Page - 86 - in Die Repräsentation der Habsburg-Lothringischen Dynastie in Musik, visuellen Medien und Architektur - 1618–1918

86 Sektion I: Themen und Medien der Repräsentation domesticity.16 This intimate and permanent access to a broad population of subjects was unavailable to the Habsburg monarchs because of Elisabeth’s refusal to pose for family portraits, particularly those that reproduced the imagery of carte de visite stu- dios. The large group portrait of the extended imperial family (Fig. 3) bears little resemblance to the group portraiture typically produced by carte photographers. As a result, this image invited none of the imaginary interactions that made carte de visite photography so attractive. Collected alongside portraits of actors and performers, carte de visite culture in- serted monarchs into the sphere of celebrity. Celebrity culture became increasingly important to nineteenth-century sovereigns, as transformations in public expecta- tions of leaders meant they had to justify themselves as never before. As analyzed by the sociologist Max Weber, traditional elites like the Habsburg family possessed a diffused ‘hereditary charisma’, which was independent of any individual prince’s talents and personality and located entirely within specific monarchical dynasties.17 This ‘hereditary charisma’ could not compare with the near magical qualities of the “charismatic authority” that Weber identified in the political demagogues of the late nineteenth century. Monarchs combated this development by employing the same strategies as contemporary celebrities. Germany’s Wilhelm I autographed carte de visite portraits for his subjects18, while his successor Wilhelm II granted ‘at-home’ interviews with the popular press.19 While aiming to appear as approachable as his German counterparts, the Catholic conservatism of the Habsburg court meant that Franz Joseph also wished to emphasize his exceptional status as the divinely ap- pointed Habsburg leader.20 This tension of intimacy and distance plays out on the surface of the photomontages, which highlight a fragile balance between the desire of the emperor to assert his unique privilege to rule and a popular demand for access to the imperial family. A closer examination of the photomontages reveals a variety of visual strategies to balance this tension, for the anonymous artist did far more than simply paste Elisa- beth into the carte with Franz Joseph and the children. The most apparent change is the artist’s rearrangement of the four figures. Franz Joseph has risen from his armchair to occupy a dominant position at the center of the image. In contrast, Elisabeth is now seated, her photographic head affixed to a newly-painted figure in an elaborate wooden and upholstered chair. The artist removes the young crown prince from the protective space of a parent’s lap; instead, Rudolf plays with toys that foreshadow his future responsibilities as a military leader. Gisela discards her doll to rest her hand upon her brother’s hobbyhorse. This shift in figural arrangements places Elisabeth, Rudolf, and Gisela as the base of a triangular composition with Franz Joseph as the apex, visualizing quite literally the emperor’s leadership of his family. These modifica-