Prince Joseph Wenzel I von Liechtenstein
1696–1772
Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659–1743), Portrait of Prince Joseph Wenzel von Liechtenstein (1696–1772), 1740
Predecessor
Prince Johann Nepomuk Karl I von Liechtenstein
Successor
Prince Franz Josef I von LiechtensteinPrince Joseph Wenzel I von Liechtenstein was one of the most able diplomats, military leaders and army reformers of his time. His reorganization of the Austrian artillery transformed it into the most powerful instrument of the imperial army. At the behest of the emperor he also carried out major diplomatic missions. He was of central importance to the Princely Collections for his commissioning of the first printed catalogue as well as for numerous commissions and acquisitions of works of art.
The eldest child of Philipp Erasmus (1664–1704) and Christina Theresia von Liechtenstein (1665–1730), Joseph Wenzel was born in Prague on 9 August 1696. He married his cousin Maria Anna von Liechtenstein (1699–1753), a daughter of Anton Florian I (1656–1721), on 1 May 1718. The couple had only one child, a son, Philipp Anton, who died in infancy in 1723. Joseph Wenzel I died in Vienna on 10 February 1772.
SOLDIER, DIPLOMAT, ART CONNOISSEUR
Joseph Wenzel I had experienced at first hand the superiority of the Prussian artillery at the battle of Chotusitz (Chotusice, Czech Republic) in 1742, and duly urged reform in this field. Maria Theresa approved of the prince’s views and in June 1744 put him in charge of the Land, Field and House Artillery, and of the Saltpetre and Gunpowder Office. In this function, which he retained until his death almost thirty years later, he succeeded in modernizing – partly at his own expense – the arm of the service that deployed the most technologically advanced equipment of the time. Contributing to the major victories over the Prussians at Kolin (Kolín, Czech Republic, 1757) and Hochkirch (Germany, 1758), the Austrian artillery was even regarded as exemplary by Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821), who had started his military career as an artilleryman.
Within the imperial family Joseph Wenzel I enjoyed high esteem as a diplomat and connoisseur of art.
On 12 May 1745 Maria Theresa appointed Joseph Wenzel I field marshal, the highest rank of general in the imperial army of the time, with express reference to the many services he had rendered to the imperial House and to the great trust that she placed in him personally.
Within the imperial family – particularly in the case of Maria Theresa – he also enjoyed high esteem as a diplomat and connoisseur of art. [Within the imperial family Joseph Wenzel I enjoyed high esteem as a diplomat and connoisseur of art.] He acquired not only well-known and highly acclaimed works for the Collections but also gave commissions to contemporary artists and acquired other works directly from them.
ART AND DISPLAY
‘He is one of those men the like of whom is no more to be found.’ (Maria Theresa on Joseph Wenzel I)
The prince was adept at combining his various missions with his artistic interests to fruitful effect. On an extended visit to Naples in Holy Year 1725 he commissioned a portrait from Francesco Solimena (1657–1747) depicting him in his youth. During his diplomatic mission in Paris he ordered two further portraits from Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659–1743) showing him in the robes of the Order of the Golden Fleece with which he had just been invested.
In Paris he also commissioned the building of several ceremonial carriages, including the Golden Carriage that today stands in the Sala Terrena of the Liechtenstein Garden Palace. In this carriage the prince celebrated his acclaimed entrée into the Paris Palais Royale and again at Versailles. The Golden Carriage was used on two further occasions. When Maria Theresa entrusted the prince as a token of her highest esteem with the task of escorting the bride of Archduke Joseph, Princess Isabella, from Parma to Vienna in 1760, the Golden Carriage was transported both ways across the Alps, being used only at Parma and again for the princess’s ceremonial entrée into Vienna. The prince appeared with the Golden Carriage on one final occasion as the official representative of the emperor in 1764 at the election and coronation of Joseph II in Frankfurt am Main, subsequently receiving the Grand Cross of the Royal Hungarian Order of St Stephen.
