Prince Eugene as
Victor over the Turks, 1718 , Jacob van Schuppen Of Italian descent and a native French, Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663–1736), following his meteoric rise and splendid career as a military leader, became one of the most influential Austrians who had a long-lasting impact on the country’s fate and its art and cultural history. As a diplomat and counsel to the emperors Leopold I, Joseph I, and Charles VI, he travelled across Europe from one theatre of war to the next, playing a decisive role in determining the future of the House of Habsburg. In 2010, the Vienna Belvedere, with its two palaces and Baroque gardens built by Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt in the early eighteenth century as a summer residence for Prince Eugene of Savoy, is the venue of an exhibition presenting the prince as a general, statesman, and patron of the arts and sciences.
Throughout his lifetime, he devoted himself to the compilation of a comprehensive collection of paintings, copper engravings, incunabula, illuminated manuscripts, and books, which he displayed in his Viennese palaces. From ever changing war sites, Prince Eugene corresponded with artists and artisans, landscape designers and architects, as well as the most influential thinkers of his time. His acquisitions went down in the annals of European art and cultural history and facilitated the transfer of works of art from the court of the French king Louis XIV to Vienna. His interest in the natural sciences – in matters of which he relied on the expertise of the philosopher and scientist Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz – is reflected in a large collection of exotic animals and plants. The exhibition will showcase exhibits from Prince Eugene’s art collections – predominantly paintings from the Galleria Sabauda in Turin and Camellia from the Bibliotheca Eugeniana – in an ambience simulating period interiors, thus conveying to the visitors the complex decoration of those buildings where Prince Eugene, as president of the Imperial War Council and member of the Privy Council, received such illustrious guests as the ambassador of the Ottoman Empire. About the exhibition Marie-Louise von Plessen The thematic rooms in the exhibition present the cultural acquisitions of the "noble knight" in the context of his war and victory encampments: I The petit abbé II Palace-builder at war III Collector and patron IV Bibliophile V Nature lover VI Death The petit abbé – Background and Family Prince Eugene Francis of Savoy-Soissons was born on 18 October 1663 as the youngest son of Olympia Mancini, the niece of Cardinal Mazarin, and Eugene Maurice of Savoy-Carignan-Soissons. Eugene is the fifth child, with four elder brothers and two younger sisters. In the paternal line, his ancestry goes back to King Philip II. Eugene grew up at the court of Louis XIV. But when his mother fell into disfavor after being denounced as a poisoner in 1680, she fled to Brussels. She left the upbringing of her children to their grandmother Marie de Bourbon. On 23 July 1683 the 20-year-old Eugene, disguised as a girl, fled Paris in a carriage to seek out the imperial court, which was temporarily in Passau during the siege of Vienna by the Turks. Eugene requested that Leopold allow him to join the imperial army, and in August 1683 he was admitted as a Volontär. His cousins Margrave Louis William of Baden and Elector Max Emanuel of Bavaria accorded their protection to the penniless young man, who was also forced to beg the head of the house of Savoy, Duke Victor Amadeus II, for support. Palace-builder at war The siege of Vienna and its relief in 1683 during the Second Turkish War, the Nine Years’ War from 1688 to 1696, and the War of the Spanish Succession from 1701 to 1714 turned the whole of Europe into a theater of war for 30 years, thus providing the framework for Prince Eugene’s military advancement and the background for the commissions, issued from his military encampments, for the building and fitting-out of his Viennese palaces. Prince Eugene and Marlborough / Blenheim 1704 On 13 August 1704 the city of Vienna was saved from occupation by the united French and Bavarian armies through the victory of the imperial troops following the intervention of the Duke of Marlborough at the Battle of Blenheim near Höchstädt/Blindheim on the Danube. Defeat in this battle sealed the political and territorial fate of Bavaria at the same time. Blenheim marked the beginning of a close personal friendship between the prince and Marlborough. When Queen Anne deprived the latter of his offices, Eugene traveled from Holland in January 1712 especially to demonstrate his solidarity with the Duke in London, where also, on 7 March, his favorite nephew and intended heir, also named Eugene, died of smallpox. