Michael Ignaz Mildorfer (Innsbruck, 1690 - 1747) Austrian Sc...

Hammer

£2,800

Michael Ignaz Mildorfer (Innsbruck, 1690 - 1747)
Austrian School
The fire at Ruhelust Castle, Innsbruck, Austria (15th-16th March, 1728)

Oil on panel
Inscribed extensively verso

Michael Ignaz Mildorfer was born into an esteemed family of painters. His father ran
a successful etching, engraving and printing workshop, having come to Innsbruck
from Straubing brandishing his own family crest and a charter allowing him to work
unhampered by the need to join any local guild. Michael's sister Maria Elisabeth found
fame as a miniaturist and spent most of her life in Rome. Michael himself worked,
together with the more established painter Josef Waldmann, on prestigious projects
such as the decorations and frescoes for the splendid Herkulessaal in the Imperial
Palace and the Servitenkirche in the centre of Innsbruck. He was also active as an
engraver and printer.

In 1712 Michael Ignaz married Ursula, the widow of his colleague Josef Waldmann;
this alliance further enhanced his position among Tyrolean artists. The fact that an
Innsbruck nobleman by the name of Michael de Lama acted as godfather at the
christening of the couple's son, Josef Ignaz, confirms this impression. Of their six
children only three survived into adulthood: Maria Susanna (1714-1753) who would
since marry the Innsbruck painter Joseph Pögl; Maria Anna, who was sickly and
confined to a hospital and, lastly, Josef Ignaz (1719-1775) who would go on become a famous painter in his own right.

Ruhelust castle was built in 1522 by Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor of the
Habsburg dynasty, within the vast formal gardens around his Innsbruck Palace. His
successor, Ferdinand II, appointed architect Giovanni Lucchese in 1567 to refit the
castle for him in the Italian Renaissance style for use as a summer residence.
Made up of several smaller buildings, Ruhelust was built from timber (a deliberate
choice of material to make it withstand recurring earth quakes), and consisted of an
upper and a lower section with ample space to accommodate the royal baths, the
Archduke's offices, his antiquities collection, a chapel, a designated ball house and
workshops. Later additions would include a hall for dressage riding displays
curiously combined with an opera house-cum-theatre.

By 1582 the lengthy and costly building work had been completed. Having neglected
the Hofburg, their main residence, in the process and having expended vast sums on
warfare during the 30 Years' War, the imperial family made Schloss Ruhelust their
private residence. However, in 1636 Ruhelust was ravaged by fire and suffered
extensive damage. It was eventually reconstructed, but the Habsburg dynasty had
moved to Vienna by 1665, shifting the focus of its power to that city.

In 1728 Ruhelust succumbed to a second fire, which entirely destroyed it. According
to the inscription on the reverse, our painting depicts this last fire, which occurred in
the night of 15-16 March 1728. Mildorfer appears to have witnessed the actual event,
recording in paint the turmoil and destruction. Another, much larger and more
comprehensive, version of this painting is in the collection of The Ferdinandeum, the
Tiroler Landesmuseum, in Innsbruck.

Interestingly, (not least because none of the other figures seem to be repeated from
one painting to another), the figure of one well-dressed gentleman appears in the
lower middle ground in both paintings. In Mildorfer's allegorical etching and
engraving of Charles VI, circa 1726, a similar figure is seen presenting a folio to the
Emperor. This would indicate that all three depictions could be self-portraits of the artist.

Dimensions:
(Panel) 12 1/4 in. (H) x 15 3/4 in. (W)