Asian Interior Decoration in Schönbrunn Palace

The East Asian interior decoration at Schönbrunn Palace represents one of the world`s most significant testimonies to the European aristocracy`s taste for all things Asian, and the resultant style created left its stamp on princely domestic culture during the Baroque and Rococo eras. The collecting focus in Schönbrunn, as are the materials featured in this Project, are the ceramics/porcelains, the lacquerwares and watercolours. Based on the art and cultural historical scholarship to date, the research areas of conservation sciences, the humanities and natural sciences will be linked with each other to subject the Asiatica at Schönbrunn to a transdisciplinary examination. The research project will focus on the materials used, their production technologies and the history of the objects. The results can support, amend or correct current art and cultural historical theses, especially with regard to dating and provenance. In the context of the Schönbrunn collections, the question of provenance and the early history of the objects is at the forefront; the porcelain and lacquer are part of a large conglomeration of Asian originals, some with European secondary finishing and others are entirely European-produced. A study of the restoration history in the collection will investigate and identify the measures which have been taken to preserve the items over centuries, and those which would be considered appropriate today. Subsequently, conservation concepts will be developed, with particular emphasis on the installation of the porcelains and the watercolours in the Porcelain Cabinet, both with a view to innovative new mounting strategies and to optimise the exhibition procedures as well as the historic, original installation and the purpose/usage of the rooms. The collaboration planned between the University for Applied Arts Vienna (UAA) with the Museum for Applied Arts (MAK), the Schloß Schönbrunn Kultur- und Betriebsges.m.b.H (SKB) and with the Japanese training and research centre, the National Research Institute of Cultural Properties, Tokyo (NRCP) as well as the inclusion of external specialists and active exchange of information between the national and international bodies of research into royal and aristocratic residences will enable extensive basic research with international model character. The Project is sited at the central interface between the joint research efforts of conservation sciences, material sciences, technology and art and cultural history.

The project aimed at comprehensive interdisciplinary research of the East Asian interior decorations in the two Chinese Cabinets and the Porcelain Room in Schönbrunn Palace. These precious room ensembles, which have their origins in the period of Empress Maria Theresa (1717-1780), are significant testimonies of the European aristocracys affection and taste for Asian artworks during the Baroque era. The interiors comprise a heterogeneous collection of 133 lacquer panels and 242 porcelains, both from Japan, China and Europe, 10 Japanese lacquer vessels, as well as 212 blue gouache drawings in the nearby Porcelain Room, and were subject to interdisciplinary examination with emphasis on material, provenance and conservation history. Extensive archival research has been done to record changes in the presentation scheme and composition (loss and replacement of objects) of the ensembles collection from the 18th to the 20th century and to reconstruct the conservation history, which directly influences the present condition. Thus we could determine and date specific treatments and interventions, such as the invasive drilling of the porcelains bases in order to screw them onto the wall-mounted wooden consoles, also the exchange and replacement of the lacquer panels. Studies of the materials used and their production technologies supported by natural scientific analyses significantly enlarged the hitherto poor knowledge about the collection. Determination of specific components and material compositions, such as the evidence of blood in the base coat of the lacquer panels, verified provenance and dating. Combined art-historical expertise and stylistic analyses underpinned these results. Comprehensive condition assessments of the objects played a further decisive role in understanding apparent damage phenomena and the negative impacts of past interventions. Based on these findings, appropriate and innovative conservation treatment options committed to actual conservation guidelines were evaluated and tested in a constant exchange and discussion with international experts. Thereby particular emphasis was placed on the evaluation of traditional Asian and European methods of surface treatments on lacquer panels, removing discolouration on the paper objects and the handling of past conservation treatments and large-scale retouching on the porcelains. For the future presentation of the Chinese Cabinets a reconstruction was undertaken of the historical setting and placement of the single objects. Simultaneously, a newly developed mounting system for the porcelains on the consoles enables safe and reversible display. It is based on waxes, which were selected after an extensive test series on chemical and physical properties. The conservation strategy for the blue gouache paintings in the Porcelain Room concentrated on the optimization of the mounting and hanging of the objects as well as the establishment of a photometric monitoring strategy for better control of light.