The representation of rulers and the historical culture under Maria Theresa (1740-1780)

The aim of the present project proposal is to close the research gap which exists between works on the representation of Emperor Charles VI (17111740) on the one hand and articles on Habsburg representation in the 19th century on the other. More precisely, the objective here is not to focus on the history of art during the age of Maria Theresa (17401780) bin the sense of an review encompassing the era and all its genres, but to identify and interpret works and groups of works in prints, medals, easel paintings and wall paintings which are directly linked to the representation of Maria Theresa in the sense of pictorial politics. One particular challenge resides in the fact that Maria Theresa ruled over many kingdoms and lands, each of which merit due consideration in the analysis. This is not the only reason why the project will need to refrain from a simplifying interpretation in the sense of a direct and centralistic exploitation of the visual arts by Maria Theresa. Instead, it will focus more on clarifying the organisation of the art establishment (Matsche 2011) in order to subsequently reach a more differentiated assessment of the manifold forms of representation in the age of Maria Theresa. The present project will also be required to shed new light on the hitherto insufficiently studied state of tension between the pivotal notions of representation and media for the period under review and ultimately investigate the viability of a hitherto insufficiently questioned paradigm in art history, namely that of a Habsburg representation. Should Habsburg representation in the early modern period be defined as a uniform and closed concept? The project proposal submitted here deliberately intends to take an art historical position and, by comprehensively including the primary written sources, question how individual works contributed to representation with their specific formal manifestation, their typological traditions, and the structure of their subject matter. In this sense, the scope of this project covers both the general question of the specific visualisation of power and above all a study of the different potentials in the works which played a role in representation. When artworks are investigated to ascertain their status and significance within the context of dynastic strategies of representation, it soon becomes clear that visual media do not merely depict historic events or political demands. They shape them, too, in large part or at least play a role in formulating them. On this basis it will be possible to take a much more focussed look at the specifics of the Habsburg culture of representation in the second half of the 18th century than has been the case until now.

Maria Theresa, whose three-hundredth birthday was commemorated in 2017 with exhibitions, conferences and new publications, is one of the best-known female figures in Austrian history. Her popularity cannot be explained solely by the special circumstance of her rule as a female sovereign and mother of sixteen children, but is also due to her many extant portraits. This visual representation of Maria Theresa in various pictorial genres such as paintings, engravings and medals was the subject of a three-year project funded by the FWF the Austrian Science Fund. The project team, consisting of art historians, historians and numismatists, investigated various aspects of Maria Theresas representation in Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Germany and Belgium. Since her father Karl VI had died without male descendants, Maria Theresa became the first woman on the Habsburg throne. A special challenge for the legitimation and enactment of Maria Theresas reign was her gender, which caused the War of the Austrian Succession to break out. To show that she secured the rule of the dynasty by giving birth to many children, it was extremely important to depict the steadily growing family in paintings and engravings. At the beginning of her reign, Maria Theresa used the possibilities offered by public processions, audiences or festivities in order to present herself to the population as a lovable, brave and beautiful sovereign. As a ruler of many countries, Maria Theresa was symbolically present solely in the form of portraits in different art genres in most of her dominion. In this regard, the portrait of Maria Theresa as King of Hungary became particularly important and was copied and reproduced many times over. One of the main aims of the project was to learn more about the organisation of art at the Viennese Court as well as the various actors. Much of the (visual) representation was not centrally controlled by Maria Theresa or the Viennese Court, but is attributable to various actors, such as the nobility, private publishers or artists. By including extensive written sources, the project team was able to retrace how the various images of the ruler as Queen of Hungary, mother or widow emerged. Hence the research project was able to contribute to a better understanding of the different forms of ruler representation and image policy during the period of Maria Theresa.