Pro Deo et Populo: Die Porträts Josephs II. (1765 – 1790) Fakultät für Geschichts- und Kunstwissenschaften - Digitale Hochschulschriften der LMU
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The portraits of the Habsburg Emperor Joseph II (1765-1790) provide a good opportunity for a study of imperial portraiture in the Age of the Enlightenment. As a sitter of the highest rank in Eighteenth-Century Europe, Joseph was known to hold enlightened ideas on sovereignty, and his portraits - emerging on the eve of the French Revolution - mark a point at which leaders were forced to re-evaluate their understanding of authority. The widely popular medium of portraiture in the second half of the Eighteenth Century proved to be particularly responsive to these developments.
This dissertation traces how the visual representation of Joseph II adapted to the paradigm shifts of the age, and begins by presenting and categorizing the different types of his portrait versions. Then it draws upon written sources from court archives to examine the contexts in which portraits were produced, displayed and distributed. Finally, I set out the distinct iconographic changes discernible in the portraits of Joseph II and their importance for Nineteenth-Century portraiture. It will be suggested that these portraits depart from the norms of Baroque iconography in favour of a more reduced form, in which the Emperor is characterized by bourgeois values such as a strong work ethic, a sense of duty and the popular touch in order to legitimate his sovereignty.
The portraits of the Habsburg Emperor Joseph II (1765-1790) provide a good opportunity for a study of imperial portraiture in the Age of the Enlightenment. As a sitter of the highest rank in Eighteenth-Century Europe, Joseph was known to hold enlightened ideas on sovereignty, and his portraits - emerging on the eve of the French Revolution - mark a point at which leaders were forced to re-evaluate their understanding of authority. The widely popular medium of portraiture in the second half of the Eighteenth Century proved to be particularly responsive to these developments.
This dissertation traces how the visual representation of Joseph II adapted to the paradigm shifts of the age, and begins by presenting and categorizing the different types of his portrait versions. Then it draws upon written sources from court archives to examine the contexts in which portraits were produced, displayed and distributed. Finally, I set out the distinct iconographic changes discernible in the portraits of Joseph II and their importance for Nineteenth-Century portraiture. It will be suggested that these portraits depart from the norms of Baroque iconography in favour of a more reduced form, in which the Emperor is characterized by bourgeois values such as a strong work ethic, a sense of duty and the popular touch in order to legitimate his sovereignty.
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