Elusive Marble. Digital Reconstruction of the Vienna Sculpture Collections (1780–1840)
The Vienna sculpture collections of the Esterházy, Fries, Liechtenstein, Metternich and Rasumovskij families ranked among the most important of their day in Europe, on a par with those of the Duke of Devonshire and Count Schönborn. Between 1780 and 1840 Vienna was one of the foremost centers of classicist sculpture, with an outstanding concentration of high-quality works of international origin and fame. Through auctions and sales, these objects are today scattered around the world and have not hitherto been considered by scholarship in their entirety. The aim of this research project is to reconstruct and contextualize these collections, digitize existing archival and visual materials, and compile them into a database so they are accessible for academic use.
