Viennese treasures have a strong Irish legacy

The Irish founding fathers of Vienna's Schottenstift were keen cultivators of the arts, writes Marese Murphy

It translates as the "Scottish Monastery", but in fact the Schottenstift now celebrating its 850th anniversary in Vienna has nothing whatever to do with Scotland. It was founded by Irish Benedictines during the Middle Ages, when this country was known as Scotia Major and Scotland merely as Scotia Minor.

The monks were already based at Regensburg in an abbey established late in the 11th century by the Irishman, Marianus Scotus - or "Muiredach MacRobartaig" as he was known at home - and with exemplary missionary zeal they branched out to open several similar monastic settlements over the next 100 years. By the middle of the 12th century they had acquired a prestigious reputation for their strict religious standards plus their keen cultivation of arts and sciences, and this brought them to the attention of the Babenburg duke Heinrich II Jasomirgott when he came to Regensburg to visit Frederick Barbarossa.

He invited the order to Vienna, and 22 intrepid monks set out from the mother-house under his benevolent aegis. The new foundation was inaugurated in 1155 AD. It was the first of its kind in Vienna and was originally situated just outside the city gates and conveniently close to the ducal residence at Am Hof.

This and rapid urban development soon brought it within the civic fold, however, and it has long been an integral part of the inner city fabric.

From the beginning, the Schottenstift monks preserved strong links with Ireland, reinforcing the connection through their inflexible rule that only people of Irish descent could join their ranks.

The exclusion provoked indignation among the natives, and after appeals to ever-higher authority, at last the Pope himself declared in their favour. Much offended, the Abbot, Thomas III, resigned, and in 1418 the whole community trooped back to Regensburg.

Within the year the empty building was taken over by Benedictines from Melk, and when the previous incumbents had a change of heart and considered returning, they were no longer welcome.

The Viennese were happier with the new brethren who settled in quickly and in the manner of wealthy religious institutions elsewhere, were soon combining their pastoral obligations with the busy acquisition of artworks by masters of the period.

The collection increased steadily through successive ages, and during the reign of the Emperor Joseph II the order enjoyed the rare privilege of swapping some of their treasures for others from the Imperial Habsburg galleries. Little of this was accessible to the general public, however, until 1994, when the former living quarters of the monastery's prelates were transformed into a museum.

But the volume of artworks far outstripped the space available and last year the museum closed for the substantial enlargement and refurbishment, which now provides accommodation for the entire collection.

There are 10 spacious rooms in all, handsomely endowed with paintings, furniture and other artefacts from the past, with pride of place going inevitably to the famous Schottenstift Altar. Three pictures from this 24-panel altarpiece have been lost, and two are copies, though the originals of the latter are at present on loan from the Belvedere Gallery.

But even in its incomplete state, the vivid imagery of late Gothic work still makes a powerful and moving impact. For the Viennese there is a special relevance in the panel depicting the "Flight into Egypt" as here the Holy Family is shown escaping not from Herod's hostile territory, but from what is believed to be the oldest topographically accurate study of mediaeval Vienna.

For Irish visitors, there is matter more relevant in the modest presence still retained by the founding fathers at the Schottenstift. In the museum proper, this is represented by a pillar from the Romanesque cloister, by a stone lion of the same vintage, and by a small, bejewelled, Madonna and Child statue which dates from approximately 1250.

However, it is in the vast collegiate library that the Irish legacy comes into its own again, in the shape of priceless scraps of mediaeval manuscript which were cut up centuries ago and used for the binding, fly-leaves and covers of later material. Indicating a distinctive approach to the liturgy, many of there illuminated fragments date back to the middle of the 12th century and are accepted as the oldest form of musical notation known in Vienna.

It took an unconscionable time for their importance to be recognised, and serious research did not get under way until the 1970s. During the 1990s, at the instigation of Róisín Ní Mheara, the Royal Irish Academy mounted an exhibition of the material in Dublin, and this is now back in the Schottenstift where, along with more recent discoveries, it remains the object of intensive study by the Austrian musicologist, Martin Czernin, and his Irish colleague, Ann Buckley.

It is a highly specialised field of intense interest to scholars, but meanwhile in the secular world, Vienna caters for wider and more conventional taste with its massive art exhibitions, of which the most important this year is the "Goya to Picasso" sequence at the Albertina. Part of a private collection belonging to a Polish art-dealer and his wife, the exhibition is designed to document the evolution of art from Goya's day to the Modern era of Picasso and Giacometti.

Nearly 200 works of art have been assembled for the purpose, and all of them are by famous masters. While not all of them are masterpieces, they offer valuable insight into the development of individual artists, as well as overall record of the evolution of painting. The exhibition continues until August 28th.