Court dress and ceremony in the age of the Baroque. The Royal/Imperial wedding of 1719 in Dresden: A case study.
详细信息
- 作者：Mikosch ; Elisabeth.
- 学历：Doctor
- 年：1999
- 毕业院校：New York University
- ISBN：9780599472853
- CBH：9945305
- Country：USA
- 语种：English
- FileSize：37460327
- Pages：748
文摘
Judged from a bourgeois point of view,major and minor German absolute princes have often been blamed for conspicuous consumption and excessive display of splendor. The luxury of dress at court has met with particularly harsh condemnation. However,during the period of absolutism,German writers on court ceremony took dress very seriously and regarded it as an important tool for the assertion of rulership. They believed that most people were more easily impressed and persuaded by startling sensual perceptions than by intellectual reasoning. For them,the aesthetics of clothing was as important as that of castle architecture and the paintings and sculptures of its interior decoration. This dissertation investigates the meaning and function of court apparel by examining one major court festival. The Saxon Elector Frederick Augustus and Polish King Augustus II,commonly known as Augustus the Strong 1670--1733),organized one of the most splendid court festivals in Dresden when he married his son Frederick Augustus to the Habsburg princess Maria Josepha in 1719. Ample archival records and art works have survived from the month-long celebrations. They offer valuable insights into the consumption of and concern for clothes at a leading German court,and reveal the vital significance of dress during the Baroque period in general. The dissertation deals with the state dresses,costumes,uniforms and liveries that were made for the festival and that illuminate different aspects of the function of apparel. An investigation of the courtship,engagement and marriage in Vienna and Dresden shows how garments were used as a means of foreign diplomacy and court ceremony and made telling political statements. Elaborate fancy disguises were the focus of the wedding festivities in Dresden. As an important part of the Gesamtkunstwerk court festival they unified the arts and made the complex iconographic program comprehensible and aesthetically pleasing. Especially made for the wedding celebrations,the splendid liveries and uniforms of the guards presented the image of an affluent court and wealthy country. However,lengthy disputes with the citizens of Dresden over the character and production of court and civic uniforms also vividly illustrate the difficulties confronting an ambitious ruler striving for absolute power.