Italian art and culture in Vienna

This volume offers the first systematic art-historical investigation of the central role of Italian art in Vienna from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth century. Drawing on new archival sources and previously unpublished material, the contributions examine a series of case studies that, in their complexity and diversity, reveal the fundamental importance of Italian art in Vienna and in the territories of the Habsburg Empire. As outlined in the introduction from both a theoretical and methodological perspective, the focus is not solely on the importation of artworks from Italy, but above all on the mobility of artists: their temporary or permanent settlement in Vienna, their integration into systems of patronage and workshop structures, and the resulting reorientation of local artistic production. The scope of the book therefore extends beyond the material transfer of objects to encompass the dissemination of knowledge, expertise, and techniques north of the Alps. In this context, the book analyses Italian networks in Vienna, reconstructs individual commissions, and traces the emergence of a new artistic taste and orientation. The book presents a wide range of topics: Italian stonecutters at the imperial courts in Prague and Viennaincluding the Miseroni and Castrucci families, Antonio Abondios contributions to portraiture in wax and metal, the activities of the painter Giulio Benso between Genoa, Vienna, and Vorarlberg, as well as vivid travel accounts by agents and nuncios who visited Vienna. It also addresses the formation of the extensive painting collection of the imperial envoy Humprecht Jan Czernin, the migration of stonecutters from Gorizia to Vienna and their social advancement, the architect and garden designer Donato Felice dAllio, and a first reconstruction of the oeuvre of Nicola Maria Rossi in the imperial capital. Correspondence and diaries of the court poet Apostolo Zeno, reflections on the art policies of Roman cardinals, and considerations of the market strategies of Italian antiquarians during the Restoration period are likewise included, as is the exhibition at the Kunsthistorisches Museum devoted to Lauranas bust and the significance of Petrarchs Laura at the imperial court.