"I may know nothing about art..."

Preface / Introduction

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Table of Contents

1. 'I may know nothing about art..." a fine portrait of the Uncle of Europe, Edward VII, by Heinrichvon Angeli, 1840-1925, the best connected artist in the world. 2. Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor 1742-1745. A must-have imperial image found by aconnoisseur, restored by a master, shared with you in its full majesty. 3. 'A boy! A boy! My kingdom for a boy!' On Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, his dilemma, andan over-the-top picture of eye-popping grandeur and allegory.

'I may know nothing about art..." a fine portrait of the Uncleof Europe, Edward VII, by Heinrich von Angeli, 1840-1925,the best connected artist in the world. by Dr. Jeffrey Lant.

Author's program note. One day in 1901 at the beginning of his long-deferred reign, the new andenthusiastic 60-year-old sovereign Edward VII by the Grace of God king, emperor, ruler of plumproperties everywhere on Earth, was surveying his picture collection at Buckingham Palace (itselfworth a king's ransom) along with Frederick "Fritz" Ponsonby, later Lord Sysonby (1867-1935).

Fritz was one of those most useful of beings; a man who had grown up in a courtly family; his fatherwas Sir Henry Ponsonby, Queen Victoria's long-time private secretary. He was a courtier to hisfinger tips, knowing all the ins and outs and where all the bodies were buried. Such a man wasexpected to be available at the monarch's slightest command, know everything, say nothing... and doit all for a pittance. Oh, yes, such people were useful indeed.

On this particular day, the new king and young Fritz were surveying the picture galleries which stillhad the dour mark of Queen Victoria on them. This meant the greatest masterpieces of the greatestEuropean masters cheek by jowl, higgledy-piggledy with daubs in water color by minor princessesof minor German states. ("Dear Maria had no talent, poor thing.")

There was no order to it, just one thing on top of another. Edward VII, a man who understood hiscraft, his metier of kingship, was appalled but not dismayed. He had waited a lifetime for thismoment, and he told Ponsonby, standing by with notebook in hand, "I may know nothing aboutarrrrrrrt," he intoned in his idiosyncratic mixture of English and guttural German. "But I think Iknow something about arrrrrrangement."

And so he did... in art, in music, in life. Thus, to accompany this article I have selected the "EnigmaVariations" by Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934). Find them now in any search engine. They werecomposed in 1898-1899, just in time for the lush richness of England and her empire at their peak inthe reign of a man who knew every nuance of being a king, including which artists should beallowed to paint him and so provide the desired look for all time.

One of the most favored of these artists was Heinrich (later Baron) von Angeli, persona gratissimaat all the Courts of Europe, not merely talented, but arguably the best connected painter of his day.How had this happened?

Favored by an unhappy princess.

Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's beautiful and obsessively loved husband, fathered 9 children, ofwhom two were of major political significance: Princess Victoria, Princess Royal (1840-1901) andPrince Edward, Prince of Wales (1841- 1910). She was married far too young (just 17 years old) toPrince Frederick of Prussia, Crown Prince (1831-1888). It was a love match fervently desired by herparents, who saw thereby a means to expedite German unification and hence create a liberal,progressive nation under a constitutional monarchy, a highly desirable solution to the thorny"German problem" to the benefit of all Europe.

It was, on paper, a brilliant plan... except for one thing: neither Fritz's father, King (later Emperor)William of Prussia (1797-1888) or his chief henchman Otto (later Prince) von Bismarck(1815-1898) wanted what those meddling Englanders wanted... quite the reverse, "blood and iron"being more their cup of tea. And so young, idealistic, home-sick Princess Victoria, now CrownPrincess of Prussia, went to her fate... to be ridiculed, derided, humiliated and isolated by Bismarck,

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past master in the art of exquisite torments.

She became the most unhappy princess on Earth, for all that she had the man of her dreams as herwedded husband. She needed a friend and here at least the fates were kind, for she got as herpainting tutor just the right man, Heinrich von Angeli. His visits lessoned the burdens of her royallife. He made her smile and this skill, linked to undeniable talent, made von Angeli and his meteoriccareer.

