What awaits us next are splendid sets of armor designed for protection from the latest improvements in weaponry and decorated with gold and silver in a manner befitting a Habsburg; displays of “utilitarian” objects carved from single pieces of crystal, goblets fashioned from rhinoceros’ horn all adorned in gold; uniforms of state embroidered in gold and silver threads depending on the station of the wearer; and the galleries of baroque paintings by European masters. 

​

From a small thirteenth century duchy in Switzerland, the Habsburgs consolidated power in Vienna and created a system of vesting male family members with hereditary rights. Piece by piece, the family holdings became great enough, and rich enough, to insure that the dynasty would endure. Most impressive were strategic marriages designed to increase control throughout Europe. According to John Graham Royde-Smith in Britannica, by the last half the 15th century, “Maximilian I carried that matrimonial policy to heights of unequalled brilliance. First he himself in 1477 married the heiress of Burgundy. . . . He procured (his son) Philip’s marriage, in 1496, to Joan, prospective heiress of Castile and Aragon: thus securing for his family not only Spain, with Naples–Sicily and Sardinia, but also the immense dominions the Spaniards were about to conquer in America. Maximilian’s matrimonial achievements were the occasion of the famous hexameter Bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria nube (‘Let others wage wars: you, fortunate Austria, marry’).”

​

However, there were wars, lots of them, and the marriages didn’t always yield the expected territorial gains. The union of France’s Louis XVI to Austria’s Marie Antoinette must have seemed like a good idea at first, but we all know how that one ended. 

​

In 1848, Europe was swept by democratic and nationalistic revolutions. Even though they were, for the most part, crushed by autocratic governments they spelled the end of the Habsburg Empire. It held on for another seven decades but the rise of a middle class throughout Europe made the extravagance of the Habsburg display of wealth less important and unpalatable.

The exhibit highlights baroque art, a style that historians date from the late 1500’s to the early 1700’s.  The Habsburg rule, of course, predates the baroque period and continued after baroque fell from fashion and morphed into a short period dominated by rococo art. The masculinity, power, energy, movement, and historically significant themes of baroque art certainly speak to the Hapsburg dynasty at the height of its power. Under French court influence in the early 1700’s, rococo art became the dominant style.  With its femininity, sweetness and domestically benign scenes it also mirrored what was going on in the courts of Europe where decadence was setting in and court life was becoming insular. Some items on display chronicle the development of rococo, not the exhibit’s paintings so much as the gowns and uniforms of court. However, there is one painting of Leopold 1667 from the baroque period that portends the future role rococo would play in the courts of Europe. In all fairness, Leopold is dressed in costume at a ballet in his honor celebrating his marriage to the Spanish Infanta Margarita Teresa.  But still!

Another example of rococo influence is the uniform of a Knight of the Royal Hungarian Order of Saint Stephen in 1764