Study for the Portrait of Emperor Joseph II.

The portrait of German emperor Joseph II von Habsburg, the son of Maria Theresa and Francis I, is known thanks to many depictions. In addition, the golden fleece, the red and white sash and the crosses of the Order of Maria Theresa and the Order of St. Stephen help us to identify the subject of the portrait.

Emperor Joseph II could have visited Rome, which was unheard of since its plundering by Charles V, at the time of the interregnum and the conclave where Pope Clement XIV was elected. In the morning hours, Emperor Joseph II together with his brother Peter Leopold I, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, posed six times for Batoni. Maria Theresa remunerated the artist for the completed painting with a diamond ring and money and placed the painting in the Vieux Laque in the east wing of Schönbrunn Castle in Vienna. The double portrait was seen for the last time in 1945 and was replaced by a copy in 1951 (KHM).

The copy only partially corresponded to the missing original because it was based on the three-quarter size version with modified iconography that Maria Theresa ordered.
 
Identical to the archive photograph of the lost original painting (ÖNB), in Batoni’s drawing of 1775 (Albertina) dedicated to Maria Theresa, the emperor is leaning against a statue of Minerva holding an olive branch and not against the personification of Rome holding a globe. Even in the graphic work, which originated after several other initiatives through the joint effort of Batoni and Venetian graphic artist Andrea Rossi, they reproduced the first and later lost full figure version.

There are several replicas of the lost painting and the currently known one. Despite its striking signature and tempting conjecture regarding Batoni’s sketch based on identical details of the wig and the copying of blurred shapes (such as the bow on the wig) and a certain uncommunicativeness in expression, the painting in Bratislava could be related to the version in Torino (Galleria Sabauda) which is a workshop replica from 1774 by Giovanni Panealbo (around 1742–1815) who worked in Batoni’s studio.

Zuzana Ludiková ● LUDIKOVÁ, Zuzana - BURAN, Dušan. Talianska maľba = Italian Painting. Bratislava : Slovenská národná galéria, 2013. 242 strán. ISBN 9788080591748.