Mirror, not just painter.

He saw the princes of Europe as they wanted to be seen, picturing them as larger than life, bold,audacious, people of vision and destiny. And on this basis he networked his way through theinterconnected dynasties which constituted the acme of Europe in this last, greatest age ofmonarchy.

Paint box in hand, he trod the corridors of undeniable power, great pictures always the result of hisvisits... pictures of his loyal patron the Crown Princess of Prussia, her husband the Crown Prince....Queen Victoria (to whom in 1877 he presented his own most attractive self portrait)... AustrianEmperor Franz Josef... and, of course, Prince Edward, The Prince of Wales. It is the study for thismagnificent portrait of 1890 that you see above, the dirty, distressed, undistinguished "before"image... and then, as if painted today, the splendid "after", a prince indeed.

For if von Angeli had been fortunate in his patron, so, too, both he and his image of the man whobecame Edward VII were equally fortunate in the conservator who brought this woebegone pictureback from the brink, saving it for grateful generations yet to come. This gifted conservator is SimonGillespie of Cleveland Street, London, an expert adept at saving portraits of royalty... and everyother kind of person or scene. I know. He has worked his undeniable magic on over three dozen suchpictures for me, this being the latest.

"Kaiserhaus und Historika" sale, Dorotheum, Lot 260, 8 May, 2012.

This picture was placed for auction at the very end of a long day when I had had almost no luck,until I acquired Lot 256, a superb signed photograph of the Prince of Wales' brother-in-law, EmperorFrederick III photographed as Crown Prince of Germany. I owed its "steal" price to the fact that theauction was nearly over, most folks already gone. My spirits upbeat from this pip of an acquisition,I awaited the signed and 1890 dated portrait of Edward of Wales with equanimity. In the event, itsunappealing condition linked to a much diminished audience carried the day. It was mine, and at avery attractive price. All it needed now was Simon Gillespie.

Simon's review.

Simon's work demands utter and complete honesty and integrity. This is essential, and here with thisdistressed artifact he gave full measure. Upon delivery from Vienna, he emailed a full report of itsdisfigurements and discolorations. Most of the background, which is now a light gray and for itstime a modern conceit, had been glazed over with a brown paint. Further to this, the last treatment ithad received had included painting out broad brush strokes around the head in an attempt to "tidyup" and make presentable the regal image.

Gillespie never commits such solecisms... for his credo is to return venerable objects to their pristinestate... conserving, not inventing. He is the painter's latter-day incarnation, as true to the painter'soriginal intention as possible... and his intentions in this work were clear: to make an energeticsketch, to render the bravura techniques and prowess of his middle age, to capture the goodpersonality of the sitter. The artist succeeded in his objective because Simon Gillespie, master,succeeded in his.




There is only one question left. Did this splendid study lead to one of Angeli's royal masterpieces? Itconstitutes the perfect query for my older age. Therefore I am not chagrined to have found noanswer yet. For now it is enough that this engaging sketch has survived and faces its future with amixture of royal pride and affability, the attributes of the sitter, captured by von Angeli, saved byGillespie and now, chez moi, an object of grandeur and appeal, truly fit for a king, perfectlypositioned for maximum effect... for I know something about arrrrrrangement, too.




Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor 1742-1745. A must-haveimperial image found by a connoisseur, restored by amaster, shared with you in its full majesty.By Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author's program note. You are about to be taken inside a world of finesse, exquisite manners, bonton, a world where la douceur de la vie was perfected in every particular and where every momentaway was quite simply unbearable. I am talking, of course, of eighteenth century Europe and moreprecisely of its monarchs and the aristocracy that provided the rapt audience for majesty's everymove. As Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord said, "Those who had not known the Ancien régimewould never be able to know how sweet life had been", and he was most assuredly in a position toknow.

