Science, Art and Passion: Treasures from the Imperial Habsburg Kunstkammer
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Science, Art and Passion: Treasures from the Imperial Habsburg Kunstkammer Claudia Lehner-Jobst Art Historian and Curator, Vienna 108 The new Kunstkammer galleries at the Kunsthistorisches This meant that the twenty rooms had to be restored in the Museum in Vienna were opened in March 2013 after a period extant nineteenth-century historicist style and their structure of ten years of restoration, construction work, and the had to be maintained. There are now the most advanced design of a contemporary form of presentation. This most air-conditioning systems hidden behind the walls, and similar important and largest collection of Kunstkammer objects wonders have been worked in the three hundred display in the world is displayed in a space of 2.700 square metres. cases. Fifty-one “star brick” chandeliers, to a design by Olafur 2200 pieces, chosen from a tight “short list” of four thousand, Eliasson (b. 1967), add a contemporary element to rooms that thus found new and old places within the extensive holdings formerly had no electric lighting at ceiling level. of the former imperial museum. To understand the new display, which aims to act as a stage for those members of The last of this suite of rooms, the Goldsaal (“Golden Hall”) the Habsburg family who were outstanding collectors, art bears an important ceiling painting entitled Die Mäcene der lovers and initiators of new artistic styles, consideration first bildenden Künste im Hause Habsburg – Habsburg Patrons of the has to be given to certain other matters and facts, such as Fine Arts (fig. 1). This programmatic depiction was executed the Museum building itself, and the complexity of another by Julius Victor Berger (1850–1902) in 1890/91 and shows “house”, namely, the House of Habsburg. the Habsburg emperors and their artists gathered around the throne with Maximilian I (1459–1519), after a portrait The Kunsthistorisches Museum was designed – appropriately by Holbein, and the double-headed eagle of the Holy Roman – in the Renaissance style by the architects Carl von Empire behind him. The painting also features the reigning Hasenauer (1833–1894) and Gottfried Semper (1803–1879) Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph in the form of a bust above under Emperor Franz Joseph I (1830–1916). It was opened the throne. Maximilian I is about to study a drawing by in 1891 as a home for the Imperial Collection, which was Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), one of his favorite artists, who thus united under one roof for the first time. For the new is standing next to him. On the right, Archduke Albrecht VII Kunstkammer display, the museum building itself had to (1559–1621) can be seen with his spouse, the Infanta Isabella Figure 1. Julius Victor Berger be respected as a space that could not be subjected to Clara Eugenia, both residents of the Spanish Netherlands, Habsburg Patrons of the Fine Arts substantial change. As part of the historic city centre of Vienna alongside their portraitist Peter Paul Rubens. On the left are Ceiling painting, 1890/91 it has been protected as a UNESCO World Heritage site Giambologna (1529–1608), Titian (d. 1576) and Benvenuto Kunstkammer, Room XIX ©Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna since 2001. Cellini (1500–1571), who is holding his famous Saliera, 109 probably the best known work of art of the Kunstkammer collection in Vienna (see fig. 6). Many more archdukes and emperors parade their treasures on this ceiling painting, almost on eye level with their admired artists. The term “Kunstkammer” literally means a chamber filled with art, but it also implies a new view of the world. It is not without reason that the Kunstkammer is a phenomenon of the Renaissance. The objects of such a collection were meant to represent the richness of the world; the Kunstkammer was thus a microcosm that could be controlled by its owner and therefore also symbolized sovereignty. The Kunstkammer as an “art chamber” reflects an idea that originated in the early treasure vaults of fourteenth- and fifteenth-century European princes. To own a treasury has always been regarded as a sign of power. A ruling house must be decorated with crowns and other insignia, relics, robes, jewellery, coins and objects of representation – its “objects of state”. These had to be kept in safe places, mostly towers or vaults, and ideally – for security reasons – be distributed around a number of different residences. Sometimes the treasures were even hidden too well, so that the heirs had a difficult time finding them. Even as Emperor Friedrich III (1415 – 1593) was making his last confession on his deathbed in 1493, his son and heir Maximilian I was desperately trying to discover where his father had secretly stored his precious belongings. The intention behind collecting in this period is well illustrated