elegant lobby of Budapest’s Four Seasons Gresham Palace. Certainly the finest hotel in Budapest, the Gresham is also one of the Hungarian capital’s best located buildings: it faces the picturesque

The Four Seasons Gresham Palace Hotel faces the Chain Bridge in the heart of Budapest.

FINE ART CONNOISSEUR.COM | January/February 2012 Curator Dr. Bellák Gábor (right) chats with Peter Trippi in the Hungarian National Gallery.

who showed us every inch of the spectacular, limited-run exhibition devoted to vast scenes from Christ’s life painted by Hungary’s favorite artist, Mihály Munkácsy (1844-1900). Measuring approximately 14 x 21 feet, each canvas dazzled us with its compositional complexity, rich color, and theatrical impact. Dr. Gábor also introduced us to unfamil- iar narratives in 19th-century Hungarian art, mostly from the country’s medieval history and legends. We concluded our stay in Budapest with a detailed exploration of our magnificent Sezession-era hotel, which has been carefully restored by Canada’s Four Seasons company after decades of neglect during the communist period. Chain Bridge, which links ancient, hilly Buda with flat, modern Pest, We almost could have walked along the Danube to our handsome where the great plain of Hungary begins. From our rooms we could see ship, the amaDante, so close was its mooring to the Gresham Palace. Just the Danube, the fast-flowing superhighway that connects the diverse three years old, this luxurious river vessel was built in the Netherlands places our group had come to explore in Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, for AMA Waterways of Los Angeles, and carries only 148 passengers. Germany, and (tangentially) the Czech Republic. We were hugely impressed with the scale of the staterooms, elegance of For the next day and a half, we saw the best of Budapest with our the décor, and quality of the cuisine, and we especially enjoyed spending astonishingly knowledgeable guide, Márta Tábi. On offer were the gilded opera The floodlit monuments of Budapest, in this case the Royal house, where we sipped champagne as Palace, were admired as we sailed northward. a gifted tenor regaled us with arias; the impressive Heroes’ Square with its neo- classical monument; the bustling central market; the quaint lanes of Buda; and the expansive views from the Fisherman’s Bastion. We paid special attention to the Sezession period of the late 19th and early 20th century, when Budapest was one of the world’s fastest-growing and most cosmopolitan cities. At the Sezes- sion Museum, the former Párizsi depart- ment store decorated by Károly Lotz, and the Parliament building, we admired the unique blending of Art Nouveau, Arts & Crafts, Viennese Sezession, and folk motifs that characterized this move- time with our British-born, Hungary-based cruise manager, John Riley. ment, and that needs to be better appreciated worldwide. Soon we were sitting for the first of our seven gourmet dinners together; One highlight was the before-public-hours tour of the Hungar- the seating plans changed each evening so that, by the end of the week, ian National Gallery with Dr. Bellák Gábor, the enthusiastic curator all Danube Art Cruise participants had found an opportunity to converse with everyone else. After dinner we climbed to the ship’s flat top deck The group admires Mihály Munkácsy’s enormous paintings at to admire the floodlit monuments of Budapest as we glided northward, the Hungarian National Gallery. toasting the start of our voyage with still more champagne.

SLOVAKIA AND AUSTRIA On our first morning cruising the calm Danube, we gathered in the amaDante’s private lounge for a formal welcome by Eric Rhoads and the first of my three illustrated lectures on-board, “Diverse Expressions of Danube Culture: Bratislava, Vienna, and Dürnstein.” Offering detailed maps and thumbnail portraits of this region’s historical movers and shak- ers, these one-hour talks were intended to prepare guests for what they would encounter on shore. Also introduced was Gabriel Haigazian of Creative Travel Planners, who coordinated every detail of the voyage — in advance and on site — with both rigor and a contagious sense of humor. That afternoon we arrived in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, where we enjoyed a walking tour of historical sites. Particularly poignant were the architectural reminders of how culturally integrated this and the other cities of Mitteleuropa once were; under the Habsburg dynasty

FINE ART CONNOISSEUR.COM | January/February 2012 Our home away from home, the amaDante

