Austrian Habsburg Envoys to Rome 1619-1740: Art Collecting as a Medium of Cultural Transfer (Lise Meitner – Project M2474-G25)
The FWF-funded research will focus on the role of Austrian Habsburg envoys to the Holy See as agents of cultural transfer and exchange, from the reign of Ferdinand II to that of Charles VI. The transnational context of diplomatic service and the cosmopolitan character of the artistic community in Rome during the 17th and 18th centuries make this a challenging point of observation.
Starting from the outcome of a large research on two Roman noblemen, Paolo and Federico Savelli, which acted as imperial envoys in Rome (1620-1649), the present project will focus on the activity of later imperial envoys such as Prince Liechtenstein, Count Martinitz, Cardinal Schrattenberg and Cardinal Althann, analyzing for the first time in a systematic way the privileged role of such imperial envoys for the artistic exchange between Austria and Italy from the beginning of the Thirty Years War through the pre-Theresian era. The reigns of Leopold I (1658-1705) and Charles VI (1711-40) and those of Pope Innocent XII (1691-1700) and Innocent XIII (1721-24) will receive attention as periods favourable for the imperial party, which also marked the beginning of the “sell out” of Roman collections.
The project will carry out basic research on patrons and collectors by identifying and analyzing unpublished archival sources, especially correspondence and inventories of goods. Case studies on individual envoys will form the basis for a comparative analysis that will determine the role envoys played within the larger “system” of cultural and artistic exchange between South and North. The research requires the integration of Viennese and Roman sources, as well as an interchange between Italian and Austrian scholarship on art collecting and cultural transfer.