by a woodcut by Albrecht Altdorfer from around 1515 showing Maximilian I’s fortified treasure vault in his residence in Wiener Neustadt, south of Vienna.1 The inscription reads: “He alone owns the biggest treasury, of silver, gold and precious stones, of good pearls too, and sumptuous robes. Never was there a prince known to have given and to give so much to serve God and His great glory.” The treasury consisted of a profane and an ecclesiastical section, which were not usually displayed as depicted on the woodcut, but were stored in locked and sealed trunks that Figure 2. could easily be transported to other locations in times of “Maximilianspokal” Goblet with thistle flowers and pears, decorated inside the lid with the double-headed war or other forms of crisis. According to the posthumous eagle and the coat-of-arms of Emperor Maximilian I. inventory of Maximilian’s estate, he had forty trunks filled Nuremberg, circa 1510 Silver, partially gilded and enamelled; H. 56 cm with precious objects in the vaults that can be seen on the ©Kunsthistorisches Museum, woodcut – and this was a treasury in just one of his many Vienna, inv. no. KK 110 110 residences. The so-called “Maximilianspokal”, a silver-gilt goblet with thistle flowers and pears formed with a naturalism typical of the Renaissance, is one of the few objects which can be ascribed with relative certainty to this emperor´s collection (fig. 2). Even though inventories of the Habsburg treasuries of these periods are rare and incomplete, one can observe an increase in the number and genres of Kunstkammer objects in the second half of the fifteenth century. From this period on, it was not only preciousness that counted: the archdukes began to collect objects notable for their rarity and scientific interest or for their magical and exotic character. One side effect was a new awareness of the objects themselves, rather than their value, which happily improved their chances of being preserved for later generations. New family laws were established which forbade the selling or giving away of certain objects, which became the “Unveräußerlicher Hausschatz” or the “inalienable treasure of the House”. If the Habsburg family treasuries of medieval times were made up of items in precious materials, this was not only done in order to represent the family’s princely power and wealth, but also for a very practical reason: so that they could if necessary be turned into money. The heirs of Emperor Maximilan I, among them Charles V (1500–1558), not only had to divide up the treasure but also had to melt down parts of it to finance wars and new representational requirements as they stepped into more powerful positions. Elsewhere a more refined sense for the artistic aspects of precious objects had established itself, notably in France, especially at the court of Duc Jean de Berry (1340–1460), and also at Italian courts such as that of the Medici in Florence. This led to the more visionary practice of collecting objects collection, which according to later writings contained also for the sake of their non-material and artistic qualities. all the necessary aspects of the world and the arts and This new spirit was only introduced to the Habsburgs in thus formed a microcosm in accordance with the logic of the late fifteenth century, by a female member of the House, a Kunstkammer: artificialia, naturalia, scientifica, exotica and Archduchess Margarete (1480–1530) (fig. 3). mirabilia, and antiquitas. Her guests, among them Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), were shown around the Kunstkammer by Figure 3. Margarete, daughter of Maximilian I and Mary of Burgundy the sophisticated and knowledgeable Archduchess in person. Archduchess Margarete (1480–1530) as a widow and sister of Philip the Beautiful, became the governor of It was no longer a “Hausschatz” in the former sense, though Dutch, after 1506 the Austrian Netherlands in 1507. She had a magnificent it was precious enough, but a collection to enjoy, to learn Oil on wood; 31 x 20 cm ©Kunsthistorisches Museum, palais built in Mechelen (today used as a courthouse), one from, and to marvel at. Such a collection could no longer be Vienna, inv. no. GG 5615 wing of which was dedicated specifically to her splendid sealed and shut away in trunks, but cried out to be displayed 111 in a proper and approachable manner. After all, Kunstkammer acquisitions in 1554. In 1558 Ferdinand I had a Kunstkammer objects were also intended to communicate meaning and built within the complex of the Imperial Palace (the Hofburg), wisdom, which one could only fully understand and “grasp” if which may be regarded as the first museum building in one held the objects in one´s hand. Europe. Although all evidence of its location has been lost, Figure 4. fragmentary inventories can at least give us a glimpse of Three characters from the Commedia dell´arte Margarete´s nephew, the future Emperor Ferdinand I what Ferdinand´s collection was like.