Časopis ARS 42 (2009) 2

Katarína BEŇOVÁ

Habsburgovci v prvej polovici 19. storočia. Panovnícky portrét v slovenských zbierkach
[The Habsburgs in the First Half of the 19th Century. Emperors' Portraits in Slovak Galleries and Museums Collections]

(Resumé)

A portrait of a ruler as a personification of the state had been one of the most common commissions from artists, and it was not different also during the 19th century. Today, in every school or state institution there is an image of the president in the form of a photograph. In the past there were painted portraits (or their copies) of the ruler. In the society of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century, before the invention of photography, a painted image was fulfilling its main function - to capture the likeness of the portrayed person. The function of the portrait was highly representative, also in the case of his (or her) absence at the court. Often the portrait had a function of a talisman. A multi-ethnic monarchy had in each of its parts different ways of showing emperor's identity. For the Hungarian Monarchy, from the times of Rudolf II, the genealogy of the Habsburg ruler used to be incorporated in the long historical line of Hungarian kings starting with St. Stephen.

Portraiture of the ruler in the second half of the 18th and the first half of the 19th century was influenced by Italian and French art. In these centres there appeared genre signs that expressed themselves in the portrait-making in Central Europe, mainly in Vienna, too. A portrait of Louis XIV painted by Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659 - 1743) was often taken as a model, picturing a centrally placed figure of the king with a stylised gesture of his right hand, wearing an ermine coat and the attributes of his position. It presents the credo "I am the State", the absolute power.

The first half of the 19th century witnessed a shift in the way of portraying an emperor - from the absolutist feature to a closer relation to citizens of the state. Francis I for example used this strategy, mostly in the period after the Congress of Vienna. "Der Mensch steckt im König, der König steckt im Menschen, und wie der Mensch ist, so ist der König." The process of the "nationalization" took place, when the monarch was not only presented as an absolutist ruler, but also in the perception of his personality connected to different ethnics in the monarchy (for example, for the Hungarians it was the form of Hungarian king or queen).

Until the reign of Maria Theresa and Joseph II, the portrait of the monarch was placed mainly in rooms of royal and representative residences or aristocracy seats. From the times of Joseph II, more and more new places appeared where the official portrait was placed to fulfil its representative function. The art of the 19th century did not create its own way of portraying monarchs. On the contrary, most of the already established types were in use instead. Painters worked with draperies, robes and chasubles, the symbols and attributes coming from the Baroque "vocabulary". One of the official dresses of the emperor became a uniform, which gradually gained popularity. It appears in a number of portraits of Francis I and later of Francis Joseph I. Thus, both of them presented their status in the country through their military functions. The number of portraits depicting an emperor as the ruler of the empire decreased and the monarch was more frequently presented in his duty status to his country - in uniform or civil attire.

For the first half of the 19th century in former Upper Hungary (today Slovakia), portraits of ruling emperors such as Francis I (1768 - 1835), Ferdinand V (1793 - 1875) and later also Francis Joseph I (1830 - 1916), who entered the throne in the revolutionary year 1848, became characteristic. In collections of Slovak museums and galleries there is a comparatively big number of their portraits, made by various, but mostly unknown authors.

In the Slovak collections, Francis I is represented by small portraits, often captured in his uniform with the Order of the Golden Fleece and other orders belonging to his status. A whole-figure portrait of him being depicted as the emperor of Austria is in the collection of the City Gallery of Bratislava, one version painted by J. Cimbal, another by K. Steinacker. The Šariš Museum in Prešov possesses the representative portrait by J. Miklošík Zmij from 1825.

Francis I's son Ferdinand I, crowned in 1830 in Bratislava as Ferdinand V, was depicted mostly as the Hungarian King, eventually also in a military uniform or in Hungarian gala uniform. In many cities of Hungary, he was portrayed by artists such as F. Lieder, J. Rombauer, J. Boda and others. The main problem they had to deal with was his specific physiognomy influenced by his weak condition and poor health. Thus they often made him more beautiful, as the proper representative of the monarchy.

Also the reign of Francis Joseph I belonged to the first half of the 19th century, as he entered the throne at its end, in the revolutionary year 1848. That is why he was depicted mostly as a soldier in his uniform according to his official portrait by Anton Einsle in the majority of his portraits from this period. Other paintings are copies of official full-length representative portraits with the royal insignia of power.

The portrait of an emperor was a part of political and social life in Hungary. It was based on compositional types formed by the Renaissance and later developed by painters such as Rubens, Van Dyck, Velasquéz, Rigaud and others (regarding the gestures, costumes, composition, etc.). In the first half of the 19th century, the need both for the state representation and purpose of representing the emperor in individual cities of the monarchy resulted in the continuation of such portrait types that became demanded. Not every time were they created by court artists; it was mainly local or just for a period of time settled down painters who made portraits after artworks and more often engravings. The "shifts" in physiognomic appearance of a monarch depended on artist's skills and the budget of the customer. Bigger cities could afford to employ well-known and educated painters (F. Lieder, J. Rombauer, J. Cimbal, J. Pálmay, F. Balassa and others). However, the majority of the preserved material presents unknown authors with unbalanced quality of portraying. The number of emperors' portraits was presumably much higher at that time than we may know from the current state of the preserved works.

English translation by M. Herbst

* The study is based on results of research executed in the frames of the VEGA project No. 1/0316/08 Europe and us - us and Europe: Inclusions of the European in the 19th century art in Slovakia, financed by the Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic and the Slovak Academy of Sciences.