Empress Maria Theresa and the Politics of Habsburg Imperial Art by Michael Yonan (review)

Empress Maria Theresa (1717-1780) was one of the most powerful women in Europe during the eighteenth century. She governed the Habsburg Empire for forty years and orchestrated strategic alliances across Europe through arranged marriages for many of her fifteen children. History has been captivated less by direct evidence of her political authority than by the domestic myths that she cultivated around herself as a devoted daughter, wife, widow, and mother. These myths have cast a particular slant on the historical memory of this important female ruler, which, as Michael Yonan has demonstrated in his recent monograph, is largely due to the role played by material culture in constructing an unprecedented image of female monarchical power. Significantly, Yonan did not take the approach of conventional patronage studies to make this point.

Documentary evidence of Maria Theresa's direct involvement in artistic choices at the time of commission is rare. Consequently, a study of her use of the visual arts requires speculation concerning the particularities of a "symbolic relationship" between art and the empress (10). The noted "problem of intention" might trouble some readers (10); however, what the study lacks in the form of primary documentary evidence to support its claims, Yonan makes up for through his analyses of visual material. His interpretations are informed by sensitivity to the gender issues that flow throughout the artworks and architectural spaces made to please this immensely clever and politically savvy woman. A traditional patronage study would not have achieved the same perceptive results.

Thanks to Yonan's interpretive approach, Empress Maria Theresa and the Politics of Habsburg Imperial Art is a ground-breaking study in the history of Austrian art and architecture. His book is a substantial contribution to the study of women as powerful agents in the production and reception of visual culture in European court circles during the eighteenth century. Moreover, Yonan's wide-ranging choice of material—portraiture, decorative objects, architecture, interior decoration, and garden sculpture—provides the reader with a comprehensive understanding of Maria Theresa's individualized approach to the representation of her personal authority in the visual arts. This is complemented by a number of quality illustrations that allow readers to consider the details of many works that are rarely discussed in depth.

The first two chapters focus closely on portraits of Maria Theresa. On the surface, many of these paintings appear to follow well-established conventions within European court portraiture; however, through careful and comparative analyses of visual details and emblematic content, Yonan has shown that these paintings, by such artists as Andreas Möller, Martin van Meytens, and Anton von Maron, subvert convention in subtle ways to make unique claims for the authority of this extraordinary female ruler. Yonan's interpretations of visual elements support his claims that these are not generalized conceptions of monarchy transferred over to a female context. Instead, portraits of Maria Theresa develop new and unusual emblematic forms of representation that supply specific statements about her highly personalized claims to power.

The book brings together a rich compendium of visual documents and monuments from Maria Theresa's reign, although some readers may wish to learn more about the artists who are relatively unknown in the study of eighteenth-century European art, such as Swedish- and Danish- born court portraitists Martin van Meytens and Andreas Möller. The fourth chapter, however, sheds new light on the Viennese court's hopes for the Austrian painter Anton von Maron, which arose specifically in connection with the empress's impatience for the Vieux-Laque Zimmer to be completed. Support for local talent may not have been the reason for the recruitment of von Maron initially, but Yonan has traced enough examples of similar involvement of Austrian talent in court commissions to point to Maria Theresa's interest in demonstrating the fact that Austrian art and architecture could match the artistic achievements in France and Italy. In this, her efforts are paralleled by those...