(Bologna 1764–1850 Pesaro)
Portrait of Emperor Francis II. (1768–1835) at a young age, wearing the Order of the Golden Fleece, the Order of Maria Theresia and the Hungarian Order of Saint Stephen, holding a map of Italy,
inscribed: FRANCESCO. II. IMPERAT,
signed and indistinctly dated lower left: P. Fancelli …,
inscribed on stretcher: Sig. Pietro Fancelli,
oil on canvas, 113.5 x 74 cm, framed

The present portrait is one of the few portraits of Emperor Francis in his younger years. It was previously unknown to scholars and is hitherto unpublished.

The emperor is depicted in a white uniform, wearing the Order of the Golden Fleece, the Order of Maria Theresia and the Hungarian Order of Saint Stephen, in front of a large battle flag showing the double headed eagle of the Holy Roman empire. He is pointing to a map of Italy.

Whilst the signature ‘P. Fancelli’ lower left is clearly legible, the date on the present painting has suffered. What is left of the date could be read as ‘1800’. Francis II was thirty-two years old in 1800, which corresponds to his age shown in the present portrait. This date would also provide an iconographical explanation for the prominent map of Italy depicted by Fancelli, bearing in mind the military campaigns of the second war of the coalition in 1799-1800 in northern Italy. After having defeated the French at the battles of Magnano and Cassano in April of 1799, the Austrians had driven the French out of almost all Italian territories, effectively dissolving the French satellite-state of the ‘Cisalpine Republic’, which Bologna had been part of as the ‘Department Reno’. Austrian rule was restored over most of northern and central Italy, and the present portrait would appear to commemorate this renewed strength of Habsburg legitimacy. It was most probably painted in Bologna for an aristocratic patron seeking to demonstrate his allegiance to the emperor. The triumph over the French, however, was to be short-lived: Napoleon, returning from Egypt, took command over the French-Italian army in the spring of 1800, famously crossed the Alps and defeated the imperial army at the decisive Battle of Marengo on 14 June 1800.

Francis was basically Italian and was born and raised in Florence, as the eldest son of the Grand Duke Leopold, later Emperor Leopold. His father reigned as Grand Duke from 1765 to 1790. Though he had a happy childhood surrounded by his many siblings, his family knew Francis was likely to be a future Emperor (his uncle Joseph had no surviving issue from either of his two marriages), and so in 1784 the young Archduke was sent to the Imperial Court in Vienna to educate and prepare him for his future role. After the death of Joseph II in 1790, Francis’s father became Emperor. Leopold died prematurely in 1792, at the relatively young age of 44. Francis, just past his 24th birthday, was now Emperor, much sooner than he had expected. His Coronation as the last Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was also the last imperial coronation ceremony in central Europe. Francis assumed the title of Emperor of Austria in response to the declaration of Napoleon as Emperor of the French. Soon after Napoleon created the Confederation of the Rhine, Francis abdicated as Holy Roman Emperor. He was King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia. He also served as the first president of the German Confederation following its establishment in 1815. He continued his leading role as an opponent of Napoleonic France in the Napoleonic Wars. After the abdication of Napoleon following the War of the Sixth Coalition, Austria participated as a leading member of the Holy Alliance at the Congress of Vienna, which was largely dominated by Francis’s chancellor Klemens Wenzel, Prince von Metternich, culminating in a new European map and the restoration of most of Francis’s ancient dominions.

Fancelli depicts the young emperor in front of a ledge, with masterfully rendered, elegantly arranged symbols of imperial power, such as the sword or the imperial orb. The physiognomy is rendered in neoclassical dignity, characteristic of Fancelli’s portraits, which sometimes border on statuary, reminiscent of other works in the neoclassical style, like Johan Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein’s portraiture. Comparable is Fancelli’s Self-portrait of 1800 (see B. Basevi, Felsina sempre pittrice. Acquisizioni d’arte e donazioni per la storia di Bologna, 2014-2016, exhibition catalogue, ed. by A. Mazza, Bologna 2016, p. 150).

Pietro Fancelli received his early training in the Venetian studio of his father, the decorative painter Petronio Fancelli, before returning to his native Bologna in 1784 and enrolling in the Accademia Clementina. He maintained a close relationship with the Accademia throughout his career, becoming a member in 1791 and continuing to teach drawing there after its reorganisation as the Accademia Nazionale di Belli Arti in 1804. Fancelli established a reputation as a specialist in theatrical design and scenography and was active as a portrait and decorative fresco painter. He also produced a number of paintings for local churches, such as the Stigmatization of Saint Francis in the church of San Francesco in Faenza, painted in 1790, a Saint Thomas of Villanova Distributing Alms in the church of San Giacomo Maggiore in Bologna, completed in 1827, and a Saint Anne and the Virgin for Santa Maria Maggiore in Bologna, painted in 1829.