Dr. Elisabeth Leopold welcomes Eric Rhoads (left) and Peter Trippi to Vienna’s Leopold Museum. ruling from Vienna until 1918, the people of Bratislava (then known as Pressburg) all spoke Slovak, German, and Hungarian equally well. It was the horrors of World War II, the Holocaust, and Soviet domination that closed that era, of course, and today the Slovaks, Czechs, and Hungarians are still trying to find the right balance between nationhood and true The impressive rotunda where we lunched at integration with the European Union. Vienna’s Kunsthistoriches Museum The next day was spent in Vienna, the onetime imperial capital and ongoing mecca for lovers of great art, music, and theater. We started the day with an illustrated lecture by the Viennese art adviser Christi- Dusk settles over Schönnbrunn ane Inmann, who discussed Forbidden Fruit, her innovative 2009 book Palace in Vienna. surveying artists’ images of women reading. This topic made particu- lar sense in Vienna, where the Empress Maria Theresa played a major role in 18th-century European culture, and where today several of the city’s major museums are directed by women. After an informative drive through the city center, we arrived at the Leopold Museum in the Hab- sburgs’ former stables complex. This is the world’s most important col- lection of masterworks by Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, and other titans of Vienna’s artistic golden age circa 1890-1920. We were welcomed there by no less than Dr. Elisabeth Leopold, who co-founded the museum with her late husband. On a day when the museum was closed entirely to the public, we enjoyed a private tour of its highlights, seen through the eyes of this passionate and articulate collector. Soon we strolled to the Kunsthistoriches Museum, home to one of the world’s greatest holdings of Old Master paintings by the likes of Bruegel, Dürer, and Rubens, not to mention soaring decorations by our

FINE ART CONNOISSEUR.COM | January/February 2012 Vineyards grace the Wachau Valley, enjoyed A ruined castle overlooks the village of Dürnstein. here by Sasha Sanderson.

Melk Abbey dominates the town around it.

The next morning we awoke in the tiny village of Dürnstein, a world away from Vienna though it is located only 50 miles to the west, in the scenic Wachau valley. Overlooked by the now-ruined castle where the English Crusader King Richard the Lionhearted was imprisoned, Dürnstein is famous for its white wines, which our group taste-tested in a sunny garden before exploring its ornate Rococo church and cob- bled streets. Back on the ship, I discussed “The Church in Charge: Melk and Salzburg” highlighting the political and cultural power exerted by The ornate Rococo church at Dürnstein the Roman Catholic archbishop-princes in this region. My points were illustrated that afternoon as we explored Melk Abbey, the most opulent of the Baroque monastic institutions. Before docking in Melk, however, Hungarian hero Munkácsy. Here we were welcomed in the members’ we enjoyed an unforgettable afternoon on the amaDante’s roof, winding lounge by curator Agnes Stillfried, who led a tour of highlights before we through the lush Wachau valley while enjoying John Riley’s commentary lunched in the museum’s handsome cafe. Some of us peeled off for a walk- about the sunlit vineyards, cliffs, castles, and villages all around us. ing tour of Vienna’s historic center, while others headed to the Belvedere The next morning saw us disembark in the industrial city of Linz to see still more Klimt and Schiele, plus a retrospective of richly colored for a scenic 90-minute drive toward Salzburg, the greatest of Austria’s paintings by the Austrian Hans Makart (1840-1884). The group reas- archiepiscopal seats. Having stopped in the scenic town of Mondsee to sembled to take an after-hours tour of the enormous Habsburg palace of admire the magnificent church used for the wedding scene inThe Sound Schönnbrunn. This World Heritage Site is usually mobbed with tourists, so of Music, we made our way to the Salzburger Barockmuseum, which it was a special pleasure to arrive as the hordes departed, and to watch dusk faces the colorful Mirabell Gardens on the edge of Salzburg’s historic settle over the famous gardens as our tour ended. Some in our party then quarter. Here we were welcomed by director Dr. Regina Kaltenbrunner, attended an evening concert, while others shopped and dined downtown. who gave us a private tour of this fascinating collection of Baroque oil

