Representing the Habsburg-Lorraine Dynasty

This publication analyses in different case studies the strategies of representation of the Habsburg- Lorraine dynasty in art and music. It is divided into four thematic sections themes and media of representation, ruler, state and nation, networks and, finally, ceremonial spaces in relationship to the various publics containing exemplary studies, which offer a broad overview of the production of the crown lands. The publication focusses on the way in which in the hereditary Habsburg territories, the Bohemian lands and Hungary specific strategies of representation were expressed in music and art. The methodological framework is the key issue of the communication of representation in each of the media involved (photography, prints, public monuments, paintings, architecture, libretti, church music and others), every representative content being dependent on the medium employed as carrier. Borrowings from and transmissions into other contexts, transformations, breaks in communication and also trans-European courtly conventions as expressed in music and art are also examined in the collected studies. Not only the complex networks of the decision makers, but also the up to now almost untouched wealth of pictorial and musical sources are examined. This broad basis in content and method makes it possible to re-examine both the autonomous character of the media used by different social groups, a theme not adequately addressed by research before, and also the use of representation on different occasions (celebration, courtly ceremony, collecting activities, entries and others). The complex relations between senders and recipients among the actors involved are comprehensively scrutinised. Those bodies responsible for representation include not only the court, but also the different social groups (nobility, clergy, local authorities etc.), which served as the primary addressees of the dynasty, but which could also develop their own strategies of representation. Representation thus takes place in a tension between activities from above and from below. In an attempt at a general characterisation it can be said that representation is not an established and unchangeable quality of itself, but, instead, is subjected to diverse processes of social and medial negotiation, the analysis of which is an important contribution to research into the structure of the Habsburg empires composite monarchy.