Valtice/Feldsberg, Liechtenstein Chateau, Frontage
Governor’s Palace, Brno, Moravia, Czech Republic
Moravian Gallery, Brno
About Moravian Gallery, Brno , Governor’s Palace, Brno
Moravian Gallery, Brno
1724–1729
Antonio Nicolao Maria Beduzzi (1675, Bologna-1735, Vienna)
B 14742
Pen and Indian ink drawing with blue wash; paper adjusted on canvas
h: 9.97 cm; w: 14.36 cm
František Antonín Grimm Collection, Brno
Drawing
Vienna
The design presents the original state of the frontage (right) and its redecoration by Antonio Beduzzi, an imperial theatre engineer and designer. Beduzzi based his design on the existing state, supplementing the frontage area with layered planimetric ornamentation. A pivotal role was played by sculpted decoration and military emblems associated with the military career of the count.
Detailed decorative drawings are part of an important phase in the history of the Valtice/Feldsberg, Liechtenstein Chateau. The chateau, residence of one of the most prominent court families in the Habsburg monarchy, Valtice, was constructed on the border of Lower Austria and Moravia in the first half of the 17th century, with finishing touches added towards the end of the century. Its construction was associated with a number of leading architects active in Vienna (Giovanni Battista Carlone, Giovanni Giacomo Tencalla, Giovanni Tencalla, Giovanni Pietro Tencalla, Domenico Martinelli, Pietro Giulietti and others). Yet the final phase of the construction, during which the building acquired its present appearance, only came about during the period of the counts Anton Florián and Josef Jan.
Anton Josef Ospel, the architect of the first part of the final phase between 1713 and1722, produced a bold design merging the newly modified older sections with new outbuildings and administration tracts. In the following building phase, a new count put a halt to the further spread of the construction and concentrated on decoration of the interior and frontages of the main corps de logis, for which he hired Antonio Beduzzi. Beduzzi created a series of high quality drawings for the count that served as template modellos for the final building modifications.
The residence of a prominent Habsburg court family saw a major reconstruction in the 18th century under a new architect, the imperial theatre engineer and designer Antonio Beduzzi. He created a series of drawings that served as templates for the final building modifications.
The drawing comes from a large collection of designs owned by the Brno architect František Antonín Grimm. Until 1945 it was located in the Rájec nad Svitavou Chateau, from whence it was transferred to the Museum of Applied Arts, Brno. In 1961, when the Moravian Gallery was established, the drawing became part of the gallery’s collection of historical drawings and graphic art.
Wolfgang Georg Rizzi, Antonio Beduzzi und Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt, Alte und Moderne Kunst XXIV, 1979, Heft 166–167, p. 36–45.
Jiří Kroupa, František Antonín Grimm – architekt 18. století, Brno–Kroměříž, 1982, cat. 14, 1.
Zdeněk Kudělka, in Ivo Krsek – Zdeněk Kudělka (ed) – Miloš Stehlík – Josef Válka, Umění baroka na Moravě a ve Slezsku, Prague, 1996, pp. 229–231.
Jiří Kroupa, in Jiří Kroupa (ed), Dans le miroir des ombres. La Moravie a la age baroque 1760–1790, Brno–Paris–Rennes, 2002, p. 134, cat. 27.
Zora Wörgötter, Jiří Kroupa "Valtice/Feldsberg, Liechtenstein Chateau, Frontage" in "Discover Baroque Art", Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://baroqueart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;BAR;cz;Mus11;9;en
Prepared by: Zora WörgötterZora Wörgötter
SURNAME: Wörgötter
NAME: Zora
AFFILIATION: Moravian Gallery in Brno
TITLE: Museum Curator and Local Co-ordinator
CV:
Zora Wörgötter studied Applied Painting at the Secondary School of Applied Arts, Video Art (Faculty of Fine Arts) at the University of Technology in Brno and Art History and Ethnology (Faculty of Arts) at Masaryk University, Brno. She has worked at the Moravian Gallery since 1997 and was curator of the Ancient Art Collection up until 2008. Specialising in Dutch and Central European painting of the 17th and 18th centuries, she has participated in the preparation of several exhibitions, catalogues and research projects in the Czech Republic and abroad, and published in the Moravian Gallery Bulletin, Opuscula historiae artium, and other journals. She is co-ordinator of the Art History Database www.ahice.net for the Czech Republic., Jiří KroupaJiří Kroupa
SURNAME: Kroupa
NAME: Jiří
AFFILIATION: Department of the History of Art (Faculty of Arts) Masaryk
University, Brno
TITLE: Professor
CV:
Professor Jiří Kroupa studied Art History, History and Sociology Masaryk University, Brno. He was a curator at the Kroměříž Museum and the Moravian Gallery in Brno before joining the staff at Masaryk University in 1988 (Head of the Department 1992–2002; Professor 1999 to present). His particular fields of interest are in the history of architecture, 18th-century cultural history and the methodology of art history. His long list of publications includes an edition on the architect Franz Anton Grimm and an essay “The alchemy of happiness: the Enlightenment in the Moravian context”. He was contributing editor for the volume Dans le miroir des ombres. Moravie a la age baroque. 1670–1790 (2002).
Copyedited by: Jiří KroupaJiří Kroupa
SURNAME: Kroupa
NAME: Jiří
AFFILIATION: Department of the History of Art (Faculty of Arts) Masaryk
University, Brno
TITLE: Professor
CV:
Professor Jiří Kroupa studied Art History, History and Sociology Masaryk University, Brno. He was a curator at the Kroměříž Museum and the Moravian Gallery in Brno before joining the staff at Masaryk University in 1988 (Head of the Department 1992–2002; Professor 1999 to present). His particular fields of interest are in the history of architecture, 18th-century cultural history and the methodology of art history. His long list of publications includes an edition on the architect Franz Anton Grimm and an essay “The alchemy of happiness: the Enlightenment in the Moravian context”. He was contributing editor for the volume Dans le miroir des ombres. Moravie a la age baroque. 1670–1790 (2002).
Translation by: Irma Charvátová
Translation copyedited by: Mandi GomezMandi Gomez
Amanda Gomez is a freelance copy-editor and proofreader working in London. She studied Art History and Literature at Essex University (1986–89) and received her MA (Area Studies Africa: Art, Literature, African Thought) from SOAS in 1990. She worked as an editorial assistant for the independent publisher Bellew Publishing (1991–94) and studied at Bookhouse and the London College of Printing on day release. She was publications officer at the Museum of London until 2000 and then took a role at Art Books International, where she worked on projects for independent publishers and arts institutions that included MWNF’s English-language editions of the books series Islamic Art in the Mediterranean. She was part of the editorial team for further MWNF iterations: Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean Virtual Museum and the illustrated volume Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean.
True to its ethos of connecting people through the arts, MWNF has provided Amanda with valuable opportunities for discovery and learning, increased her editorial experience, and connected her with publishers and institutions all over the world. More recently, the projects she has worked on include MWNF’s Sharing History Virtual Museum and Exhibition series, Vitra Design Museum’s Victor Papanek and Objects of Desire, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt’s online publication 2 or 3 Tigers and its volume Race, Nation, Class.
MWNF Working Number: CZ 10