So while we cannot reconstruct this moment of heaven on Earth, we can at least revive a moment ofits essence, rather like the fine perfume that lingers on a packet of love letters and so evokes thewhole in an instant of rich remembrance. That is why I advise you to play Jean-Philippe Rameau(1683-1764) before continuing with this article. Yes, Rameau whose sophisticated notes waftedfrom the salons of Versailles to all the chateaux of Europe, the music for love affaires without end.

Listen to La Orquesta de Luis XV Concierto de Jordi Savall. You will easily find it any searchengine, and you will soon savor it, especially if there is a drop of blue blood in your veins, as youhave always surmised... and hoped.

An emperor dies, a cornucopia of possibilities.

This chapter of our story begins with a death; but not just any death; the death of God's vicegerent onEarth, Charles VI, ruler of the conglomerate that was neither (according to Voltaire) Holy... norRoman... nor an Empire. He was a man with a problem; a problem he died (1740) believing he hadsolved. He had sired only daughters (two) but according to the rules of succession, these daughterscould not rule; only sons might... and there were no imperial sons to be had. Charles kept trying toremedy the deficiency, but could not. He then decided that the rules could be changed, if he bribedhis fellow monarchs sufficiently.

He called his solution the Pragmatic Sanction... and it cost him a pretty penny. What's more, theminute he died, the princes of Europe (particularly Frederick II of Prussia) abjured their oaths... eachbelieving they could get more through outright theft, an art perfected by sovereigns thereafter called"Great", like Frederick. And so war with all its delicious possibilities came again to Europe, thisparticular dust-up called "The War of the Austrian Succession" (1740-1748).

Of the many kings and princes involved (including Maria Theresa, the archducal beneficiary of thePragmatic Sanction), only one need detain us here, Charles Albert, Prince-elector of Bavaria from1726. He was the candidate Louis XV of France selected to break the Habsburgs unbreakable holdon the imperial title and emoluments. It seemed like a fine idea when raised... and so enough electorswere bribed to make him "Charles VII, by the grace of God elected Holy Roman Emperor, foreverAugust, King in Germany and of Bohemia, Duke in...etc., etc." How could mere mortal turn it alldown?

Thus was Europe divided into the Habsburg party and those who saw more spoils by adhering to theonly non-Habsburg emperor since the 15th century, Charles VII Albert of the giddy House ofWittelsbach, cock-a-hoop, but not for long.

"Uneasy lies the head..."




Soon enough Charles Albert had reason to regret. His imperial coronation on 12 February 1742 wasfollowed by his Austrian adversaries overrunning his home territories and Munich his capital. Hehad an imperial title but no substance whatsoever. Deriding wags mocked him, "et Caesar et nihil,"meaning "as well Emperor, as nothing." Just a year later,1743, this impecunious, hapless princelingdied, of gout, obese, despairing. And so he returned to Munich in a super sized coffin, a failure, anembarrassment, a man best forgotten, not painted.

Bildnis des Kurfursten Karl Albrecht von Bayern, Jan Kupetzky (Bosing/Pressburg 1667- 1740Nurnberg), zugeschrieben, Ol auf Leinwand, 92 x 74,3 cm.

I am a close reader of "Alte Meister" ("Old Master") catalogs produced by the Austrian auctionhouse Dorotheum (founded in 1707). I open these catalogs with a mixture of dread and white-hotenthusiasm; afraid of what I'll find that will crush my every good intention to "budget" and "save"...painstaking in reviewing every page. The portrait of the Emperor Carl VII Albert, Lot 8, 11 June,2012 was tailer-made to catch my eye. It was love at first sight; I could only hope that my long-timeconservator Simon Gillespie would find the irremediable flaws that would save my money andnegate any thought of purchase. Otherwise I was well and truly doomed, since I am an assiduouscollector of Austrian imperial pictures and this one was rare indeed; no wonder, given the fact thatthe subject had other things to do than sit for his portrait during his brief reign so filled with woe andcatastrophe. I awaited Simon's report with impatience.

Dull to look at, layers of dirt and discolored varnishes, what the trained eye sees, what it means.