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. Battle of Peterwardein 1716 With the annexation of formerly French-occupied territories in the Low Countries and in Italy confirmed by the Treaty of Rastatt, which ended the War of the Spanish Succession in March 1714, the Habsburgs had become a major power. Concerns about keeping the former Spanish Netherlands out of French hands linked the political interests of the maritime powers, Britain and Holland, to those of Austria in the long term. The imperial army could once more turn from the Rhine front to concentrate on the Balkans. After the battle of Peterwardein 1716 and after Belgrade is taken by Prince Eugene in 1717, the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718 gives Charles VI the Banat, northern Serbia, and western Romania. The Habsburg monarchy thus attains its greatest territorial extent, which was to remain until 1739. In the renewed war against the Turks in that year, Austria loses Belgrade and the other gains following the Treaty of Passarowitz. Italian Campaign In the late autumn of 1700, Eugene led his army to expel the French from northern Italy, where they were occupying Lombardy, which at the time belonged to Spain. His military goals followed those of the Grand Alliance, which united the continental European powers with the maritime powers England and Holland against France. From 26 May to 4 June 1701, his army crossed the Tridentine Alps along mule and goat tracks with heavy artillery, arriving in the vicinity of Verona. The French left northern Italy in March 1707. The next month, Charles III of Spain appointed Eugene governor general of Milan, a position which brought him about 150,000 guilders. Care for the Soldiers Prince Eugene is said to have worn a brown monk’s habit in his military encampments. Notorious for his bold equestrian leadership of troops, he is thought to have been wounded 13 times, mostly in the form of bullet grazes (in summer 1684 and 1686, in September 1688 at the storming of Belgrade, in July 1689 at Mainz, in August 1690 at Staffards, 1692 at Embrun, in 1701 in his knee at Carpi, 1706 in his neck at Cassano, at Turin his horse was killed beneath him, in 1708 at Lille, 1709 at Malplaquet). But he also criticized the poor state of the arsenals, so that if Vienna were attacked, we would not be in a position to withstand a proper siege on account of a lack of munitions and weapons (Prince Eugene to Leopold I, 5 January 1708). Eugene sought to form companies of invalids, in order to save the loyal subject, and in particular the impoverished nobleman, if he has lost his health and limbs at the hand of the enemy, from having to go begging, and not to tramp around exposed to the shame and mockery of the whole world (Prince Eugene to the Imperial War Council, 31 October 1709).
Relief of Vienna on 12
September 1683, 1685 by Martino Altomonte Picture collection According to the Viennese chroniclers Küchelbecker and Keyssler, the Picture Room/Cabinet was, in 1730, on the second floor of the Upper Belvedere next to the bedroom, with a hundred pictures completely covering the walls. It was followed to the west by the Picture Cabinet and Library, and to the north, with a view of the garden, the State Room and Audience Room. In the large Hall, Eugene hung Italian pictures in particular, in the cabinets smaller Netherlandish pictures covering the walls. With 15 loans from Turin, Dijon, and Brussels, the exhibition reconstructs the original hanging in Eugene’s Gallery/Picture Hall in the Upper Belvedere, now known as the Makartsaal. Bibliotheca Eugeniana Prince Eugene’s collection of books was more in accord with the Enlightenment notion of knowledge than with a Baroque cabinet of rarities; the structure of his scientific collection overcame the spirit of the cabinets of curiosities. Eugene possessed 237 manuscripts and valuable incunabula, in particular illuminated codices of French book illustration of the 13th to the 16th centuries. All the bindings bear his coat-of-arms in gold, the initial E and the chain of the Order of the Golden Fleece. The classification of the colors of the bindings was probably due to a suggestion by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: dark