cahn | 18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 34

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And including Emperor Joseph II!

from Derek Beales: Joseph II, Volume 2: Against the World, 1780 - 1790:

Joseph's alleged comment to Mozart about the Entführung, "Too many notes", has been taken as evidence of his ignorance. But he probably said something like, "Too beautiful for our ears, and monstrous many notes." It is always necessary to bear in mind, when appraising the emperor's remarks, his peculiar brand of humor or sarcasm. He was usually getting at someone. And he did not use the royal "we". The ears in question were those of the Viennese audience, whom he was mocking for their limited appreciation of Mozart's elaborate music.

(though not gonna lie, I think it is a LOT of notes)

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From:

cahn

but somehow, mysteriously, not reinstating da Ponte in his old job after five pages of this.

ahahaha, very mysterious! I did remember you'd mentioned all the "I'm the greatest!" but didn't remember this, if you'd mentioned it before.

note that the figures representing MT and FS are looking at each other, not to the ceiling/heaven as usually couple depictions on tombs go.That Joseph wanted to be buried in the exact opposite of this, yet with them, just about sums it up.

I... have a lot of feelings about this <3

All their differences aside, I do imagine the first thing his parents did when he joined them in the hereafter after his painful death was give him the spiritual equivalent of a big hug.

Yeah, this is just going to be my headcanon now!

From:

selenak

Mildred being a fan of maps, here's one of the entire Cappuchin Crypt, where (most of) the Habsburgs are buried. The section where MT, FS, Joseph, MT's children who died as infants, Isabella and her two dead children as well as Joseph's unfortunate second wife are buried is unsurprisingly called the Maria-Theresien-Gruft. Leopold, his wife and children aren't there, they lie in a different section, the Toskana-Gruft. (Toskana = Tuscany.)

Here's something touching I didn't know yet I learned from the Kapuziner-Gruft-Website: as you might recall, Maria Carolina, who (courtesy of Napoleon) having left Naples for good, spent the last years of her life in Vienna. She's buried there, too (which I figured), but what was new to me is that in 1802, Maria Carolina had a medaillon with a picture of herself be added to MT's sarcophagus with the following inscription:

IUNGERE CUI NEQUEO MATER DULCISSIMA CORPUS HANC NATAE MOESTAM SUSCIPITO EFFIGIEM MDCCCII.

"Sweetest Mother, with whom I could not reunite in body, take this mourning picture of your daughter, 1802."

ETA: also, reminder, the one person buried in that crypt who is neither a Habsburg nor was married to one was MT's governess, Karoline von Fuchs ("die Fuchsin"), who had raised her. Here, after the inscription declaring her name, age, titles etc., MT added a personal PS: "IN MEMORIAM IMMORTALEM GRATIOSISS. GRATIQ. ANIMI. LIBARALIS AD VIRTUTEM INSTITUTIONIS ERGO, M. THERESIA AUGUSTA"

"For the immortal memory of a grateful heart for the noble education towards virtue, I, Maria Theresia, Empress"

Edited Date: 2022-01-17 10:12 am (UTC)