Webinar: The Habsburgs as Art Patrons by CICERONI Travel

Synopsis

The Habsburgs were Europe's most influential ruling dynasty of the early modern era. Their origins in Alpine obscurity gave no suggestion of the vast territories they would eventually control, governed from their European bases in Madrid, Vienna, Prague and Brussels. Dukes and Archdukes of Austria, Kings of Spain, Bohemia and Hungary, and Holy Roman Emperors - a mere handful of the many titles which became their Birthright, achieved where possible through marriage, but increasingly secured through war. By the mid sixteenth century this vast patrimony had become too unwieldy for one man, the Emperor Charles V, to rule alone. In 1556 he abdicated and divided his territories between his brother Ferdinand and his son, Philip. Ferdinand, who succeeded him as Holy Roman Emperor, inherited the central European territories ruled from Prague and Vienna. His son, Philip, was given Spain, parts of Italy, the Low Countries and the Spanish lands in the New World. These two Habsburg dynasties co-existed in harmony for a century and a half, secured by a series of family intermarriages. Frequently beset by the endless wars of religion and territorial ambition launched by enemies from both within and beyond their borders, their story is remarkable.

Art and power have always been linked and the Habsburgs built and furnished an amazing range of palaces and hunting villas, endowed churches and monasteries, all the while filling them all with extraordinary works of art. The rollcall of those who worked for them - for example Titian, Rubens and Velázquez amongst the painters - is to see the greatest names from the mid fifteenth to the mid seventeenth centuries pass before our eyes. Then there are the family patrons/collectors: the Emperor Charles V (seen above in Titian's iconic image); his son Philip II; Philip's Austrian cousin, the Emperor Rudolf; Philip's extraordinary daughter, the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia (Tom's 'favourite nun'); Isabella's less than bright brother, Philip III and her ungrateful nephew, Philip IV, the great patron of Velázquez; and finally, there is the splendidly industrious (though now largely forgotten) Archduke Leopold from the Austrian branch, whose collection forms the core of Vienna's Künsthistorisches Museum.

Tom Duncan will bring this amazing dynasty to life in a series of webinars over the coming weeks. The first sequence of four webinars will be given on successive Wednesdays and Thursdays, February 2, 3, 9 & 10.

Tom will return to complete his series on the later Habsburgs from Philip II to the Archduke Leopold on March 9, 10 & 16. Details of this second sequence will be published at later intervals in February.

Lecturer

Tom Duncan

Tom Duncan was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he studied, successively, Music and then History of Art with Ancient History and Archaeology. He moved to the United States in 1980 to research Late Antiquity and the Early Church. This formative experience brought him to Cambridge, England in 1984 to complete a Ph D on the influence of Early Christian Art on Baroque Painting in Rome. A period as a university lecturer followed, together with many invitations to lecture to organisations such as The Art Fund and The Arts Society (formerly NADFAS). Consequently, he began to lead tours over twenty years ago and in 1999, together with Stephen Brook, founded CICERONI Travel, now one of the UK's most respected independent cultural travel companies. When not lecturing or travelling, he devotes most of his time to gardening, music and opera, the other great interests in his life.

Series of Four Lectures

Wednesday 2 February at 11am (GMT)

Lecture 1 - Dynastic Manoeuvres: Burgundy & Spain fall into Habsburg Hands

Wednesday, February 2, 2022 · 11:00 AM GMT

A dynasty of Alpine feudal Counts, the Habsburgs played a long and canny game, increasing their territorial reach through a series of dynastic marriages, not least that arranged between Maximillian of Habsburg and Mary, the heiress to Charles, Duke of Burgundy (his portrait seen above). When the Burgundian male line failed, it was this marriage which gave the Habsburgs eventual control of the so-called "Low Countries". Even more spectacular was the marriage arranged between their son, Philip the Handsome and Joanna, daughter of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon. Their son, Charles, would not only inherit Austria and Burgundy, but also Spain and various Italian territories, while he would also succeed his grandfather, Maximillian, as the elected Holy Roman Emperor - all within three generations!

This dizzying series of alliances is best introduced against the spectacular cultural achievements of Flanders in the fifteenth century. Bruges and Brussels were the great centres of power, the one based on trade, the other as the governing seat of the Dukes of Burgundy. Flemish painting of the time was dominated by the parallel careers of the Van Eyck family workshop and the more austere style of Rogier van der Weyden, their different approaches to the presentation of sacred narrative hugely influential as far away as Italy and Spain. Equally influential was the ultimate luxury craft of the age, tapestry weaving, the 'must have' interior decorative treatment of early modern Europe.

