Emperor Charles VI.
*01.10.1685 Vienna - †20.10.1740 Vienna
Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
Archduke of Austria
King of Hungary
King of Bohemia
King of Spain
Charles VI., son of Emperor Leopold I. and Eleonora Magdalena of Palatinate-Neuburg, was designated by his father as king of the Spanish line of the Archducal House and became King Charles III of Spain in 1703. After the death of his brother Joseph I., he returned to Vienna to succeed him.
e became King of Bohemia, Holy Roman Emperor in the autumn of 1711, and King of Hungary in 1712. After the War of the Spanish Succession, he lost the Spanish crown and colonies to his opponent Philip of Anjou, while the southern Netherlands and Spanish possessions in Italy went to Austria.
In 1713, Charles created the Pragmatic Sanction, an inheritance agreement that would ensure the succession of Charles VI.'s daughters over Joseph's in the event of the family dying out in the male line. The recognition and securing of Archduchess Maria Theresa's succession became the most important aspect of his policy towards other European states and their guarantees. His last years of rule were overshadowed by diplomatic and military failures.
Like his father, Charles VI was a talented musician. It was through him that Antonio Caldara, Johann Joseph Fux and Pietro Metastasio, the most important poet of his time, were invited to Vienna.
The artistic standard of Bernhard Fischer von Erlach's designs and the allegories of Daniel Gran and Michael Rottmayr were in keeping with the spirit of their patron. Although Charles VI. had no interest in continuing the construction of Schönbrunn – his palace was the Favorita, today's Theresianum – he commissioned the construction of a second Escorial outside Vienna, in Klosterneuburg – a monastery and residence in one building. However, the building remained unfinished.
The ten years spent in Spain had shaped Charles VI.'s worldview, lifestyle and relationship to art and artists. He was one of the greatest patrons of the Habsburg dynasty.
The sarcophagus
The original sarcophagus was a joint effort by Nikolaus Moll, Balthazar Ferdinand's older brother, and Johann Georg Pichler. The wooden coffin was placed inside the finished ceremonial coffin at 1 a.m. on 18 October 1742. In 1743, both sculptors received 3,645 florins ‘for three pewter coffins made for Charles VI and Archduchesses Elisabeth and Carolina’.
In 1747, Salomon Kleiner made an engraving of this original sarcophagus, which is why it has been preserved for posterity. It shows the curved chest on richly ornamented volute-shaped supports and a tableau of arms in the middle of the long sides surrounding the initials C C for Carolus Caesar (= Emperor Charles) surrounded by oak leaves. The lid bore the mourning Austria with the bust of the emperor and the genius raising the sign of immortality.
The signature on the group of figures ‘Mourning Austria and Genius’, which became clearly visible during the last restoration, also points to Nikolaus Moll. The group of figures demonstrates a consummate mastery of the human form. There is a stylistic reference to Michelangelo's tomb figures in the Medici Chapel in Florence and to G. R. Donner's fountain figures on the Neuer Markt (1739).
When Balthazar Ferdinand Moll completed Elisabeth Christine's sarcophagus in 1751 – his brother Nikolaus had died in 1743 – it was essentially modelled on the coffin made by his brother.
Because Maria Theresa found her father's sarcophagus less magnificent than her mother's, the artist was commissioned to bring it into its current representative form ‘in austustiorum adhuc formam’.
Moll's work, completed in 1752, consisted of adding the four crowns and the four lions carrying the coffin, as well as the battle reliefs.
Almost the entire front longitudinal side is taken up by the battle relief of Zaragoza from 20 August 1710. Below it are the double-headed eagle with the Rudolf crown, sceptre and sword. At the four corners are shields bearing the coats of arms of the Holy Roman Empire, Castile, Bohemia and Hungary. Each of the coats of arms is surrounded by war trophies and surmounted by a skull wearing the crown of the respective empire.
The lid of the sarcophagus is decorated like a richly chiselled cover and interwoven with arabesque patterns. Mourning Austria – recognisable by the Austrian coat of arms – holds the laurel-wreathed medallion image of the emperor above a globe together with the genius. The medallion is crowned by a star floating in the clouds and a snake devouring itself, the symbol of eternity.
On the left, lying on a cushion, are the archducal hat, sceptre, sword and golden fleece; on the right, on another cushion, are the imperial orb, mace and manipulus, the symbol of Roman imperial dignity.
On the back of the coffin, the relief depicts the Battle of Belgrade from 16 to 18 August 1717. The cartouches, crowned with rose garlands, are particularly striking.
Moll's name is signed twice on the coffin. He was the imperial family's pewterer for 20 years and a protégé of Empress Maria Theresa.
The inscriptions are carved into two large cartouches on the narrow sides.
At the head of the coffin:
AET. MEM. SAC. INFANDUM. DOLOREM. RENOVANT. SACRI. CINERAS. DIVI. IMP. CAROLI. VI. AUG. P. FEL. P. P. CONSTANTIA. ET. FORTITUDINE. AUSTRIACI. NEC. SOLUM. IN. UTRAQUE. SED. IN. OMNIBUS. HEROICIS. VIRTUTIBUS. CONSUMATISSIMI. PERFECTISSIMIQ. CAESARIS. QUI. ADHUC. IN. SEPULCHRO. VIVIT. UT. SCIA. VIATOR. VEL. SEPULTAM. MAIESTATEAM. NUNQUAM INTERIRE.
Dedicated to eternal remembrance. Unspeakable sorrow renews the holy ashes of the most blessed and illustrious Emperor Charles VI, who was exceedingly happy and perfect in the steadfastness and bravery of an Austrian, and not only in these two virtues, but in all heroic virtues, a most accomplished and capable emperor, who still lives in the grave, so that you may know, traveller, that majesty never perishes, even in death.
At the foot of the coffin:
COMMODATUS. PUBL. SALUTI. AN. CHR. D. N. MDCLXXXV. KALENDIS. OCTOBRIS. COELESTI. PATRIAE. REDDITUS. A. MDCCXL. XIII. KAL. NOV. NULLUM. POTUIT. MONUMENTUM CLARIUS. RELINQUERE. QUAM. EFFIGIEM, SUAE. VIRTUTIS. SAPIENTIAE. PIETATIS MARIAM. THERESIAM. AUGUSTAM. REGNANTIS. IUSTITIAE. ET. CLEMENTIAE. DECUS. EXEMPLAR. DISCILPINAM. VIXIT. ANN. LV. D. XIX., H. IIX
Conferred upon the common good in the year of Christ our Lord 1685, on 1 October, returned to his heavenly home in 1740, on 20 October, he could leave no more excellent monument than the image of his virtue, wisdom and piety, Maria Theresa, the Empress, the adornment, model and guiding principle of justice and goodness of a ruler. He lived 55 years, 19 days and 8 hours.