Portraits of Habsburg Rulers in the Aristocratic Collections of Eastern Croatia

Abstract

This paper analyses the portraits of Habsburg rulers that were disseminated through different art media (paintings, sculptures, prints, crafts…) as an expression of power and propaganda across the Monarchy, including the area of modern-day eastern Croatia. Portraits of rulers and dignitaries were part of aristocratic collections in palaces that were built on estates established in the first decades of the 18th century, after the Ottomans had left the area. Apart from portraits of the ruling Habsburg dynasty and portraits of dignitaries, these art collections also contained portraits of the representatives of secular and ecclesiastical authority – electors, popes and archbishops – as well as portraits of the rulers from other ruling families. The majority of the preserved portraits of rulers are found in the collections of the foreign aristocratic families Odescalchi, Eltz, Hilleprand von Prandau and Normann-Ehrenfels.