blue for theology and jurisprudence, dark red for history and literature, yellow for the natural sciences. The Bibliotheca Eugeniana was the first collection of books with a scientific catalogue to be set up by the Mariettes, father and son, at first in Paris. In 1716, Mariette junior took it to Vienna and ordered it by artist’s name in catalogue volumes. Circle of Friends Eugene’s circle of friends in Vienna included the emperor’s personal physician and prefect of the court library, Pius Nicolaus Garelli, the imperial court librarian and director of the collection of antiquities and coin cabinet, Johann Benedikt Gentilotti von Engelsbrunn, the draftsman and archaeologist Daniel Anton Bertoli, and the jurist and historian Pietro Giannone from Naples. The agents and intermediaries for his collections of art and books included the French church historian Jacques Bassenge de Beauval, his Swiss son-in-law Henri de la Sarraz, who, from the Netherlands, did the preliminary work for Eugene together with the imperial envoy in The Hague, Baron Arnold von Heems, the Portuguese scholar Marcus de Fonseca in Paris, the bookseller Johann Philipp Hoffmann and Charles Joseph Palm in London; in addition the Roman scholar Cardinal Alessandro Albani, appointed papal nuncio in Vienna in 1720, Domenico Passionei, papal nuncio in Vienna from 1731. Eugene’s adjutant and adviser Baron Wilhelm von Hohendorf, who died already in 1719, himself left a significant collection of books. Nature lover The general also transferred his passion for the fine arts into his gardens that are designed as an alliance between art and nature. He enriched his gardens with rare plants and acquired exotic animals and birds for his menagerie at his Belvedere palaces on Rennweg. His library numbers countless works on natural history and health, metals, fossils, stones, lakes and rivers, shells, agriculture, as well as plants, zoology, and everything to do with gardens. Küchelbecher described Prince Eugene’s menagerie in the Belvedere and the variety of species: Indian hoopoe, Indian sparrow, Indian fallow deer, Sardinian sheep, which have no wool but the hair and color of a deer, ibex, Tripoli sheep, Turkish sheep, an aurochs with its cow, Indian cows, whose head and foreparts and forelegs are like a stag, the rear parts, rear legs, and tail like a donkey; a young lion, an Indian wolf, a porcupine, various lynx, some chamois, an Indian eagle, Indian guinea-fowl, five ostriches, a cassowary, which has bristles instead of feathers, some muskrats. Schloss Hof In 1726 Prince Eugene acquired the manors of Engelhartstetten and Hof in the Marchfeld. The 62-year-old prince created for himself a synthesis of architecture, garden design, and nature on the Hof estate, a tusculum rurale where he could breathe fresh air, where he could hunt deer and boar, shoot wildfowl, and course hares. In May 1730, 200 masons and 300 day-laborers were working on the garden terraces of this. Building work was completed in 1732. The coffee room was decorated with 53 closely hung animal pictures by Ignaz Heinitz von Heinzenthal, described in the inventory of the prince’s estate as animal pieces, painted from life in your highness’s garden in Vienna. It is from Schloss Hof that the only original furniture and fabrics have been preserved.
Johann Kupetzky
Death Prince Eugene died at the age of 72 on 21 April 1736 at 3 am, according to the doctors, of pneumonia. The papal nuncio in Vienna, Domenico Passionei, delivered the funeral oration, in which he compared Eugene’s life to the rise and fall of Alexander the Great; for both, death had conquered the vanity of earthly fame: In Eugene’s hand glittered the holy sword, which the high priest of Christendom had entrusted to him, he unites in himself the fire of Hannibal, the constancy and activity of Caesar, the virtue of Trajan. Death is mightier than the great ones of this world; Eugene has opened up a home for the noble spirits and erected a temple of the Muses. Just as jewels are set in gold, he wanted the works of the great spirits to be seen only in the most magnificent bindings. Thanks to the art of the engraver’s burin he collected the most immortal works of copper engravings from all over the world. He continually refreshed his mind through reading the best historians and great poets, and quoted from memory. Prince Eugene’s Cortege, 28 April 1736 The cortege was made up of high ecclesiastical and military dignitaries, the members of the Imperial War Council, delegates of the hospitals, parish