Schönbrunn Palace

08/14/06

Today we spent the day at Schönbrunn Palace. I felt that this palace was much more imperial feeling than the Hoffburg Palace. I’m not sure if this had to do with the way the museums were set up or a difference in the actual palaces. I thought the scale of Schönbrunn was more what I expected from an imperial residence. We took the “Classic Pass” tour and saw over forty elaborately decorated and amazing rooms. I thought it was fascinating how many of the rooms had one very specific purpose for very specific parts of the year. I thought the attention to details for things like portraits in the wall paper was amazing. One of these rooms stood out in my mind with intricate wallpaper. I don’t remember the name of the room but it had scenes from Indian/Middle Eastern life. They sorted through these images and created a collage of scenes to represent the Imperial family and made them into pretty shapes and part of a cohesive whole. Just for wallpaper! They also had great detail in their murals and even functional items like candlesticks and napkin folding. Anyone that can afford that kind of grandeur must have commanded a great deal of power. It was fascinating. There was a lot of information about Maria Theresa that I was excited to learn. She was a really together and organized monarch who loved her many children and the country she ruled. She seemed to understand her role as rule and embraced it. She contrasted with Franz Joseph’s reluctant attitude. I haven’t seen a lot about her, but she seemed to be more suited for the position. Franz Joseph always seemed to be more suited for the position. Franz Joseph always seemed to me to be going through the motions because of a sense of duty and honor, but he never really liked his job. His insistence on having the “soldiers bed,” his love of the “country girl” Sissy, and his pleasure with simply strolling through town are all part of his true personality. It makes me wonder if the monarchs were desperately trying to be real people and if this contributed to the deterioration of Europe’s nobility. It also makes me wonder whether this happened frequently throughout history and was only apparent when the monarchies collapsed. There is clearly correlation, but what, if any, is the causation? On a side note, we went to Salzburg this weekend and saw several museums about Mozart. One of the things I never knew about Mozart was that he had an older sister who was also very musically talented. She was one of Mozart’s best friends and close confidant. I wonder if she had lived in a later time when her marriage didn’t mean the end of her profession, if she might have been as successful and brilliant as Mozart. Many of the exhibits talked about how they wondered what it must have been like to be the older sister by five years to someone as brilliant and talented as Mozart, How tragic for her, etc. But they also mention that she was also composing and performing just as Mozart was when he was young. Perhaps she wasn’t the tragically left behind older sister but an equally brilliant person that only didn’t become famous because her gender couldn’t contain that role of composer/performer. She got married instead. I would really like to learn more about her because she brings a new level of intrigue to the Mozart story, as well as the social dynamics of gender roles at the time.

Anyone that can afford that kind of grandeur must have commanded a great deal of power. It was fascinating.