An allegory of Emperor Franz II (1768–1835) and the Treaty of Lunéville (1801),
signed, inscribed and dated lower left: La Pace del 1801 / Ferracuti fecit,
oil on canvas, 152 x 114 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, Austria

Nothing is known about the painter Ferracuti. Neither his full name, nor the dates of his life. It is also not known where he trained and with whom. Yet this magnum opus by the obscure artist was considered a significant enough work for him to have proudly signed his name, and joins his small oeuvre of only four other paintings, including: a Portrait of the Viennese art and music dealer Carlo Mechetti (1747–1811), offered in these rooms in 2022 (see sale, Dorotheum, Vienna, 19 December 2022, lot 217); the portrait of a hussar officer in the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna (signed and dated 1801); an Elegant company in a park (Schloss Neuwaldegg, Vienna); and the lost portrait of the Italian composer Giuseppe Nicolini, probably painted in 1811.

The present painting is a rich and tightly composed allegory centred on the last Holy Roman Emperor, the young Emperor Francis II, who sits on top of a magnificent white horse and is anointed with a laurel. He is portrayed as a prince of peace who succeeded in pacifying the war furies of the French Revolution as a result of the peace treaty signed in Lunéville, France. Behind the resplendent Emperor is a snarling Cerberus retreating back to the fiery depths of the Underworld. At his side are the Greek goddesses Pallas Athena, Hygeia and Eirine. In the foreground lies an empty suit of armour, discarded by an allegory of peace as something now superfluous.

The Peace of Lunéville regulated the legal incorporation of the territories on the left bank of the Rhine, occupied in 1794, into French territory. The principalities of the Holy Roman Empire were promised compensation through the secularisation of ecclesiastical and, in part, mediatisation of smaller secular territories. The distribution of territories on the right bank of the Rhine was implemented by the Imperial Recess of 1803. While Venice, Istria and the Dalmatian coast remained Austrian, Emperor Francis II had to recognise the French daughter republics, the Batavian (Netherlands), the Cisalpine (Milan), the Helvetic (Switzerland) and the Ligurian Republic (Genoa) in return. The previously Habsburg-ruled Grand Duchy of Tuscany was incorporated into the Kingdom of Etruria, another French vassal state. In compensation, the Grand Duke Ferdinand III received the Archdiocese of Salzburg and the Provostship of Berchtesgaden. With the Peace of Lunéville, France took over Austria’s role as the strongest continental European power. Nevertheless, at the time the empire believed that peace had been restored permanently.