ETERNAL SPLENDOUR
The Viennese Goldsmith Joseph Moser (1715-1801)
October 22, 2003 till January 19, 2004
Alte Geistliche Schatzkammer/Old Ecclesiastical Treasury
Hofburg Palace, Schweizerhof, 1010 Vienna
The time of the Empress Maria Theresia (reigned 1740-1780) provided manifold opportunities for artists specializing in the decoration of churches - despite the fact that these decades were marked by tensions between the sensuality of traditional Baroque Catholicism and the new, austere religiosity of the Age of Enlightenment. Precious liturgical vessels celebrated both the Eucharist and served to commemorate the donor and thus became beacons of faith.
Donations made by the Empress herself document her deep piety and faith, as well as the splendour of the Imperial court. The Empress gave to numerous churches and monasteries in the Habsburg domains that rejoiced in some particularly close relationship with herself and her family. She also commissioned magnificent chapels in her various residences.
For these commissions Maria Theresia frequently relied upon the artistic skill of Joseph Moser (1715-1801), a goldsmith originally from Brno (Czech Republic) who is documented in Vienna after 1745. A relatively large number of extant works by him in Vienna and at other locations within the former Habsburg Empire document his employment by the Imperial court. During his long working life, Moserīs style saw a very remarkable development from the formal and decorative idiom of Late Baroque, to Rococo, to the classicism prevalent under the Emperor Joseph II.
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