The collection of modern art displays major trends in European painting evident from the early 16th century onwards. The German Renaissance is represented by Lucas Cranach the Elder, Lucas Cranach the Younger and an outstanding bronze sculpture by Stefan Godl and Leonhard Magt.  

The panorama of post-medieval Flemish painting in its unique diversity of genres is defined by leading Antwerp masters such as Herri met de Bles, Frans Floris, Jacques de Backer, Marten de Vos, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Gillis III van Coninxloo, Joos de Momper the Younger and David Teniers the Younger right through to the successors to Rubens with Cornelis de Vos and Erasmus Quellinus the Younger at their head. One can therefore trace the basic route of artistic development north of the Alps from the Renaissance to the Baroque in this way. International late Mannerism in the Habsburg residences at Prague and Brussels is represented by the principal works of Bartholomäus Spranger, Giambologna and Hendrick de Clerck. In addition, there are works by southern German representatives of the early Baroque period such as Hans Rottenhammer, Johann König and Johann Heiss.

A special position is accorded to the Venetian-trained Lombard Giovanni Pietro de Pomis, who was a leading painter and architect at the court of Inner Austria in Graz around 1600. The Italian Baroque is presented in works by Domenico Fetti, Pietro della Vecchia, Luca Giordano and Francesco Solimena.

Numerous paintings and oil sketches (bozzetti) by painters from southern Germany and the old Habsburg crown lands enable visitors to experience the wide range of 17th and 18th century art in Central Europe. They include works by Johann Heinrich Schönfeld, Johann Michael Rottmayr, Paul Troger, Franz Anton Maulbertsch, Norbert Grund, Johann Georg Platzer, Franz Christoph Janneck as well as the highly significant oeuvre of Martin Johann Schmidt, who was known as Kremser Schmidt. Sculptures by Josef Stammel, Philipp Jakob Straub and Veit Königer convey a vivid picture of late Baroque sacral sculpture in Styria.

Mag. Joachim Rathgeb