Page - 98 - in Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte, Volume LIX
Image of the Page - 98 -
Text of the Page - 98 -
Kristoffer
neville98
medal collections in September, 1710.29 He soon
expanded this field to include the invention of
inscriptions and laudatory texts, as well as court
ceremony and decoration, which brought him
into collaboration with Fischer. By 1715 they
worked closely together on the development of
the iconographic program of the Karlskirche.30
Fischer and Heraeus collaborated on the 1712
manuscript of the Entwurff. The title page rec-
ognizes the contributions of each, giving overall
credit to Fischer, while acknowledging Heraeus
for providing the accompanying text.31 The di-
vided responsibility of the two men is further
emphasized in the preface, which concludes, The
author[,] Joh: Bernhard Fischers von Erlach, with
no mention of Heraeus.32 The authorship of the
book thus applied to the concept and the visual
material, rather than to the text, as is more com-
mon in modern contexts. Heraeus himself ac-
knowledged this distinction, for nowhere in his
correspondence with Carl Gustaf Tessin did he
claim any credit for the work, which is always
presented as Fischer’s. This was particularly ap-
propriate in this case, for the book he sent to
Stockholm contained no text, and thus none of
his formal contribution. Heraeus’s contentment
to detach texts he composed for numerous col-
laborative projects – including this one – and publish them separately under his name suggests
that this attitude held much more broadly.33
Fischer had a fully-developed concept of
the content, structure, and visual materials for
the book by 1710–12, when they were clearly
elaborated on the title page, and claimed full
authorship for the work himself. Very likely the
conceptual and antiquarian work was largely fin-
ished in the earlier part of this three-year period,
although the drawings for the reconstructions of
ancient monuments in particular can be dated
only very generally before 1712.34 Heraeus, who
arrived in Vienna in 1709 and was appointed to
a court position in the following year, was there-
fore probably more peripheral to the conceptual
development of the project than has often been
assumed.35
This need not imply that Heraeus played an
unimportant role, however. On a purely prac-
tical level, he mediated between Fischer and
others involved in the project. This is of course
very clear in the episode involving the Tessins,
but Delsenbach, the engraver, later wrote that
it was Heraeus who recalled him to Vienna af-
ter a lengthy absence from 1713-1718.36 On a
more intellectual level, he came to Vienna with
a strong antiquarian background and an especial
knowledge of coins and medals, which provided
29 For Heraeus, see Hammerlund, Ett äventyr i staten (cit. n. 7).
30 Sedlmayr, Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach (cit. n. 1), pp. 280–300.
31 Vienna, Austrian National Library, Cod. Mscr. 10791. The manuscript has not been the subject of a detailed study,
though general descriptions are available in Kunoth, Die Historische Architektur Fischers von Erlach (cit. n. 1), pp.
17–18, and in Prange, Entwurf und Phantasie (cit. n. 1), pp. 53–56.
32 This is repeated in the manuscript dedication: […] In allertieffster und allerunterthänigster Unterwerffung Nieder-
geleget von dem Autore (in singular).
33 Heraeus, Vermischte Neben=Arbeiten (cit. n. 20) and Carl Gustaf Heraeus, Gedichte und Lateinische Inschrif-
ten, Nuremberg, 1721.
34 Prange, Entwurf und Phantasie (cit. n. 1), pp. 158–175. The primary exception is a drawing dated 1709 showing
monuments that would reappear in the Entwurff as the Tomb-Pyramid of King Sotis (illustrated in Prange, Ent-
wurf und Phantasie (cit. n. 1), p. 53).
35 Most authors assume some important role for Heraeus. See, for instance, H. Aurenhammer, Johann Bernhard
Fischer von Erlach 1656–1723, Vienna 1956, p. 204. See also Matsche, Die Kunst im Dienst der Staatsidee Kaiser
Karls VI. (cit. n. 28), pp. 44–45. Hammerlund, Ett äventyr i staten (cit. n. 7), p. 198, argues that the Entwurff is
inconceivable in any form without Heraeus’s contribution, and suggests that the collaboration might have its origins
in a possible meeting of the two men in Berlin in 1704.
Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte
Volume LIX
Entnommen aus der FWF-E-Book-Library
- Title
- Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte
- Volume
- LIX
- Editor
- Bundesdenkmalamt Wien
- Institut für Kunstgeschichte der Universität Wien
- Publisher
- Böhlau Verlag
- Location
- Wien
- Date
- 2011
- Language
- German, English
- License
- CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-205-78674-0
- Size
- 19.0 x 26.2 cm
- Pages
- 280
- Keywords
- research, baroque art, methodology, modern art, medieval art, historiography, Baraock, Methodolgiem, Kunst, Wien
- Category
- Kunst und Kultur