Wir haben es mit einer Zeit beschleunigten Wandels zu tun. Die sozialen Unterschiede verschärfen sich; es gibt Gewinner und Verlierer dieses Wandels. Viele fühlen sich durch die Dynamik abgehängt und ...sehen ihre altvertrauten Selbstverständlichkeiten bedroht. Ein Thema beherrscht den gesellschaftlichen Diskurs und wirkt in einem bisher unbekannten Ausmaß polarisierend; es provoziert jeden Einzelnen zur eindeutigen Parteinahme. Der Zwang zum Bekenntnis der richtigen Gesinnung nimmt zu, das wechselseitige Misstrauen steigt. Die Spaltung verläuft quer durch jedes Land, jede soziale Schicht, mitunter sogar quer durch die Familien. Gemäßgte, vermittelnde Stimmen haben es immer schwerer, sich Gehör zu verschaffen. Die gemeinsame Basis an fraglos geteilten Überzeugungen und Verfahren, auf der man sich über die feindlichen Lager hinweg verständigen kann, wird immer schmaler.
Grand, extravagant, magnificent, scandalous, corrupt, political, personal, fractious; these are terms often associated with the medieval and early modern courts. Moreover, the court constituted a ...forceful nexus in the social world, which was central to the legitimacy and authority of rulership. As such, courts shaped European politics and culture: architecture, art, fashion, patronage, and cultural exchanges were integral to the spectacle of European courts. Researchers have convincingly emphasised the public nature of courtly events, procedures, and ceremonies. Nevertheless, court life also involved pockets of privacy, which have yet to be systematically addressed. This edited collection addresses this lacuna and offers interpretations that urge us to reassesses the public nature of European courts. Thus, the proposed publication will fertilise the grounds for a discussion of the past and future of court studies. Indeed, the contributions make us reconsider present-day understandings of privacy as a stable and uncontestable notion.
Dynastic Capital BARBARA STOLLBERG-RILINGER
Maria Theresa,
01/2022
Book Chapter
By the age of six, Archduke Leopold, Maria Theresa’s ninth child, was already commanding a cuirassier regiment of his own. A classical military portrait, produced around 1752 in the workshop of the ...court painter, Martin van Meytens, shows him in this role. Kitted out in battle gear, the little lord stands on high ground striking a commanding pose. With his left hand he points to his troops marching up a slope behind him. In the background to the right, there is the faint suggestion of a camp; to the left, the space opens out onto a wide landscape over which
Goethe’s famous account in Dichtung und Wahrheit (Poetry and Truth) was as influential in shaping the later image of Francis I’s imperial coronation as it was in creating that of the ideal imperial ...couple. Goethe combines at least two key messages in this artfully constructed episode. On the one hand, he depicts the imperial coronation as an almost spectral staging of a long obsolete medieval ritual, which at the same time stands pars pro toto for the outdated imperial constitution. On the other, the ritual’s bizarre anachronism is reflected in the intimate and ironic gestures exchanged by the royal couple,
Maria Theresa described the last decade of her life in countless private letters as an impatient waiting for death: “I have lived long enough.”¹ She felt lonely and abandoned, sick in body, heart, ...and head, oppressed by the weight of her responsibilities, and resigned—for all her unstinting efforts—to the impossibility of alleviating the misery afflicting her lands, or even achieving concord within her own family. “My age and my infirmities, which mount from day to day, no longer grant me a moment’s respite, and my cares and losses drive me to utter ruination.”² She had become increasingly isolated;
Strangers Within BARBARA STOLLBERG-RILINGER
Maria Theresa,
01/2022
Book Chapter
Following the Peace of Hubertusburg, a team of skilled artisans sewed an unusual tapestry, around two meters high and one and a half meters wide, consisting of over thirteen by thirteen painstakingly ...embroidered cloth patches (fig. 45). Unfortunately, nothing is known about who made this enigmatic textile or to what end.¹ What we do know is that the patchwork rug celebrates the peace concluded at Hubertusburg in 1763. The large oval at its center contains the armorial crests of Austria, Saxony, and Prussia, while Maria Theresa, Frederick II, and Frederick August II are shown joining hands above. Closer inspection reveals
Body Politics BARBARA STOLLBERG-RILINGER
Maria Theresa,
01/2022
Book Chapter
In the European ancien régime, the sovereign’s body was a political object of paramount importance. For one thing, it stood at the center of the sociosymbolic order: the ruler’s physical body ...represented the immortal political body of his realm, of which he was simultaneously the head.¹ His corporeality served as a political metaphor, pointing beyond itself in several key respects. Command over one’s own body was considered the precondition for ruling over others. Impotence was a symbol and index of political powerlessness, while sexual excess denoted tyranny. Yet the sovereign’s body was the subject of political discourse in a literal
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