Imperial treasures from Vienna

IT IS small—it's a ring, after all. It is also surprising and breathtaking. The purity of the stone and the shield-like shape that forms its front give the sapphire ring the kind of cool elegance that can be reproduced in photographs. But its hot halo of shooting blue, purple and pink lights is visible only in person. The entire ring is carved from a single, unbroken hunk of the precious gem (pictured below). There is nothing quite like it anywhere. Made in 1400, the ring is the earliest of the 60 treasures on view in “Splendour and Power” which just opened at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. It is a perfect example of the exhibition’s purpose, which is to delight visitors while also explaining why rulers collected these very expensive, ornate and masterfully crafted objects. In this case the collectors were Habsburgs, who ruled the Holy Roman Empire from their Austrian base for centuries.
  
These pieces may occasionally mimic the shapes of useful objects, like drinking cups, but they were never meant to be utilitarian. That is not to say they lacked purpose. Indeed, they were designed to “enchant the senses, delight the eye and inspire the intellect,” writes Sabine Haag, the curator of this show loaned from Vienna’s Kunsthistoriche Museum (KHM), in the excellent catalogue. Consider for example an ivory necklace on view: a large, circular portrait pendant dangles from a long and unbroken chain; the whole thing is carved from a single elephant tusk without break or mistake. To make such a thing required steady nerves and hands, a sophisticated knowledge of the material and exceptional technical skill. The result is a remarkable feat of ingenuity.
    
Some of the objects were prized as exotic messengers from far-off lands. These include a carved, pale jade Ming bowl, mounted with rubies from the Ottoman court (possibly as a diplomatic gift). When it made its way to the Habsburgs it joined other spectacular objects in the Kunstkammer (art chamber), collected to further legitimise and enhance the power of the ambitious owner. Another ring in the show, a carved coral circlet with a series of tiny cameo portraits of Habsburg rulers (pictured), cunningly illustrates this goal. It features the profile of Ferdinand III encircled by smaller cameos of his immediate predecessors. All are identified as emperors but three were simply kings.
   
It was only in the 19th century that art was split into "high" and "low". Anything decorative fit into the latter category, regardless of beauty or technical expertise. As a result some may find it difficult to look at these rock-crystal vessels, jewels and perfume flasks as works of art. Even the exquisite 15th-century “Annunciation” in gold and enamel may not be perceived as the ecclesiastical treasure it is. (Once owned by the Habsburgs, it is now in the Fitzwilliam collection and on view in this show.) The single piece in this exhibition that should succeed in repairing this ill-judged high/low divide is the ivory cup made by Bernhard Strauss in Augsburg around 1660 (top). It is so deeply carved with classical gods and goddesses—Apollo with his lyre, Diana with her alert dog—that the piece has become translucent. Strauss has brought Olympus to life. 
   
Elsewhere in the Fitzwilliam paintings and sculpture are exhibited in rooms decorated with fine Oriental rugs, warm wood furniture and tick-tocking Thomas Tompion clocks. How wonderful it would be to see these Habsburg treasures amid ornate gilded console tables in rooms hung with allegorical tapestries. But never mind. Benefactions from the Monument Trust have allowed the Fitzwilliam to commission new display cases of non-reflective glass. The welcome illusion is that nothing separates the ogler from the ogled.
    
The Kunstkammer at the KHM is the greatest surviving princely treasure in the Western world, with thousands of Habsburg and Imperial objects. It has been closed for refurbishment since 2002, making this loan—the largest for half a century—possible. The Kunstkammer is expected to reopen at the end of next year, after which decades will surely pass before its objects leave home again. For those within striking distance of Cambridge, enough said.
 
"Splendour and Power: Imperial Treasures from Vienna" is on view at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England, until January 8th 2012