If you mean to collect good art, particularly good art down on its luck, dirty, damaged, desolate, youneed an eye that sees not only what is but what was and what can be. This is the masterful, deepseeing eye Simon Gillespie, wizard of Cleveland Street London, has developed over decades andwhich I, mere acolyte, have spent many years improving. The entire business is predicated on whatthe master's eye sees and what his deft hand must then effect to return the disconsolate image to theradiance its artist intended.

This is all easily said but needs the study and experience of a lifetime to render. I invariably retainSimon Gillespie because he remains constant in his objective; to restore, not to invent; to go wherethe artist went but no further, and so return to life in its pristine form each work he touches with hisnimble fingers, the fingers it has taken a lifetime to train and execute their crucial work.

Simon's report.

Given the dull appearance of this picture, its layers of disfiguring dirt and degraded varnishes,writing it off might have made perfect sense, especially given a plethora of other problems,including a plain and ordinary wooden frame. There was absolutely nothing imperial about it. Buthere is where Gillespie's masterful eye came into play, for beneath every dismal aspect there wasquality, the quality imparted by its creator, Jan Kupetzky (1667-1740).

Kupetzky's talent manifested itself early and to the right people. Just 20 years old, after studying withthe Swiss painter Benedikt Klaus, Kupetzky went on an extended Italian study trip. In Rome, PrinceAleksander Benedykt Sobieski, the son of Polish King John III Sobieski, helped him becomefamous... and so for the rest of his long life he was. This fame got him the plum commissions; thestriking pictures that resulted got him more; Prince Eugene of Savoy, aristocrats needing a carefultouch with their eternal images, even Russian Tsar Peter I and his hapless heir, Tsarevich AlexeiPetrovich. Influenced by Caravaggio and Rembrandt he painted splendid pictures of himself, hisfamily, friends. He was a master and used his great gifts to great effect. In due course, with assiduityand brilliance he became the most significant German portrait painter of his day; just the manCharles VII Albert required to portray him as he wished to be, very definitely not as he was.




Gillespie looked deep and saw enough evidence of masterful Kupetzky to justify proceeding to thenext level. And on this basis I acquired the work at auction for the low estimate; I believe I was theonly bidder. That's how little appeal this picture then possessed and how nearly a very different fatehad been avoided.

Ah, but look at it now... its splendor enhanced by the best carver and gilder in London whoreplicated an original frame design and delivered the high tone of gilding as would have been at thetime. And so the saddest Holy Roman Emperor, the man who gambled all and lost all, sails forthinto perpetuity looking exactly like a king should look, signed by Kupetzky, conserved by Gillespie,hung here in Cambridge for me.




'A boy! A boy! My kingdom for a boy!' On Holy RomanEmperor Charles VI, his dilemma, and an over-the-toppicture of eye-popping grandeur and allegory. by Dr. Jeffrey Lant.

Author's Program Note. No royal court in Europe was more musically inclined than the imperialHabsburgs who ruled their vast real estate from the most melodious of capitals, Wien. Or as youwould say, Vienna. To be a prince of this dynasty (called archdukes) was an honorable thing ofcourse, a matter of dignity and respect.

But to be an emperor or even an archduke who was an accomplished musician was marvelous... andwhen this valued being composed, too, why this was very heaven and deserving of every paean andveneration. For the Habsburgs were the most fortunate of princes; to rule over a people ascosmopolitan and sophisticated as they were, with taste refined, pure, cultivated to the highestdegree.

Their subjects realized such accomplished and refined princes were rare, and so gave them a fidelityless humane sovereigns could only envy but never emulate. As it turned out the last male ruler in hisline was the Emperor Charles VI (1685-1740). Today I tell his story... and unveil one of the mostmagnificent pictures of his reign... the great day he, God's vicegerant on Earth, was crowned King ofBohemia, September 5, 1723.

