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PALACE FRESCOS

Prince Johann Adam Andreas I, who built the Garden Palace, dreamed of decorating the entire building with a continuous scheme of frescos by Bolognese artists. Yet his first choice, Marcantonio Franceschini (1648–1729), with whom many letters were exchanged, disappointed his would-be patron. He could not be persuaded to travel to Vienna to execute the frescos himself.

The prince was eventually forced to search for an Austrian artist. He finally decided on Johann Michael Rottmayr, who had already worked both in Salzburg and for the imperial family. The prince charged him with painting the frescos of the Sala Terrena, the two three-room apartments on the ground floor and the creation of monumental ceiling frescos in the two stairways. These frescos were long believed to be lost.

For the centrepiece of his palace, the Hercules Hall, he was able to attract the grand master of the Roman Baroque, Padre Andrea Pozzo (1642–1709), who in 1704 created an unbelievably vital late work with his fresco depicting the admittance of Hercules to Olympus.

Johann Michael Rottmayr (1654–1730)
Andromeda taken up into Olympus, fresco in the Ladies’ Apartment of the Garden Palace, 1705-1708


The colourful vibrancy of Rottmayr’s frescos

The ceiling pictures on the ground floor display a confident mastery of fresco technique. A day’s work (indicated by the individual plaster applications) usually encompassed an entire figure with surrounding clouds.

Rottmayr transferred his sketches onto the ceiling using grids and cartoons. He engraved the outlines into the damp plaster in a sketch-like manner. In doing the actual painting, however, he allowed himself a great deal of freedom when it came to following his original sketches.

Rottmayr’s ceiling pictures represent an early highlight of illusionistic fresco painting in Austria. Above the architectural painting — quadratura which was perhaps done by Rottmayr himself — the viewer’s gaze is drawn into the numinous heavens.

Johann Michael Rottmayr (1654–1730)
Detail from Andromeda taken up into Olympus, fresco in the Ladies’ Apartment of the Garden Palace, 1705-1708


The intensity of the colours is characteristic of the artist’s early period. The painter himself indicated that he had purchased expensive ultramarine blue in the year 1707. Additionally, Rottmayr went through nineteen books of leaf gold. The artist achieved vividness of his figures not just by varying the brightness of the individual colours, but also through abrupt transitions, such as from pink to violet to intense blue. The good condition of the frescos allows the colours to be seen in their original, authentic brilliance.

Andrea Pozzo (1642–1709)
Fresco depicting the deeds of Hercules and his apotheosis in the Hercules Hall of the Garden Palace, 1704–1708


Illusionistic architectural painting in Pozzo’s frescos

Pozzo was first engaged by Prince Johann Adam Andreas I while still working at S. Ignazio. Prince Anton Florian, who was the imperial emissary at the Papal court in Rome, established contact between the two. It is thought that Johann Adam Andreas I, in turn, introduced the painter to the Viennese imperial court.

Pozzo’s fresco depicts the deeds of Hercules and his admittance to Olympus. The actual plot unfolds within the architectural painting at the border of the ceiling, while the centre affords a view into the heavenly realm of the gods.

Compared to the nave of a baroque church — Pozzo’s usual working environment — the hall only allows the viewer to change his perspective very slightly. The painter therefore had to maintain strong pictorial coherency in his composition of the ceiling fresco. The divine figures in the heavens are therefore are represented in a largely parallel fashion, for which reason they seem more strongly connected with one another from the viewer’s perspective.

Left:
Andrea Pozzo (1642–1709)
Hercules triumphs over Antaeus, detail from the fresco depicting the deeds of Hercules and his apotheosis in the Hercules Hall of the Garden Palace, 1704–1708

Right:
Andrea Pozzo (1642–1709)
Hercules strangles the serpents sent to him by Hera, detail from the fresco depicting the deeds of Hercules and his apotheosis in the Hercules Hall of the Garden Palace, 1704–1708

The figures representing the hero’s dramatic trials, on the other hand, appropriately exhibit great animation and are often quite foreshortened. Through their wide-sweeping movements, they intensify the impression of a space that reaches far into the depths.

Illusionistic architectural painting gives the figures in the portrayed scenes their own radiuses of action which are clearly delineated from that of the ceiling. The quadratura painting is kept relatively simple. It allows the walls to “grow” up above the actual coving and into the flat ceiling fresco.
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