The Viennese Hofburg in the 16th and 17th century

The project being presented for approval serves, on the one hand, as a continuation of FWF Project P18040-G06 "Die Wiener Hofburg im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert. Bau und Planungsgeschichte, Funktion und Bedeutung" [the Vienna Hofburg in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. building and planning history, function, and significance], which is just ending. It is part of a comprehensive, large-scale project about the Vienna Hofburg that has found its home at the Commission for Art History of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Consisting of five project groups that conduct their research autonomously but are nonetheless involved in an active exchange, this undertaking has as its goal to put together a complete picture of the imperial residence, from its origins in the Middle Ages to the present. The subproject presented here has as its subject the development of the imperial residence from the time of Emperor Ferdinand I`s ascent to the throne up to and including Emperor Leopold I; that is, the time period between 1521/22 until 1705. Building upon the extensive results from the first project, the following work stages, essential to ending the research, are planned: the transcription of carefully defined holdings in the Österreichischer Staatsarchiv and the Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv that had not been covered before and above all, reports from the envoys to the imperial court from Venice (Venice), the Holy See (Rome), the Spanish crown (Madrid), and Sweden (Stockholm). Further precise exploratory tests will be conducted on the Schweizerhof, the Stallburg, the Amalienburg, the Leopoldinischer Trakt [Leopoldine Wing], and the Redoutensaaltrakt [Redoutensaal Wing]. Apart from these fundamental material analytical tests, questions should continue to be delved into that began to be answered in the first project: determining the complex structure of the differing room functions in the imperial residence (representation, living, management, service); clarifying the multi-layered connection between a state room and ceremonial; the Hofburg as a place for theatre and festivities; and finally, the significance of the Hofburg in relationship to the other residences of the upper nobility (whether Habsburg or others within the German Reich). This question leads to another issue that has become increasingly important during the course of the work, and that is, to examine the relationship of the Hofburg to the residences of the Spanish line of Habsburgs. There are indications that a construction and decoration strategy might possibly have been subtly developed within the House of Habsburg for representational purposes. Another ambitious goal of the project is to see the iconology of power and authority as expressed in the architecture of the residence and the iconology of the former castle gardens together and to reconstruct a synthesising model for their significance (such as in the areas of art and plant collecting!). The historical social and economic aspects (financing the building projects, the logistics of the building sites, etc.) are also important matters for the project. Finally, it is of central importance for all of the project groups to create in conjunction with suitable specialists a 3D visualisation of the constructional and functional history of the Hofburg, which would allow for an extraordinary gain in scientific knowledge.

The project entitled "The Vienna Hofburg in the 16th and 17th centuries - construction history, function and establishment as an imperial residence" is part of a much larger project which the Commission for Art History at the Austrian Academy of Sciences is conducting into the history of art and evolving function of the imperial residence from the Middle Ages all the way through to the 21st century. Based on the results of a preceding project (FWF P18040-G06), it investigates the development of the residence from start of the rule of Emperor Ferdinand I right up to and including the time of Emperor Leopold I, i.e. the period from 1521/22 to 1705. Building on the extensive collection of sources unearthed by the initial project, the researchers have successfully traced the detailed history of the construction and function of the individual buildings as well as the entire Hofburg complex. Above all, in addition to the extensive written and pictorial sources, it is the findings resulting from restoration work on the buildings themselves (particularly in regard to the plastering and masonry) as well as the determinations of the ages of the roof trusses which have formed the material basis for establishing the history of construction. A further key priority in the work was to assess the Vienna Hofburg in an international context, with a main focus of attention being directed towards the culture of the Habsburg residence in a comparison between the Austrian and the Spanish lines. Above and beyond this line of investigation, a core concern was also to analyse the role of the Vienna residence as a medium of princely representation at different levels. Proceeding from the assumption that residence architecture inter alia invariably serves to accommodate court culture and encapsulate visualised policy, an attempt was made to work out the political content of the Hofburg at royal, imperial and archducal level. This approach led to the development of a topography of princely representation which is reflected in many places within and around the Hofburg, as demonstrated by the symbols and referential images on the facades, in the visual decor and in the garden culture. In particular, special attention was also paid to the hortological aspects of culture at the court of the Habsburgs. In this sense the researchers were looking for possible strategies of representation used in the choice of construction and decor which were chiefly determined by dynastic requirements. In their analysis of art history the researchers became aware of the need never to lose sight of the historical foundations and findings related to the history of contemporary politics and rulers, and attempted to find interrelationships and connections based on the function of art as a means of conveying political propaganda. They also found new arguments in their critical reflections on how the Habsburg dynasty nurtured tradition through the means of residence architecture (a recurrent theme in specialist literature). Finally, they investigated theatre performances as well as ceremonies and celebrations in the various halls and squares of the Hofburg which made the latter an important stage for princely representation. The results enable the history of the building and function of the Hofburg to be seen in a completely new light and open up significant new fields of research relevant to the history of the residence which far exceed those of the object of investigation, the Vienna Hofburg of the 16th and 17th centuries.