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Thursday 3 February at 11am (GMT)

Lecture 2 - The Holy Roman Empire: The Habsburgs Triumph

Thursday, February 3, 2022 · 11:00 AM GMT

The Holy Roman Empire was more a "flexible force" than a stable territorial entity. Its ruling dynasties (for these changed many times) together with Its day-to-day functions and physical reach were infinitely adaptable. From the mid 1400s this elective office was almost continuously held by male members of the Habsburg dynasty, indeed, up to 1806 . To exercise real power within their territories armies were required, and these needed to be paid, so the not very wealthy Habsburgs invested in the future via marriage. After the success of the Burgundian alliance, other dynastic links were forged, notably with the emerging power of a semi unified Spain under the house of Castille, but also with the great central dynastic entities of Bohemia and Hungary.

The visual arts will again help us negotiate the ever-changing map of Europe: why was the Emperor Frederick III included in Mantegna's 'Camera Picta' in the Gonzaga family castle in Mantua? Why did the medieval Spanish kingdom of Aragon exercise so much power in southern Italy, facilitating an exchange of artistic ideas across the Mediterranean? What is the dynastic significance of an otherwise not very well painted family portrait group by Bernhard Striegel (seen above) of the Emperor Maximillian and his family? And why was the theme of the 'Triumph' such a vital one in European art as we turn the corner into the sixteenth century?

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Wednesday 9 February at 11am (GMT)

Lecture 3 - Storm Clouds Gather: A Wearied Emperor & his Enemies

Wednesday, February 9, 2022 · 11:00 AM GMT

When the future Emperor Charles V was born in 1500, Europe was united by one factor above all others, the Catholic faith, with a common enemy, Islam, as represented by the Ottomans. When he abdicated in 1556, that Christian unity was destroyed as this was the era of 'reformations', destructive, yet creative in equal measure. As Luther's influence emboldened the always independently minded German 'Elector Dukes' to challenge the power of their erstwhile overlord, the 'Holy Roman Emperor', Charles found himself beset by a range of enemies. These ranged from traditional opponents such as France and a handful of Italian states, notably Venice and the Papacy (their fractious co-existence captured above in a fresco depicting a meeting between the Emperor, the King of France and the Papal Legate), to internal resistance in Spain and the growing power of the Ottoman Empire of Sulieman the Magnificent.

This is also the age when the great rulers of the day, their battles, triumphs and dynastic links were captured by some of the great artists from Holbein to Titian and in media as widely different as stone and bronze, images painted on wall and canvas and woven in tapestry. So too we shall see the eclipse of medieval architectural norms as the influence of Italian sources spread far and wide. Indeed, one of the most revolutionary changes saw artists and craftsmen no longer tied to a particular city or state, their freedom to work controlled by the power of the guilds, but free to move from city to city, from court to court - as was the case with Dürer.

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Thursday 10 February at 11am (GMT)

Lecture 4 - An Empire Divided: Spain & Austria

Thursday, February 10, 2022 · 11:00 AM GMT

Lacking a fixed, permanent 'Habsburg' capital, it is said that Charles V made 40 major journeys about his territories during his long reign, spending about a quarter of his life 'in the saddle', a remarkable total even by the standards of the sixteenth century. In time, this wearied and faithful servant of God and his patrimony (for Charles believed the latter was held in trust from the former) realised that this great responsibility was too much for one man. So, plans that had been in embryo since the 1520s were put into effect and he began the process of handing on his titles, culminating in his abdication at Brussels in 1556 (reimagined in this later painting seen above). Thus came about the creation of the twin Habsburg entities of Spain and Austria, handed on respectively to his son, Philip, and his brother, Ferdinand.

One artist captured this period of 'transitional' Habsburg power - Titian. As Charles V dominated the political life of Europe, so Titian was THE artist of his generation. Both the emperor and his son, Philip, together with other members of the family commissioned numerous works from the great Venetian and in his retirement at the monastery of Yuste in Extremadura, Charles was surrounded by his paintings. One of the many interesting facets of these relationships was the subtle changes in style which stemmed from Titian's approach to painting as other European artists responded to his innovations. Comparisons with France and England at mid-century are telling, with both countries maintaining a certain independence of expression, while absorbing new ideas as a truly European artistic language capturing royal power is established.

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