DOI Artikel:
Wais-Wolf, Christina: Research project Corpus Vitrearum – medieval and modern stained glass in Austria: investigations into Austrian stained glass after 1800 as part of a pilot project at the Austrian Academy of Sciences
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51154#0089
88
1. Gottlob Samuel Mohn, Dining room window with portraits of the imperial couple Franz I and Maria Theresia as well as eight of their chil-
dren, coats of arms and crowns, 1822-1824, Laxenburg, Franzensburg. Photo: Bundesdenkmalamt, В. Neubauer-Pregl
not completed. The combination of the two buildings was
intended to achieve a sentimental romantic visualization
of the long history of the House of Habsburg.* * 8
In the area of Franzensburg, this merger was achieved
on the one hand by consciously integrating medieval spo-
lia - in addition to architectural elements and paintings,
also stained glass panels from various locations in Vienna
and in Lower and Upper Austria9 - into the new castle
complex. On the other hand, the composition and motifs
of most of the newly created pictorial works were mod-
elled on medieval and early modern real models in or-
der to give them the appearance of old age. Besides these
thoughts of a medieval cult, as it corresponded to the Zeit-
geist of Romanticism, another aspect has to be deemed
essential, especially against the background of the promi-
nence of the donor Emperor Franz II/I. One may get the
Laxenburg bei Wien, ed. by G. Hajos, Vienna, Cologne and Wei-
mar, 2006, p. 69.
8 See in detail ibidem, pp. 77-80.
9 For the original provenance of these medieval stained glass paint-
ings and their present location at Franzensburg Chastle see G.
Buchinger, E. Oberhaidacher-Herzig, C. Wais-Wolf, Die
mittelalterlichen Glasgemälde in Niederösterreich, Vienna, Co-
logne and Weimar, 2017 (Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi Öster-
reich, V, 2), pp. 189-229.
impression that Emperor Franz, through the medium of
stained-glass painting - the stained-glass windows of the
second furnishing phase from 1821 onwards are the focus
of attention here10 - was not only pursuing the purely ex-
ternal aim of presenting himself in medieval costume and
pose according to the taste of the time [Fig. 1]. Rather,
there is the suspicion that he wanted to achieve an un-
conditional fusion of his own person with important
Habsburg ancestors through the targeted copying of late
medieval and early modern portraits of Habsburg rulers,
as they had been handed down through portraits of Em-
peror Friedrich III and Maximilian I. The old and the new
would thus have entered into an interesting exchange,
whereby the new could form a particular synthesis by
merging with the old.
Especially against the background of the current proj-
ects thematic focus - research on medieval and modern
stained glass at the same time - a synopsis of medieval
and modern glass painting in its original context seems
particularly worthwhile. Questions on iconography and
iconology will therefore be treated in the course of the
project on an equal footing with questions about the glass
10 All windows of the first furnishing phase around 1800 have been
lost, and only drawings and written sources provide clues to the
iconography of these windows.
1. Gottlob Samuel Mohn, Dining room window with portraits of the imperial couple Franz I and Maria Theresia as well as eight of their chil-
dren, coats of arms and crowns, 1822-1824, Laxenburg, Franzensburg. Photo: Bundesdenkmalamt, В. Neubauer-Pregl
not completed. The combination of the two buildings was
intended to achieve a sentimental romantic visualization
of the long history of the House of Habsburg.* * 8
In the area of Franzensburg, this merger was achieved
on the one hand by consciously integrating medieval spo-
lia - in addition to architectural elements and paintings,
also stained glass panels from various locations in Vienna
and in Lower and Upper Austria9 - into the new castle
complex. On the other hand, the composition and motifs
of most of the newly created pictorial works were mod-
elled on medieval and early modern real models in or-
der to give them the appearance of old age. Besides these
thoughts of a medieval cult, as it corresponded to the Zeit-
geist of Romanticism, another aspect has to be deemed
essential, especially against the background of the promi-
nence of the donor Emperor Franz II/I. One may get the
Laxenburg bei Wien, ed. by G. Hajos, Vienna, Cologne and Wei-
mar, 2006, p. 69.
8 See in detail ibidem, pp. 77-80.
9 For the original provenance of these medieval stained glass paint-
ings and their present location at Franzensburg Chastle see G.
Buchinger, E. Oberhaidacher-Herzig, C. Wais-Wolf, Die
mittelalterlichen Glasgemälde in Niederösterreich, Vienna, Co-
logne and Weimar, 2017 (Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi Öster-
reich, V, 2), pp. 189-229.
impression that Emperor Franz, through the medium of
stained-glass painting - the stained-glass windows of the
second furnishing phase from 1821 onwards are the focus
of attention here10 - was not only pursuing the purely ex-
ternal aim of presenting himself in medieval costume and
pose according to the taste of the time [Fig. 1]. Rather,
there is the suspicion that he wanted to achieve an un-
conditional fusion of his own person with important
Habsburg ancestors through the targeted copying of late
medieval and early modern portraits of Habsburg rulers,
as they had been handed down through portraits of Em-
peror Friedrich III and Maximilian I. The old and the new
would thus have entered into an interesting exchange,
whereby the new could form a particular synthesis by
merging with the old.
Especially against the background of the current proj-
ects thematic focus - research on medieval and modern
stained glass at the same time - a synopsis of medieval
and modern glass painting in its original context seems
particularly worthwhile. Questions on iconography and
iconology will therefore be treated in the course of the
project on an equal footing with questions about the glass
10 All windows of the first furnishing phase around 1800 have been
lost, and only drawings and written sources provide clues to the
iconography of these windows.