For such an occasion, for such a man music, great music is required and what better than a bravelittle piece written by Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, two of whose musically inclined sons(Joseph I and Charles VI) became emperors, too. This piece is called "Lasset Ihr Stemen", and you'llfind it in any search engine. Go now. You'll need to practice your courtly leaps and gambols; themusic will provide the necessary clues about just when to jump and with what elasticity andexquisite precision...

The problem, the tragedy of Charles VI's life.

Charles VI was a man of taste, an aesthete, a connoisseur. He was also a prince of the firstmagnitude; a necessary cog in the complicated wheel of European statecraft. At the time hischildless cousin of Spain, Charles II, lay a long time dying Archduke Charles was not the next heirto Austria's empire. That was his older brother Joseph I.

But to the inconvenience of all, Joseph died, thus making his archducal brother Holy RomanEmperor and, due to the carefully contrived marriages of his canny predecessors, plausible heir toeven greater lands, specifically those of Spain where his sickly cousin Charles II still lingered, a manwhose only remaining importance was his much desired death... and who would get the glitteringinheritance, about one sixth of the globe.

Two princes claimed the riches of the dons; Philip of Anjou, the French candidate; and the man nowcalled Emperor Charles VI. Should Spanish King Charles select his imperial cousin, the great empireof Charles V would be revived, to the unmitigated detriment of both England and France. That, thedisadvantaged all agreed, would never do.

And so King Louis XIV of France reluctantly allowed Philip of Anjou to accept the throne of Spain(as Philip III) and so began the draining, interminable War of the Spanish Succession. FromAustria's standpoint it was not a "good" war. Along the way, their shrewd ally England, recreatingtheir immemorial role as "Perfidious Albion", deserted the imperial cause thus allowing Philip III tostay on the Spanish throne. The condition was that the crowns of Spain and France must never be




linked.

The bone tossed to Charles VI was a goodly part of the Netherlands. For all that he didn't triumph,France, victor, came out worse; desolate, bankrupt, exhausted. Such was the price of victory and themonarchical structure of Europe. Things got better for Imperial Charles, and worse.

The real estate agents called Habsburg did what they always did: added properties, traded properties,bargained properties, married properties, ventured properties, lost properties. They were Europe'srealtors, and they consistently got more than they gave up; garnering the crown of Bohemia in 1711;that of restless Hungary in 1712; trading Spain in 1738 Sicily and Naples for the gracious duchies ofParma and Piacenza.

This is what being a Habsburg meant and Charles VI played the great game as well as any of hisimperial brethren. But he had to finesse his one glaring problem, the succession; the first task of adynast. Charles produced two daughters but a brigade of such princesses was not the equal of asingle prince. He needed that prince and a spare, and his need was urgent.

Thus the head of House Habsburg, the very model of monarchical tradition, canvassed a radicalsolution to the matter; a solution that would keep the succession to his own kin, never mind theywere female, and so avoid another of Europe's debilitating wars of succession. It was called thePragmatic Sanction and, bribe by bribe, concession by lucrative concession, the princes of Europecame on board with pledges of adherence hardly one had any intention of actually keeping. It was allpart of the scheming that was sovereignty. Duplicity was the true droit de seigneur.

Revolutionary, unprecedented solution; ultra traditional presentation.

The Pragmatic Sanction was finalized in 1713. It was crucial to disguise just how unprecedented itwas. And that's where Johann George Bohm (1673-1746) and his exuberant, signed and imperiallycommissioned "Allegory of the Coronation of Emperor Charles VI as King of Bohemia in Prague on5th September 1723" comes in.

It may well be the most significant and is certainly the most glorious representation of monarchicallegitimacy ever painted, bold in its objective, audacious in its purpose, a picture offering thestrongest possible support to the legitimist principle and its current representative and champion,Charles VI by the Grace of God...

An allegory, a declaration, an assertion, a conviction, a proof.

Every picture contains a message, but in few pictures is that message as abundantly clear, striking,fierce and even bombastic as this one, which seeks, indeed demands, nothing less than your totalbelief in and submission to the unquestioned doctrine that this man and his dynasty are the favoredand elect of God. It goes about elucidating this fact in the following way: by picturing theCoronation in Prague as grand theater, operatic, uplifting, inspiring, an event of grace andapotheosis.