FINE ART CONNOISSEUR.COM | January/February 2012 Salzburg’s Mirabell Gardens open onto a view of the In Regensburg, the Thurn und Taxis family’s Hohensalzburg Castle. crest is surmounted by a taxicab.

its massive and slightly sinister-looking locks. Heavily bombed during World War II, the medieval heart of Nuremberg was so expertly rebuilt that we would never have known had our guide not forewarned us. Most in our party chose to visit the ruined parade grounds and stadium used for Hitler’s infamous rallies — a haunt- ing reminder of how crucial Nuremberg’s Germanic charms were to the Nazi agenda, which ultimately led to their destruction. Back on the amaDante, we all dressed smartly for our farewell reception and dinner, where we toasted new and renewed friendships. (Eleven sketches and terracotta sculptures, as well as her tem- of the 27 travelers had participated in Fine Art porary exhibition of Rembrandt etchings borrowed Connoisseur’s 2010 Russian Art Cruise.) from the main art gallery in Graz, Austria. We were After more than a week together, united saddened to learn that the Salzburger Barockmuseum in awe of so much superb art and architec- will close this winter, probably to be replaced by a ture, the passengers regretted having to part. Sound of Music visitors’ center, and so we were extra Fortunately, 12 of us were able to extend our glad to have experienced it now. We moved just next holiday by traveling to the Czech Repub- door for something completely different: the cutting- lic with our well informed, Prague-based edge commercial gallery operated by Thaddaeus guide Karel Pittl. Our motor coach brought Ropac, an Austrian who also runs a space in Paris. us to the capital via the elegant spa town of Here director Dr. Arne Ehmann showed us highlights Karlovy Vary (formerly Carlsbad), where from the gallery’s impressive inventory, most memo- we spent a sunny afternoon sipping the sul- rably large, richly textured paintings by the German phuric waters and walking its historic streets. master Anselm Kiefer (b. 1945). After refreshing our- Having checked into Prague’s Hotel Grand selves with wine and water provided by the gallery, Majestic Plaza, our group savored a hearty we explored Salzburg independently in the sunshine Czech meal nearby in the brightly tiled cellar before returning to the amaDante, which by this time of the Municipal House (1912), home to sev- was docked at Passau, just across the German border. Mrs. Geraldine Mucha welcomes Susan eral performance and entertainment spaces Levitsky to her home in Prague. lavishly decorated in the Art Nouveau style. GERMANY AND THE CZECH REPUBLIC As we sailed northward the next morning, I lec- THE LEGACY OF ALFONS MUCHA tured on “The Best of Bavaria: Regensburg and Nuremberg.” The fact The next day began with a walking tour of Prague’s quaint historic that we were sailing at all was noteworthy: the Danube is not deep in quarter, then a visit to the Mucha Museum, which celebrates the long the best of weather, and the recent lack of rain meant that our brave career of Alfons Mucha (1860-1939). Though he won international fame captain was uncertain the amaDante, shallow though it is, could pass in Paris by making Art Nouveau posters featuring Sarah Bernhardt and safely through such low water. The arrival of rain — normally an annoy- other icons of glamour, Mucha never forgot his roots and ultimately reset- ance to tourists like us — lifted everyone’s spirits, and so the ship carried tled in what was then Czechoslovakia. We were honored to be invited by on, occasionally scraping the riverbed below. We arrived in unspoiled Geraldine Mucha, the master’s Scottish-born daughter-in-law and herself Regensburg in a driving rainstorm, but doggedly followed our guide a composer, into the evocative home of her family, where we saw painted because the city’s architecture and history are so surprisingly cosmopoli- treasures never shown to the public. While there we discussed the impor- tan. Many of us were intrigued not only by the French-Gothic cathedral tant work of the Mucha Foundation (muchafoundation.org), headed by and Italianate townhouses here, but also by the influence exerted (even Mrs. Mucha’s son John. We were particularly delighted to learn that, begin- today) by the Thurn und Taxis family, who created the modern postal ning next July, the foundation will present a major exhibition of Mucha’s system with their fleet of carriages crisscrossing Europe, and whose art at the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library in Cedar Rap- name lives on internationally in the word “taxi.” ids, Iowa. (Watch for the article in the July/August 2012 issue of Fine Art Our last full day together as a group occurred in Nuremberg, which is Connoisseur.) Later in the day we admired the brilliant stained glass win- reached not by the Danube but by the modern Main-Danube canal, with dow of Sts. Cyril and Methodius designed by Mucha for the Cathedral of

