Rom am Donauufer: “L’immortal Bibiena” und Kaiser Karl VI.

This contribution is dedicated to Giuseppe Galli Bibiena (1696–1756), stage designer and first theatre architect at the court of Emperor Charles VI. More specifically, the analysis focuses on a particular segment of his artistic production, which, while nourished by the theatrical experience, constitutes an entirely autonomous genre. In the collection of engravings, entitled “Architetture e Prospettive”, published with dedication to the Emperor in Augsburg by Andreas Pfeffel in 1740, the year of Charles VI death, Giuseppe collects exempla of works created for the imperial court. Stage sets, castra doloris, theatra sacra appear alongside fantastic views of cityscapes and ports. In these views, identifiable or invented ancient architecture and ruins are combined and compared with imaginary modern architecture consisting of monumental domed buildings and porticoes. Giuseppe’s commitment to this genre was substantial and not limited to the use of the etching technique; in fact, numerous drawings, either autographs or works from the workshop, often watercoloured and large-format, propose similar compositions. The essay aims to demonstrate that these sheets, whether engraved or drawn, do not belong to the genres of ‘capriccio’ or ‘veduta’ and that the addressees or potential buyers of the “piazze all’antica” were not Grand Tour travellers to Italy, but an audience close to the imperial court, who recognised in the sheets ideal images of a Vienna renewed by Charles VI in the spirit of ancient greatness. Without using any concrete quotations from Viennese architecture, Giuseppe Galli Bibiena figuratively expresses a concetto of Viennese Romanitas, as formulated by the imperial medal and antiquities inspector Carl Gustav Heraeus in 1712 in a poem of homage to Charles VI. If Heraeus stands at the beginning of the reign of Charles VI and proves the argumentative tradition of the transfer of Roman Caesarism to the Habsburg dynasty and the imperial residence city, Giuseppe Galli Bibiena’s drawings and engravings of the “piazze all’antica” are an avowal of Romanitas, a summary of his own activity and a witness to his contribution to the definition of the Carolinian “imperial style”.