Status Updates From Court, Cloister, and City: ...

"The notion that art could serve ethical & moral ends, as well as the political goals of the state, plainly circulated in court circles, as the statements of Sonnenfels & Kaunitz suggest."

Late 18th century. Vienna.

While the architecture of (the cathedral of) Vac (Hungary) possesses what might be called a progressive character in its neoclassical, it's patron, Christoph Migazzi, was an implacable for of Theresan reforms & became an antagonist of Joseph's efforts as well.

The more radical forms associated with Neoclassicism also spread to the Hungarian lands, where they were well recieved. & strikingly these often appeared in connection with the church.

Late 18th century allegemeines krankenhaus vienna: " the ideal forms utilised in the Vienna hospital seen fitting complements to the rationalised vision of society & religion promoted by the ruler.a work radical in form went along with radical ideas. We such works we begin to approach both some of the ideology & it's realisation in forms of our own are."

After the 30 years war about 70% of the land in Bohemia was owned by the church and the magnates while the number of noble families had halved & many of those were new to the region former soldiers in the emperors service like the Piccolomini.

In part because of the subsequent decline into provincial status of the truncated Czech lands after the mid 18th century much from the 17th & 18th centuries also survives: whole towns or city quarters like the mala strana in Prague remain from this era .

Since Augustus (the strong) was a failure as a general the Swinger provides a good argument for the thesis that princes win immortality through great buildings as well as through great victories. The building accordingly presented a political message in the typical baroque language of allegory.

The Atlases who hold up thecstairs in the Upper Belvedere (Vienna) may make a meaningful allusion in that they symbolise the support of the building but just as Atlas carries the world on his shoulders so the heroic Eugene is the Hercules who supports the empire.

Outside Vienna " a super Versailles was planned; the initial project for Schonbrunn overtrumps Versailles in size, in its location on a hill & in its stylistic references. Fischer here developed a new form of architecture derived not only from a reaction to forms used at Versailles but from one of the great alternatives...the art of Bernini

Along with other members of the szlachta Sobieski himself could be portrayed by sculptors & painters as a Roman leader in toga & battle armour yet unmistakably Sarmatian in his moustache & helmet...they befit a nation that in its rescue of Vienna could regard itself as virtuous Romans defending European civilisation.

Samartism expressed for the Poles the idea that like other European nations they too had their origins in the peoples discussed by the authors of antiquity but their ancestors were even older than some of those claimed by other Europeans...hence they adopted what they regarded as a distinctive Sarmatian appearance...shaved heads with top knots & long robes

Royal villa of Wilanow outside Warsaw = villa nova, my biggest ah-ha moment of the day so far, obvious once you can see it...

King Jan Sobieski of Poland was from what is now western Ukraine, amongst other building activities he contributed to the building of a synagogue - I wonder now about the architecture of synagogues in this period as a case study for the ideas in this book - do they reflect or contrast with the spread of architectural influences in elite buildings?

When we find works that seem to resemble the classicism of Versailles we may actually be encountering the traces of Netherlanders & their pupils who had an import in northern Europe from Dusseldorf to st.Petersburg. In architecture this trend had its origin in 17th century Dutch Palladianism...

1646, Vienna, Jesuits erected a Mariensaule a victory column with Mary on top." The virgin was regarded as protector & patron of the land as well as intercessor & was this also generalisation of forces. Her image took on a militantly anti-Protestant character, suggested by its placement on a victory column"

Hapsburg intermarriage with the Gonzaga family hascthecresult that Italian influences are stronger in their territories while French influence predominates at other German courts.

Joachim von Sandrat mid 17th century involved in establishment of academies of art in Augsburg & Nuremberg. Writes a book: 'Teutsche Academie' like Vasari or Karl van Lender this includes lives of the artists ie an artistic Canon plus theory plus a translation of Ovid's metamorphosis & a description of ruins from antiquity - everything an artist needed to know to get started...

Wallenstein's transformation of earlier elements from the Rudolfine are into the grandiose his tranafiguration of earlier metaphors of rule suggest what is at stake in that culture that has been called baroque...In Wallenstein's commission's sheer size & grandeur become metaphors of power itself.

In Poland during the Vasa age art was frequently used for the purposes of political propaganda...as Poland was embroiled in the affairs of Russia,Catholicism confronted Orthodoxy & it may be that there is some claim here to be the true opposition to the '3rd Rome' upstarts. The possibility of employing monuments in this way as visual statements was one with a wider resonance in a society ...

Mid 17th century German literary societies were formed concerned with the purification of the language but/& "the societies were also involved in the adaptation of Italian, Spanish & French literary forms"

"Many well known (&not so familiar) figures in the history of Dutch painting of the Golden Age of the 17th century in fact came from Germany"

-same old story - damn'd refugees coming over here, painting our portraits... rumble grumble 😁

Makes the point that destruction in the 30 years war was a wondering storm, regions were affected at different times and some towns (eg Ausberg) escaped devastation and artists in such places continued working.

In Gdansk & the north of Poland, styles from the Netherlands were influential in art & architecture; in the south-east (lwow lublin sandomierz etc) Italian influence predominated. Early 17th century.

In the period between the decline of Antwerp & the rise of Amsterdam, before wars in the Baltic & the onset of the 30 years war wrecked trade in the region, Gdansk also assumed an international importance

In Heidelberg the political particularistic aspects of patronage are especially clear. The patronage of count Palatine Frederick IV can be seen to form part of his ambitious political manoeuvring.

On this page I found an old bookmark from the shop where I bought this book, the long closed unsworths on Bloomsbury street (round the corner from the British museum). I wonder if I had actually read this far previously;probably not, even for me stopping near the beginning of a chapter is a bit odd.

There were many ways to learn about court art. In Prague as elsewhere works by the court artists were publicly visible in churches. Court artists completed commissions for bourgeois &aristocratic patrons...numerous gifts were sent abroad.
More important a number of courts employed print makers.

In fact such works (nude subjects & erotic poses), no less than Arcimboldo's version of the Vertumnus theme, can also be viewed as part of the Renaissance reception of antiquity. Their subject matter is ostensibly taken from the antique ... they translate poetry into paint.

Arcimboldo's portrait of Rudolf II as Vertumnus:" was obviously a personal work, made for a ruler's taste not broad display, yet it has a political message that it expressed through a form of allegorical personification...

& visits to collections did play a role in the diplomacy of the day. Visiting rulers or ambassadors were taken to see them, & showing collections could be used as a sign of favour.