On the reception and agency of neoclassical sculpture and its material: case studies from Viennese sculpture galleries (c. 1780-1820)

Abstract

The last two decades have seen a surge in publications and exhibitions on neoclassical sculpture, exploring histories of collecting, transnational artistic exchange, artistic self-fashioning strategies, workshop processes, new biographical insights and art-theoretical questions. However, there is relatively little research regarding the display and staging of neoclassical sculpture in comparison with earlier periods. The years around 1800 marked the peak of a fashion for purpose-built galleries that appeared all over Europe. The multimedia setting for sculpture in this new type of building tied in with contemporary patterns of staging and viewing artworks in different contexts, such as tableaux vivants and phantasmagorias. This article investigates the different modes of communication between viewer and object in neoclassical sculpture galleries to shed light on the reception of these objects and their respective material. Case studies are centred on the Viennese sculpture galleries of Nicolas II, Prince Esterházy, Andrej Razumovsky and Joseph Count of Fries in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.