Danube and Inn, Hugo Haerdtl, 1902.

​Now, for a brief Classical interlude, brawny statues of the Danube (L) and Inn (R) Rivers commanding the Pallas Athena Fountain before Vienna’s Parliament Building. Geographically, they actually merge at Passau. (Can you still intensify your rich Austrian dessert even more mit schlag--with whipped cream--in that country?) This Baroque duo may be the visual equivalent. Their sturdy legs, powerful chests, hawser ‘dos….their gaze locked as she explains some essential issue he strains to hear…. While the water keeps flowing, flowing from their eternal amphora….