clergy, and representatives of the monastic orders, officers from different regiments, and guardsmen. On the coffin were the military insignia, and the papal gifts of honor, and by its side marched fourteen field marshal lieutenants as pall-bearers. Immediately following the coffin was the prince’s own horse. The cortege, which took more than two hours to pass, while the bells of all the churches tolled, also included the knights of the Golden Fleece, and the imperial privy councilors and ministers. The coffin was borne to Prince Eugene’s family vault in the Kreuzkapelle, and entombed with the usual ceremonies conducted by the senior clergy. The final military honors were performed by the infantry and cavalry drawn up at St Stephen’s churchyard, taking the form of a three-gun salute. The report closes with the wish of Charles VI for exequies lasting three days, to be held in two months and 20 days in St Stephen’s and that engineer Hildebrandt erect a castrum doloris with inscriptions by the imperial court poet. Inheritance and Sale Eugene’s sole heiress, the only daughter of his eldest brother Louis Thomas, Princess Victoria of Savoy-Soissons, born in 1683, had lived in a nunnery in Chambéry since 1719. As the divorced Princess of Saxe-Hildburghausen, she returned in 1752 to Turin, where she died on 11 October 1763. After Charles VI had supported her claim to Eugene’s estate against that of her cousin, Cardinal Colonna, and other claimants, she immediately began negotiations on the sale of the whole estate. The sale of the Viennese palaces to the emperor and of the art collections to her uncle King Charles Emanuel III of Sardinia was negotiated at great length by the latter’s envoy in Vienna, Count Luigi Malabaila di Canale. The collection, housed in the Palazzo Carignano in Turin since 1741, was dispersed during the Napoleonic occupation. Today the Galleria Sabauda in Turin holds fewer than half of the paintings acquired in the sale. The sales catalogue of the paintings, commissioned by Victoria, listed 175 pictures. The animal pictures and fittings such as overdoors and overmantels stayed in the Viennese palaces. In 1738, Charles VI bought from Victoria of Savoy, 290 volumes of copperplate engravings of general motifs and 250 boxes of portraits for the court library, as well as the collection of drawings kept in portfolios. Today, together with the collection of portraits of famous figures of Antiquity, princes, and military commanders, as well as well-known scientists and artists of more recent times, they are in the Albertina and in the picture archive of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek. The printed works were placed by Pius Nikolaus Garelli all together in twelve two-part presses in the central oval of the Baroque hall of the court library, which had been rebuilt by Fischer von Erlach in 1740. Apotheosis At the end of his life, Frederick the Great described Prince Eugene as the greatest war hero of our century, the favorite son of Mars and Minerva. In his political testament, he called Eugene the actual emperor, as the Atlas of the Austrian monarchy. In an ode composed in 1758/59 he accuses his opponents in the Silesian Wars of having left the path of Prince Eugene. There are heroes who are wholly deserving of this name and who make no external show whatever (Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia to Voltaire, September 1739). Editor's note: We gratefully acknowledge the contribution of a press release from The Belvedere concerning this exhibition. This press release was used extensively in the creation of this article. Chronological tables of the exhibition Marie-Louise von Plessen Thepetit abbé 18 October 1663 Birth of Prince Eugene Francis of Savoy-Soissons 7 June 1673 Eugene’s father dies in the army encampment of Marshal Turenne in Unna in Westphalia. 1678 Prince Eugene, now known as the Abbé de Savoye, is admitted to lesser orders, taking the tonsure from the papal nuncio. 24 January1680 Eugene’s mother Olympia, surintendante (chief lady-in-waiting) to Queen Maria Teresa in Versailles, leaves Paris after a court intrigue. January 1682 Louis XIV refuses Eugene’s request to enter the Armée du Roi. February 1683 As Eugene rejects a career in the church, his grandmother throws him out of the house. Palace-builder at war 1683 The Spanish ambassador to the imperial court takes Eugene into his house and introduces him to Emperor Leopold I. 29 August 1683 Aged 19, Eugene joins the imperial army as a volunteer under Duke Charles V of Lorraine. He serves as an artillery officer in the brigade commanded by his cousin Louis William of Baden, known as "Türkenlouis." 