FINE ART CONNOISSEUR.COM | January/February 2012 The entire group with Dr. Elisabeth Leopold at the Leopold Museum in Vienna; lecturer Christiane Inmann is in pink in the left foreground.

David Orcutt feasts on a Wienerschnitzel Shirley and Peter Richardson with Charlie Charla and Bob Nelson at Vienna’s Figlmüller restaurant. and Barbara Robinson on the amaDante

Peggy Cleary and Peggy Everett dine in Prague. DeeAn Gillespie Strub and Peter Strub on the amaDante

FINE ART CONNOISSEUR.COM | January/February 2012 can convey the astounding quality of Mucha’s brushwork and compositional sophistication. Mucha bequeathed these to the city of Prague, subject to one condition: that they be exhibited publicly in their own building there. However, owing to war, communism, budgetary con- straints, and other concerns, these pictures have spent most of the 20th century on view in the chateau at Moravsky Krumlov, far from Prague. As we arrived, we knew that the 20 pictures had been much in the news lately. Five of them Mayor Tomáš Třetina (wearing a bright red tie) welcomes had already been taken to Prague, exhibited brie- the group to his town of Moravsky Krumlov. fly, and then put in storage somewhere. Now, the very month of our visit, Mayor Třetina and his

Mucha’s Slav Epic canvases are truly massive.

St. Vitus inside the enormous Prague Castle, which many of us continued townspeople were fighting to keep the remaining 15 pictures in Morav- to explore for hours. sky Krumlov. Naturally we were sorry to learn that, only a few weeks after Our final day together was a memorable one, as we took a private our visit, those 15 paintings were seized by the national government and motor coach two hours into the southern part of Moravia. Having admired brought to Prague. Informed sources now report that the Slav Epic is hea- the rolling farmland and typical villages en route, we arrived at the town ded to the Veletrzni Palac, a branch of the National Gallery well known of Moravsky Krumlov, and specifically at a palace there once owned by the to Czechs, though not visited by most tourists because it is located away aristocratic Liechtenstein family. Here we were greeted by the mayor of from the center of Prague. The Mucha Foundation is concerned that the Moravsky Krumlov, the Honorable Tomáš Třetina, then given a fascina- series will be damaged at the Veletrzni Palac, which does not have ideal ting private tour by Pavlína Hemerková. The focus of our visit was the Slav conditions for its display. The battle goes on, but one thing is certain: the Epic, the unforgettable cycle of huge paintings made by Mucha to depict Danube Art Cruisers who visited these masterworks at Moravsky Krumlov key episodes in the history of the Slavic peoples. The photographs in this were fortunate to do so, especially in light of the delicious luncheon that article suggest the massive size of these canvases, yet only a personal visit Mayor Třetina offered us after our tour. We returned to Prague high on art and Czech hospitality, and concluded our adventure with one final meal at Sunrise over the Danube, captured by traveler the Municipal House, this time in a grand dining room overlooking one of Robert Wrathall the capital’s most important squares. Since October, the Danube cruisers have remained in regular e-mail contact and are sharing photos, so our journey of aesthetic discovery is not actually over. Moreover, this cruise proved such a success that a 2012 edition (in and around Italy) has now been planned for October. Please see page 32 for details. We certainly hope that you will be able to join us next fall. n

PETER TRIPPI is editor of Fine Art Connoisseur magazine.

Information: For details, contact Gabriel Haigazian, Creative Travel Planners, 5855 Topanga Canyon Boulevard, Suite 220, Woodland Hills, CA 91367, 818.444.2700, ext. 123, [email protected].

FINE ART CONNOISSEUR.COM | January/February 2012