After the death of Prince Joseph Wenzel I (10 February 1772) Maria Theresa said of him: ‘He is one of those men the like of whom is no more to be found’. Letters of condolence and a medallion commemorating the prince as the reformer of the artillery attest to the great esteem in which he was held by his monarch.
COMMISSIONS FROM CONTEMPORARY PAINTERS
In Paris Joseph Wenzel I purchased three still lifes by Jean Siméon Chardin (1699–1779), commissioning a fourth from the artist on his return. The two depictions of Hercules by Pompeo Batoni (1708–1787) were probably acquired directly from the painter in Rome. He purchased several views of Venice in Canaletto’s (Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1697–1768) studio, in both small-scale and monumental formats. In 2007 one of these precious paintings was bought back for the Collections, having had to be sold during the times of economic stricture in the 1950s. In 1759/60 Joseph Wenzel I commissioned Bernardo Bellotto (1721–1780) to paint the Garden Palace in the Rossau quarter. One of the views constitutes a final record of the Baroque park with its treasury of sculptures created by Giovanni Giuliani (1664–1744).
In 1773 Joseph Wenzel I's successor Prince Franz Josef I began to transform the Baroque garden into an English landscape park. With only a few exceptions the stone figures were sold off.
One of Bernardo Bellotto’s vedutas constitutes a final record of the Baroque park and its treasury of sculptures created by Giovanni Giuliani.
At the prince’s behest, the director of the Collections, Vincenzio Fanti (1719–1776), compiled the first printed catalogue of the gallery, published in 1767. It contained 501 pictures and 186 sculptures. Twelve of the pictures are recorded as new acquisitions on the part of Joseph Wenzel I, suggesting that he accommodated the rest of his acquisitions in his own gallery in the palace on Herrengasse.
MONUMENTAL SCULPTURES BY AUSTRIAN SCULPTORS
Prince Joseph Wenzel I had a close relationship with the sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (1736–1783), who created monumental works such as the fountain figure of the “Elisha Increases the Oil of the Widow” and the “Maria Immaculata” on the Savoyen’sche Damenstift, a charitable institution for noblewomen in reduced circumstances set up by Duchess Maria Theresia of Savoy-Carignan, a daughter of Prince Johann Adam Andreas I (1657–1712). He also executed the intimate portrait of Joseph Wenzel I in old age that was probably made shortly after 1770. This portrait ushered in the famous character heads by the Pressburg master which were the crowning works of his career as a sculptor.
Prince Joseph Wenzel I had a close relationship with the sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt.
Prior to this, Prince Joseph Wenzel I had commissioned two life-size figures for the bridge forming the approach to Schloss Ebergassing (Lower Austria) from Jakob Gabriel Müller, called Mollinarolo (1717–1780), a follower of Georg Raphael Donner (1693–1741) in Vienna. In their elegance and soft modulation that are perfectly rendered in the cast lead-tin alloy, “Apollo with the Portrait Medallion of Archduke Joseph, Heir to the Throne” and “Minerva with the Portrait Medallion of Maria Theresa and Emperor Franz Stephan of Lorraine” represent the quintessence of the Austrian Rococo.
MULTIFARIOUS INTERESTS
Joseph Wenzel I amassed a large number of valuable books and manuscripts during his time in Paris.
Joseph Wenzel I's interests extended far beyond the fields described so far. During his time in Paris he amassed a large number of valuable books and manuscripts whose sumptuous bindings still accord them a special status among the other holdings in the Library.
Another field in which he was active was the collecting of antique sculpture. With the figure of the "Praying Boy" he acquired one of the most precious original Greek bronzes ever found. The statue had been discovered on Rhodes in 1503 and from there was taken to Venice. In 1717 it was given to Prince Eugene of Savoy. From his sole heir Anna Victoria it found its way via a Venetian dealer into the ownership of Joseph Wenzel I in 1736. He sold the bronze in 1747 for 5,000 taler to King Frederick II of Prussia, who initially had it installed on the terrace of Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam. At the time of its sale a plaster copy was made which is still held in the Princely Collections. In its turn, the original is today one of the most important pieces in the Staatliche Antikensammlung zu Berlin.
