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a patriotic kiss or a charming form of vandalism?

palais pallavinci vienna - details of the caryatids

to begin with, there is a grandiose and architecturally appealing palace in vienna - namely the palais pallavicini, build in 1784 - located just in front of the imperial library of the hofburg - the former imperial palace on josefsplatz.

while it is widely considered to be the first palace featuring a classicist style in vienna, due to strong controversies in its days some baroque concessions had to be made to better fit - if not blend - it with the baroque magnificence of the surrounding buildings *1.

none of its beauty is evident in the following pictures, as this is not the aim of the article.

for more info, please refer to the websites at the end of the post *1,2.

for reference only - front entrance door with the added caryatids and baroque elements.

for reference only - a side view of the caryatids on the grand front entrance door

funny detail

strolling in such an attractive town and surrounded by its amazing sights , i would have probably missed this lovely historic mansion if a tiny little funny detail - featuring a stylized austran flag - wouldn't have caught my attention.

sometimes the beauty - and the devil, as well - lies in the detail.

a patriotic kiss or a charming form of vandalism?

additional questions might arise from this picture

what is vandalism?
- the english oxford living dictionaries *3 defines it as: "action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property".
- the collins dictionary *4 describes it as the deliberate damaging of things, especially public property.

should vandalism have the right to be perceived positively?

can vandalism embellish an object?

would it still be vandalism if e.g. bansky had done it - and if not - why?

of course, i don't have answers - if there are any - to these question.

but i think it might be safe to say, at least in this case, that it definitely was a pretty patriotic vandalistic act.

2017.09.23 © l.i.

Sources and remarks

*1 www.palais-pallavicini.at/en
*2 www.wikipedia.com
*3 oxforddictionaries.com
*4 collinsdictionaries.com