Visit to the Imperial Treasury

August 19th 2012

     We only have 11 days left in Austria, so I decided to spend today at the imperial treasury, in hopes of learning more about how the Habsburg dynasty might have expressed their power and will through art, or symbolism. I was surprised to find that it was not very hard to interpret the meaning of a great many of art the artifacts on display in the imperial treasury, as they overtly expressed a narrative about the Habsburg dynasty. The objects associated with the royals themselves, such as the objects used in the coronation rituals seemed to almost have a propaganda like simplicity and clearness to their message. Furthermore, the coronation ritual seemed to change over time, as the requirements to legitimize the reign of a the Holy Roman emperor changed over time, suggesting that they may have been used to carefully craft political messages over the ages.
     I observed that many objects used in the coronation of Holy Roman Emperors and Habsburg rulers were associated with Charlemagne in some way or another. Charlemagne was the warrior who first united many of the areas between France, Germany, and Eastern Europe under one rule, and he was the first person to be declared Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope in the 8th century. Because of this history, it is very important for future Holy Roman Emperor's to have a connection to Charlemagne. Even thought the position of Holy Roman Emperor is not hereditary, Emperor's still benefit from Charlemagne's legend if there able to say that they are as wise or strong as Charlemagne was. The use of relics associated with Charlemagne allow Emperors to do just that through the use of art as symbolism during their coronation. The Holy Roman Emperors since the time of Henry the 4th (and continuing on to include many of the Habsburgs) were knighted with a saber believed to be used by Charlemagne. In addition to the saber, a codex thought to be bond in Charlemagne's court is used in the ceremony, and the Emperor is crowned in Charlemagne's crown in order to establish a direct link to the man, despite a complete lack of any kind of hereditary connection. The need to establish a connection to Charlemagne seems clear from the fact that many of the objects used in the coronation ritual that bare a connection to the king are suspected of being forgeries, with the the saber being a known 10th century forgery (Audio Guide). This implies that the elective process was not enough to establish credibility on its own, and the need to create a narrative of inheritance from Charlemagne was so great, art objects were forged to do it.
     The coronation robes used by the Habsburg dynasty before the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire are another example of how art is used by rulers to create narratives of legitimacy. Despite the fact that the robes were used to in the coronations of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, only one piece of the robes were made in Germany. The rest of the set of garments were made in the royal courts of Italy, more specifically Palermo, between the 12th and 14th centuries (Audio Guide). For some reason, the Habsburgs found these articles of clothing, made for Italian nobles in Italian courts, and made them part of their coronation ritual. I suspect that these robes served a similar function as Charlemagne's articles. Much of Italy fell under control of the Holy Roman Empire over the course of it's reign, and I assume the Italian robes were added to the ritual as a way of strengthening the Holy Roman Emperors claims of legitimacy over the region. Like with Charlemagne's crown, the Italian garments were used by the last ruling noble house, and may serve as a tie to that dynasty (Audio Guide).
     I saw this trend continue with the next set of coronation robes used by the Habsburg dynasty after 1830, although the meaning was very different. In 1830, Francis the 2nd of Austria had a new set of robes made in the style of Napoleons' coronation robes because he needed to express a new narrative of legitimacy when his heir was crowned. About 30 years earlier, Napoleon had dissolved the Holy Roman Empire through his conquest of Europe. His caused Francis the 2nd of the Holy Roman Empire to declare himself Francis the 1st of Austria, as Napoleon had declared himself Emperor of France, in order to retain rule of the Habsburg lands. 30 years later, the robes used by the Holy Roman Empire meant nothing, as that was no longer the source of the dynasty's power or legitimacy. Once again, Francis used art in ritual to create a narrative of legitimacy by appealing to the same source Napoleon used to establish his rule, as he did 30 year ago (Audio Guide).
    My visit to the Imperial treasury taught me that art is immensely important to the way absolute monarchs express their power. The performance of the monarchy in coronation rituals is deeply important to the way the monarch establishes its right to rule, and how it articulates how others should view and the dynasty.