12 September 1683 Eugene distinguishes himself at the raising of the siege of Vienna on the Kahlenberg. 14 December 1683 On the death of Count Johann Heinrich von Kuefstein Eugene becomes colonel of his cavalry regiment, which henceforth is known as the Savoyer Dragoner. For his confidence, the 20-year-old Eugene assures Leopold I that he would be bound to the emperor until I am in my grave. 16 October 1685 Eugene is promoted to major general. 12 August 1687 C harles of Lorraine and Max Emanuel of Bavaria defeat the Turks at Mohács. Eugene bears the news of victory to Vienna.6 September 1687 The new commander-in-chief of the imperial forces, Elector Max Emanuel of Bavaria, takes the key fortress of Belgrade. Eugene is seriously wounded. 6 October 1687 King Charles II of Spain bestows the Order of the Golden Fleece on Eugene for his services on behalf of the Casa d’Austria. In order to buy the chain of the order, Eugene asks his uncle Victor Amadeus II, as head of the house of Savoy-Carignan, for 3,000 guilders. 31 January 1688 Eugene is made lieutenant general. 2 September 1688 Eugene receives from his uncle Duke Victor Amadeus II two abbeys (and their revenues of 150,000 guilders) in Pedmont; as a lay abbot, he is under an obligation of celibacy. Archduke Joseph (I) becomes King of Hungary. 15 April 1690 Eugene rejects the prospect of marriage to Princess Franziska of Saxe-Lauenburg, introduced to him by Margrave Louis William of Baden. 31 May 1690 Eugene becomes general of the Austrian cavalry and is deployed to northern Italy. 1691 As commander of an auxiliary troop of three infantry and two cavalry regiments, Eugene takes part in the liberation of Cuneo in northern Italy. 25 May 1693 Leopold I promotes Eugene to imperial field marshal. April 1697 Eugene becomes deputy to the commander-in-chief of the imperial army, Elector Frederick Augustus I of Saxony, in the war against the Turks. 5 July 1697 The 36-year-old Eugene becomes commander-in-chief of the imperial army in Hungary. He concentrates 50,000 men near Peterwardein (Petrovaradin). 11 September 1697 With his 50,000 men, Eugene wins his first victory as commander at the Battle of Zenta over the Turkish Sultan Mustafa II. The Turks lose their Grand Vizier Elmass Mohammed Pasha, four officers and 25,000 men. The imperial troops suffer around 400 dead and 6,000 wounded. First Buildings 1693/94 Eugene buys land "auf der Wieden" (today the Theresianum) and start of the planning of the construction and fitting-out of the Belvedere buildings which will continue till 1732. 1694/95 Eugene pays 48,000 guilders for two houses on Himmelpfortgasse to convert into his City Palace to plans drawn up by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach; the building itself cost 55,000 guilders. 1703: purchase of a third plot for 15,000 guilders; extension built in 1708–1711 by Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt; 1723: completion of the 17-bay building with three portals. 1696 Death of the vanquisher of the Turks, King John III Sobieski of Poland. 1698 Eugene receives lands in Hungary worth a total of more than 5,000 guilders a year as a gift of thanks from Leopold I for the victory at Zenta on 11 September 1697. Purchase of the island of Csepel in the Danube, where Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt builds Ráckeve Palace, Prince Eugene’s first, which burns down in 1725. 26 January 1699 Under the terms of the Treaty of Carlowitz (Sremski Karlovci) Austria gains Hungary and Transylvania, becomes a European great power. Late summer Eugene dismisses Fischer von Erlach, replacing him by Hildebrandt as the architect for the building of the City Palace. War oftheSpanishSuccession1701–1714 January 1700 Leopold I makes Eugene a member of the Privy Council 1702 Start of building work in Ráckeve; first plans by Hildebrandt for the Belvedere garden. The first German-language biography of Eugene appears: Leben und Thaten Francisci Eugeneii is translated into French, then English and, in 1703, into Dutch. 27 June 1703 Leopold I appoints Eugene President of the Imperial War Council and exempts him (and by extension his property) in perpetuity from all taxes and burdens. Prince Eugene and the Duke of Marlboroug h20 September 1703 The imperial troops with their artillery lose 5,000 men fighting the French under Marshal Villars, a further 5,000 are taken prisoner.16 January 1704 Eugene has ramparts (the "Linienwall") erected to protect the Viennese suburbs. 