Previewing Imperial Collections: Prodromus Catalogue (1753)
Abstract
This catalogue shows the royal and imperial art collections in Vienna before they were moved to the Belvedere and curated according to new standards. The catalogue depicted paintings and objects included in the collections and thus functioned as a practical guide for visitors to the galleries. At the same time, the catalogue was also suitable for general reading outside the galleries and therefore served as an important new form of art history instruction. Many of the images shown here are of the works that would be explicitly classified at the Belvedere as “German.”
Source
Source: Frans Stampart and Anton Joseph Prenner, Prodromus Seu Præambulare Lumen Reserati Portentosæ Magnificentiæ Theatri, Quo Omnia Ad Aulam Cæsaream in ... Caroli VI. Metropoli ... Viennæ Recondita Artificorum, Et Pretiositatum Decora, Præcipu`e ... Tabularum, Picturarum, Statuarum, Imaginum, Aliorum´que Ab Artificium Principibus Elaboratorum Operum Miracula ... Æri Sunt Incisa, & Annexa Brevi Introductione ... / Edita a Francisco De Stampart, Et Antonio De Brenner Cæsareæ Cameræ Pictoribus. Viennae Austriae: van Ghelen, 1735, pp. 26, 28. Available online at: https://haab-digital.klassik-stiftung.de/viewer/resolver?urn=urn:nbn:de:gbv:32-1-10013363202
Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek, Klassik Stiftung Weimar
Further Reading
Bénédicte Savoy, ed., Tempel der Kunst. Die Geburt des öffentlichen Museums in Deutschland 1701–1815. Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 2006.
James J. Sheehan, Museums in the German Art World from the End of the Old Regime to the Rise of Modernism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.