Private furnishings of the Imperial family in the 19th cent.

The private living environment of the Viennese court as the subject of cultural studies has hitherto been confined to the apartments of the relevant ruling imperial couple. And even here we have no consistent, sequential analysis of the changes that were periodically carried out and their effects on the family environment, whether in terms of state ceremony, or the interior arrangement. The main intention of the planned research project is to investigate the living conditions of the closest dependent members of the family; in particular, to analyse systematically the functions of the rooms and facilities assigned to the residents - ranging from the official salon to the private bedroom and dressing room. The studies will not be confined just to the court palaces (Hofburg) and main residences, gleaned from archival documents, inventories and museum holdings (assignable artefacts and furnishings), but other buildings will also be researched - stately homes, court buildings and castles, hunting lodges and so on. Since it will investigate individual ideas and private wishes about the home environment and interior design, this will necessarily involve addressing the stylistic transition from Biedermeier to historicism as foil to the current political changes - above all as compared to the interior design of the state and official rooms. Hence the project`s aim is to produce a multi-level study of imperial living culture in the nineteenth century, incorporating the revolutionary developments of the decorative arts, meanwhile relating ceremonial and architectural preconditions to the personal situation in the life and position of the residents. Research will be based on the analysis of documentary records and objects; it will unquestionably broaden the picture hitherto painted of the living culture of the Viennese court and its influence - or dependency - on interior design during the "Ringstrasse" era. The analysis takes its approach from cultural studies, thus will involve - also in the international context - interdisciplinary issues and cross-linking related to the culture of everyday life, social history, and aspects of gender. The outcome of the research project will be reflected in exhibitions of the "Hofmobiliendepot - Möbel Museum Wien" - (Imperial Furniture Collection Vienna). It will therefore be accessible to a wide and appreciative public and documented in specialist catalogues. Moreoever, the acquired information will be edited and processed in the object database of the Bundesmobilienverwaltung (Federal Administration of Moveables). These activities simultaneously offer important prerequisites for the restoration and reconstruction of the furniture and wall decorations, and, where appropriate, historically authentic re-arrangements of the imperial family`s apartments, now of such significance for cultural tourism (including the Vienna Hofburg, Schönbrunn Palace, Belvedere, Eckartsau Palace).

No additional funding sources recorded.