15 August 1705 Victory of the imperial army over the French and Spanish at Cassano. 23 March 1706 After the victory of the Duke of Marlborough over Bavaria and France at Ramillies in modern Belgium, the Habsburgs obtain the Spanish Netherlands. 7 September 1706 With the lifting of the siege of Turin and the victory over France, Eugene secures northern Piedmont and Milan for Emperor Joseph I. 1707 Austrian control over the territory of Naples. February 1707 the Diet of Regensburg nominates Eugene, after the death of his cousin, Margrave Louis William of Baden, as imperial field marshal. Eugene marches into Provence with troops from England and Savoy-Piedmont, capturing Nice and besieging Toulon. May 1707 Tsar Peter the Great offers Prince Eugene the crown of Poland, which the prince refuses out of loyalty to the imperial house. 1708/09 Prince Eugene commissions Jan van Huchtenburgh to paint a series of battle scenes. 2 May 1708 Joseph I appoints the 45-year-old Eugene to be "General Lieutenant over all his armies" with an annual income of approximately 150,000 guilders. 11 July 1708 Victory of the allies over the French at Oudenaarde. 9 December 1708 The fortress of Lille surrenders to Prince Eugene. 11 September 1709 The Battle of Malplaquet ushers in the end of the War of the Spanish Succession. The allies lose 23,000 men against the French. Marlborough makes Britain the diplomatic referee of Europe.1710 Joseph I gives Eugene 300,000 guilders as reward for the victories at Oudenaarde and Malplaquet, to start with in the form of interest-bearing bonds issued by the court Jew Samuel Oppenheimer. Of the emperor’s 133,000 soldiers, 49,000 are deployed against the rebels in Hungary. April 1711 Eugene receives the Turkish ambassador in his City Palace. 17 April 1711 death of Emperor Joseph I. The Hungarian rebellion is ended with the Treaty of Szatmar. Treaty of Rastatt 1714 6 March 1714 signing of the Treaty of Rastatt: Charles VIretains Sardinia, Naples, Milan, Mantua, Mirandola, and Comacchi; the cession of the Spanish Netherlands to Austria is confirmed. The peace treaty finally ends the War of the Spanish Succession. France loses her hegemony. 1715 Exotic fruit trees arrive in Vienna from Naples. Work on the fountains in the Belvedere gardens. Death of Louis XIV of France. 1716 After four years, Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt completes the construction of the Lower Belvedere as a garden pavilion. 1718/19 Start of work on the upper palace on the Rennweg (Upper Belvedere) Peterwardein 1716 and Belgrade1717 25 June 1716 on his way to the army in Hungary, Eugene is made governor general and captain general of the Austrian Netherlands. In consequence he resigns his post as governor of Milan. He is represented in Brussels by the Marquis de Prié; but on 16 November 1724 Eugene resigns this lucrative post. In compensation, Charles VI gives Eugene the manor of Obersiebenbrunn in the Marchfeld (Lower Austria). 5 August 1716 Eugene defeats the 120,000-strong Turkish army at the Austrian stronghold of Peterwardein in Croatia (now Petrovaradin). The battle results in 2,100 dead and more than 2,300 wounded on the imperial side; Turkish losses are even higher. October 1716 with the taking of the fortress of Timisoara in the Banat, Hungary falls under Habsburg rule. Spring 1717 Eugene spends the money granted him by Charles VI for his military services on his building and garden projects. For the gardens on the Rennweg (Belvedere) he invites Dominique Girard, inspector of the Elector of Bavaria’s gardens in Munich, who had been trained in Versailles by Lenôtre as fontainier du Roy. His pupil, the Tyrolean engineer Lechleitner, builds the conduits for the water. June 1717 the menagerie is set up in the Belvedere garden. 18 August 1717 the almost 100,000 Turks under siege in Belgrade surrender. The (anonymous) song Prince Eugene the Noble Knight praises the prince’s deeds. November 1717 In Györ Eugene receives the papal gifts of honor. 1718 I n the renewed Turkish war, Austria gains northern Bosnia, Serbia, and Lesser Wallachia; Venice loses the Peloponnese and Crete.August 1718 Prince Eugene returns from the field with chronic chest catarrh to Vienna. 