Thus, the work offers a plethora of signs, symbols, and images, each with its individual task ofsupporting and hammering home the essential message: that the Emperor specifically and the entiredynasty generally are of God, ordained by God, sustained by God, forever and ever and thatsubmission to these God-sanctified Habsburgs is mandatory, unalterable, eternal. Amen.

Let us take a closer look at the symbolic richness of this picture where each item and everyrepresentation is there to carry the overriding message and in as many ways remind the viewer thathere is perpetual truth, no cavil or reservation of any kind permitted.

And so we see the sovereigns, Charles VI and his consort Elisabeth Christine of




Braunschweig-Wolfenbuttel under a soaring cloth of state, the double headed eagle picked out ingold and their imperial monograms. The imperial couple are surrounded by personifications of thevirtues intended to characterize the reign of the new Bohemian king. Amongst them Charity,represented with the arms of the city of Prague, their new kingdom's capital. Pheme floats above thisgroup with the trumpet of fame. In the right foreground Chronos, father of Zeus, God of time, pullsback the curtain of history which cannot but bless this king, his dynasty, his reign which can only behappy ordained as it is by God Himself and His (Roman Catholic) church.

Now the question must be answered: who painted this magnificent declaration, this encyclical ofcolor and splendor? Bohm. Johann George Bohm, Master, a man who knew his craft; the art ofpresenting royalty exactly as it wished to be seen by itself and all lesser folk. As such Bohm waswelcomed wherever fastidious royalty needed his essential talent, amongst them the Courts ofSaxony and Poland.

Lot 620, "Alte Meister", Dorotheum, 18 April, 2012.

It would be wrong to say it was love at first sight; rather it was lust, desire, and anxiety. It wassomething so perfect for my collection it might have been commissioned by me. As such it threw allmy good resolutions about thrift, planning and self-control right out the window. I could only hopemy valued conservator of over 3 dozen pictures would find flaws so grave even his genius would notsuffice. But this is the magic of Simon Gillespie, Cleveland Street, London. If the picture can berestored to its pristine allure, then his triumph and the picture's future are assured even for objects asbadly off as this daunting masterpiece, a skein of thousands of cracks, damages, imperfections, andassorted troubles on an imperial scale.

Surely this time even Simon might quail. But he did not quail. And so the master who painted thisdemanding masterpiece came to be admirably served by the master who saved the work from itspitiful downward spiral of distress, desolation, and despair.

Thus Gillespie and team went to work with a will, investing over 600 hours of their practisedexpertise, bringing the picture back one fraction of an inch after another, patience and a hand madesable hair brush the crucial tools. By such pains the picture and its splendid original frame with theCrown of Bohemia above all were restored, resplendent, a thing as proud as the sovereign whocommissioned the work, and far more successful than he.

For you see, the great work of his reign, ensuring that the empire complete and indivisible wassuccessfully passed to his daughter Archduchess Maria Theresa, crashed before his mortal remainswere even cool; royal marauders, all sworn to support the Pragmatic Sanction, broke their solemnvows and grabbed what they could as fast as they could.

Now this picture, 117 x 89 cm, saved for the future, has come to its new home here in Cambridge,where I, the son of Puritans, carefully protect not just this imperial work... but a room full ofHabsburgs, all in radiant condition. And so the present, in the persons of Simon Gillespie and me,has kept faith with a past we value, particularly in its artful manifestations. We have here worked topreserve; worked to maintain; and worked to secure... all tasks worth doing... all tasks done well.




ResourceAbout the Author Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a widerange of online services for small and-home based businesses. Services include home businesstraining, affiliate marketing training, earn-at-home programs, traffic tools, advertising, webcasting,hosting, design, WordPress Blogs and more. Find out why Worldprofit is considered the # 1 onlineHome Business Training program by getting a free Associate Membership today.

Republished with author's permission by Elizabeth English http://LizsWorldprofit.com.



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