Arbeitszimmer Josef II.
As has been pointed out, the apartments of the
Leopoldine wing facing Heldenplatz served as living quarters for Joseph II. The
first room - the one closest to the „Schweizerhof“ - was the Emperor's bedroom.
It was called „Blauer Salon“ because of the blue upholstery and the large blue
carpet, the room features 18th century tapestries from Brussels.
Next
comes the „Grüner Salon“, which used to be Joseph II's study and is now used by
the Federal President for the same purpose. The walls are decorated with two
large paintings by the Vienna
court painter Johann Franz Greipel (1720‑1792). The first, left of the jib door
through which the visitor enters the room from the „Maria Theresia-Zimmer“,
shows a group of four young ladies dressed as Greek deities in Rococo fashion
before a backdrop representing a wooded mountainscape. The other picture shows
the crowded auditorium in a small and intimate theatre, with part of the stage
on the right-hand side of the picture.
For a long time
nobody knew what these paintings represented. It was thanks to Federal President
Dr. Adolf Schärf that the forgotten meaning of the pictures was rediscovered.
On close scrutiny Dr. Schärf found out that the two pictures were an account of
one and the same opera performance. The group of four young ladies in the
centre of the left picture can also be seen on the stage depicted on the
right-hand one. When Dr. Schärf realised that behind the four mythological
figures the stage setting shows Pegasus, his hoofs striking a jagged rock
giving rise to the spring Hippocrene, he started to research old opera
librettos and came to be convinced that the pictures represented a performance
of the opera „Il Parnasso confuso“ by Christoph Willibald Gluck. The libretto
was written by Pietro Antonio Metastasio, court poet to Charles VI and Maria Theresa.
Further research confirmed the interpretation
given by the Federal President.
It was on the day following the wedding of Crown
Prince Joseph, subsequently the Emperor Joseph II, and his second wife, Maria
Josepha of Bavaria, which took place at Schönbrunn Palace on January 23, 1765,
that the opera „Il Parnasso confuso“ was performed in the so-called „Große
Anticamera“ (large room) of Schönbrunn specially adapted as a theatre.
The cast included four of Maria Theresa's daughters, the Archduchesses Amalia,
appearing as Apollo, Elisabeth, as the Muse Melpomene, Josepha, as Euterpe and Charlotte, as Erato.
Their - and the bridegroom's - brother,
Archduke Leopold, who was later to become the Emperor Leopold II, conducted the
orchestra from the harpsichord.
The
picture portrays members of the Imperial household, among them Francis I, Maria
Theresa, Crown Prince Joseph and the Emperor's military commander, Charles of
Lorraine. It also clearly shows that the room was packed with spectators.
Indeed, the son of the Steward of the Household, Khevenhüller, thus fainted and
had to be carried out of the auditorium past the open stage.
© 2010 The Federal President of the Republic of Austria : imprint : legal notes : contact