1720 The Duke of Piedmont-Savoy cedes Sicily to Austria; in compensation, he receives Sardinia and recognition of his royal title. Eugene rarely leaves his Vienna residences, with the exception of a visit to Prague for the coronation of Charles VI in Prague in 1723 and homage ceremonies in Graz in 1728 and Linz in 1732. Bibliophile/Circle of Fr iends1712 Since his London trip in 1712, Eugene has been collecting works for his library and for the engravings cabinet, following the example of Louis XIV, who in 1667 employed his minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert to buy the picture collection of Abbé Marolle.1713/14 Georg Wilhelm von Hohendorf goes to Paris to buy books, including incunabula, for the prince’s library. Hohendorf persuades Etienne Boyet, the son of the royal bookbinder Luc-Antoine Boyet in Paris, to become Eugene’s librarian. Boyet supervises the personal bindings, the cataloguing, and the appropriate arrangement of the works. 1715–1720 Expansion of the collections, especially the library. 1717–1719 Pierre-Jean Mariette, the son of the Parisian bookseller and publisher Jean Mariette, supervises the establishment of the Bibliotheca Eugeniana in Vienna, and later acquires artworks in Paris for the prince, especially engravings.1736 Eugene’s library comprises approximately 15,000 volumes.13 Collector and Patro n1713–1724 Salomon Kleiner works on the series of copper engravings in praise of Prince Eugene, with interior and exterior views of his palaces and gardens in Vienna, Résidences mémorables de l’incomparable Héros de notre siècle, which was published by Jeremias Wolff in Augsburg from 1731 to 1740 in ten parts with 97 plates.1720 Building work starts on the Upper Belvedere (completed in 1723, at a total cost of 100,000 guilders). 1722 Death of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough (b. 1650); Eugene loses a friend and his most important ally. 1723 Extension of the City Palace by five bays to the west, in order to accommodate the prince’s private library. 1726 Eugene acquires the manors of Engelhartstetten and Hof in the Marchfeld. Reconstruction (until 1729) of Schloss Hof by Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt, and (interior) Claude Le Fort du Plessy. Hildebrandt also puts forward plans for the Italian terrace garden completed in 1732. 1727 Eugene acquires the neighboring palace of Niederweiden. Eugene’s Last Command: the War of thePolishSuccession1734 1734 The third part of Kleiner’s series of engravings of the Belvedere (altogether ten parts by 1740) and his series of depictions of the menagerie are published serially in Augsburg. Spring 1734 In spite of growing intrigues at court and in the military, at the age of 71 Eugene is urged by Charles VI to take command of the army on the Rhine, and accepts. He suffers increasing from chest catarrh, which does not improve in spite of taking frequent cures at Schloss Hof. 3 October 1734 The preliminary Treaty of Vienna would end the War of the Polish Succession: Austria and Russia support the candidacy of the Elector of Saxony as Augustus III(1696–1763, son of Augustus II of Poland, and husband of Joseph I’s daughter Maria Josepha, against Stanislaus Leszczynski. The balance sheet of the first year of the war is negative. 5 February 1735 Eugene pleads in a memorandum for a peace based on a European balance of power rather than the present war. Death 12 February 1736 Maria Theresa marries Francis Stephen of Lorraine. 16 children are born of the marriage. 21 April 1736 Eugene dies in his City Palace in Vienna. He leaves no will, as he had outlived all his close relations, his seven siblings, nieces, nephews, with the exception of Princess Anna Victoria of Savoy-Soissons, the daughter of his eldest brother. Without any written documents to prove it, it is said that he had left legacies for his servants and for an endowment of 500,000 guilders for the Viennese Home for Invalid Soldiers, "because he had acquired it all through his soldiers." 9 June 1736 Eugene’s heart is buried in the Savoy tomb in the Basilica di Superga in Turin, which Victor Amadeus II of Savoy had built between 1717 and 1731 in gratitude for the raising of the siege of Turin in 1706. Eugene’s body, dressed in the uniform of colonel of the Savoy Dragoons, is buried in the Kreuzkapelle of St. Stephen’s cathedral in Vienna. Eugene leaves a vast fortune: 600,000 guilders in the shape of the estates in the Marchfeld, 200,000 for the two palaces in Vienna, 150,000 for the library, 200,000 deposited in a bank, 200,000 in cash, 170,000 in silver plate, 100,000 in jewelry, 100,000 in paintings, 150,000 in real estate in Italy: a total of 1,870,000 guilders. Inheritance and Sale 15 April 1738 Victoria of Savoy marries Prince Joseph Friedrich of Saxe-Hildburghausen (1702–1787), who is 18 years her junior. The marriage contract secures him revenues of 300,000 guilders from the manor of Hof, together with Schloss Hof. 1740 Eléazar Mauvillon publishes the Histoire du Prince Eugène de Savoye in Vienna. May to August 1741 Eugene’s art collection is transported across the Alps to Venice and from there by ship along the Po to Turin. 