Seite - 90 - in Die Repräsentation der Habsburg-Lothringischen Dynastie in Musik, visuellen Medien und Architektur - 1618–1918

90 Sektion I: Themen und Medien der Repräsentation portraits, Alois Riegl noted that group unity was produced through a linking of psy- chological and physical functions between the figures.25 Similarly, in the photomon- tage, Franz Joseph demonstrates his authority over his family through his position at the peak of their triangular composition. His placement in relation to Elisabeth is equally significant, as she becomes the link between him and his heirs. Franz Joseph’s right arm disappears behind Elisabeth’s head, creating a physical line through her body to the children at her knees. Here, she is the vessel through which continued Habsburg vitality is measured. The narrative power of the photomontage is especially apparent when compared to the carte de visite Angerer produced of the imperial family in 1860. The toddler Rudolf wears military apparel, with his hat tipped at the same angle as his father’s. But the clarity of the imperial succession is confused, especially as Franz Joseph does not appear near the center of the image. The photomontage clarifies these questions by combining the photographic qualities of the carte with the narrative power of imperial portraiture. Though the family portraits emphasize Elisabeth’s capability as a mother, nowhere is the image of Elisabeth as an ideal wife more explicitly visualized than in a photomon- tage of Elisabeth and Franz Joseph together in Franz Joseph’s office (Fig. 8). His pen in hand, Franz Joseph shifts the paperwork on his desk when Elisabeth interrupts his concentration with her appearance. Like so many of the photomontages, its composi- tion can be linked to contemporary cartes de visite. Such a pose was popular in pho- tographs of husbands and wives, as evidenced by a Disdéri portrait of Prince Richard Metternich and his wife Pauline.26 Closer scrutiny of the Habsburg portrait dissolves this equivalence. Franz Joseph’s gilded desk is unfeasibly narrow and short. The ornate chair upon which he sits could never fit behind such an insubstantial piece of furniture. In addition to its insupportable depth, the width of the desk is difficult to discern be- hind the mass of Elisabeth’s skirts. Dwarfed by the figure of his wife, the seated Franz Joseph himself occupies an awkward position, his broad frame disconnected from the shadowed legs that appear beneath the desk. Another fissure appears beneath Elisa- beth’s left hand; she leans against what looks to be the back of a chair, but no space exists for an additional piece of furniture within this tightly packed frame. Perhaps the most alienating feature of the photomontage is the emotional disconnection between the two figures, who make no acknowledgment of each other comparable to the shared engagement of Pauline and Richard Metternich with the book on Metternich’s desk. These illusionistic failures are a consequence of the manipulation of multiple por- traits. The inclusion of a solitary photograph within a photomontage would not have been so problematic, as the entire composition could match the scale determined by the single portrait. However, using the heads of the emperor and empress from two