Terribly Beautiful. Monstrosities in Art

The third INTERMEZZO show, our series of in-house exhibitions, is dedicated to monsters, demons and other mythical creatures. The tremendous success of modern myths such as Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings documents how relevant and ubiquitous these creatures remain today. But dragons and unicorns, griffins and sphinxes look back on a thousand-year-old history.

With the help of a selection of works from the KHM’s different collections – the Ancient Egyptian Collection, the Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities, the Kunstkammer, the Collection of Historical Arms and Armour, the Collection of Musical Instruments, the Picture Gallery, the Coin Collection, and the Library – the exhibition will focus on the history and the change in meaning of these mythical creatures.

Greek vases and ancient bronzes will be on show next to magnificent Renaissance armour, tapestries, musical instruments, ivories and mediaeval goldsmith works, automatons and Ancient Egyptian sphinxes next to paintings by Hugo van der Goes, Raphael, Rubens, Crespi and Moretto da Brescia, the horn of the legendary unicorn next to a baroque demon in a glass. There is much to discover that is monstrously fair and much to learn that we thought we already knew.