1744 Victoria, Eugene’s niece and sole heiress is divorced from the Prince of Saxe-Hildburghausen. The series of tapestries depicting the loves of Mercury is taken to Turin. 1752 Maria Theresa acquires the City Palace and the Belvedere for the imperial family. The City Palace on Himmelpfortgasse is used to house the headquarters of the imperial mint and mines administration, the imperial treasury, and the supreme court; in 1797 it is once more the home of the imperial treasury, later (until the present) the Austrian finance ministry. 1754 Theresia, born as the Princess of Liechtenstein, the widow of Emanuel, Duke of Savoy and Prince of Piedmont, Eugene’s nephew, who died in 1729, has a funerary monument erected in the Kreuzkapelle in St. Stephen’s cathedral for Prince Eugene and her husband. Prince Eugene lies in the tomb on the left of the entrance portal, his stone sarcophagus beneath a pyramid. 1755 Francis I acquires Schloss Hof and Niederweiden
Outline of the exhibition Exhibition title Prince Eugene – General-Philosopher and Art Lover Exhibition duration 11 February to 6 June 2010Visitor’s address Lower Belvedere and Orangery Rennweg 6, 1030 Vienna Works 280 exhibits, 60 lenders from 12 countries Curator Marie-Louise von Plessen Exhibition design Peter Baldinger Publication Prince Eugene – General-Philosopher and Art Lover Publisher Agnes Husslein-Arco and Marie-Louise von Plessen. Texts by Leopold Auer, Thomas Baumgartner, Christian Benedik, Cornelia Diekamp, Lieselotte Hanzl-Wachter, Michael Hochedlinger, Gabriele Mauthe, Ilber Ortaylı, Marie-Louise von Plessen, Karl Schütz, Carla Enrica Spantigati; introduction by Agnes Husslein-Arco. 336 pages Hirmer Verlag, Munich ISBN: 978-3-7774-2521-4 (german), ISBN: 978-3-7774-2551-1 (English) € 38 (available at the Belvedere shops, shop@belvedere.at) Contact Belvedere, Prinz Eugen-Straße 27, 1030 Vienna T+43 1 795 57-0, info@belvedere.at, www.belvedere.at Opening hours Daily 10 am to 6 pm | Wednesday 10 am to 9 pm Admission € 13,50 Belvedere Ticket (Upper Belvedere, Lower Belvedere, Orangery, Palace Stables, Augarten Contemporary) € 9,50 Lower Belvedere, Orangery, Palace Stables € 19 Belvedere (collections and special exhibitions) and Schloss Hof € 16 Lower Belvedere, Orangery (special exhibition) and Schloss Hof Guided tours Guided tours of the exhibition on Saturday, Sunday and on holidays at 3 pm T+43 1 795 57-134, public@belvedere.at Press Lena Maurer T+43 1 795 57-178, M +43 664 800 141 178, presse@belvedere.at Partner of the exhibition3 Prince Eugene – General-Philosopher and Art Lover 11 February to 6 June 2010 „Virtue, wisdom, and the love of fine arts were the foundation of his great fame." — Jean-Baptiste Rousseau „The Prince is a General-Philosopher who regards his dignity and his fame with equanimity, and talks as naively of his own mistakes as if he were talking about somebody else." — Jean Baptiste Rousseau ///
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Editor's note:
Just a few short days before this historic exhibition
commemorating Prince Eugene of Savoy opened in the Lower Belvedere, it
was my distinct pleasure to tour the Upper Belvedere and its art
collection. Belvedere is an ensemble whereupon the Upper
Belevedere Palace was created for entertaining, balls and state affairs
while Lower Belvedere was the residence of Prince Eugene. The
distance between Upper Belvedere and Lower Belvedere is occupied by an
extensive formal garden with reflection pool and a former Orangery that
links all of Belvedere into one of the most superb examples of the
Baroque in Europe. It's worth noting that the Upper
Belvedere is home to the most significant collection of Austrian art
from the middle ages to the present day. This collection is
complimented by works of international greats such as Renoir, Monet, V.
Van Gogh and Manet. It is worth noting that the Upper
Belvedere galleries include the largest collection of works by Gustav
Klimt including The Kiss, and Judith I as well as a selection of works
by Egon Schiele. We plan to bring you a comprehensive presentation
on Belvedere in the near future. J.M.
