Publication details
„Bůh Vás ochraňuj před žijícími umělci!“ Výtvarné umění v korespondenci dvou vlnařských podnikatelů Huga Františka ze Salm-Reifferscheidtu a Maximiliana Specka von Sternburg
| Title in English | "God bless you before living artists!" Art in the correspondence of two wool businessmen Hugo Franz of Salm-Reifferscheidt and Maximilian Speck von Sternburg |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2014 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | In 1801, Count Hugo Franz of Salm-Reifferscheidt took, together with Vinzenz Valentin Petko, a successful “spy” trip to England. Its objective was to obtain plans of machines used for the processing of wool, as well as technical information necessary for their assembling and operation. Weaving machines put together on the basis of these drawings were the first of the kind in Brno, and probably among the first in the Habsburg monarchy. Eleven of the eighteen drafts have been preserved in the library collections of Rájec nad Svitavou Chateau. After 1806 Count Salm shifted his attention, as part of the rationalization process concerning the economic run of the family estate, to sheep breeding and the production of wool; he was one of the prime movers of the branch in Moravia and the whole monarchy. The count’s chief support was his long-term friend Maximilian Speck von Sternburg from Leipzig, a leading economic expert and wool merchant. Their friendship is documented by correspondence that started in 1821 (or 1824) and lasted until Salm’s death in 1836. Apart from numerous details elucidating the background of wool production and business deals between the two men, the correspondence contains interesting information about art and artists. Maximilian Speck was a renowned art collector and connoisseur, and Count Salm who shared his interests drew on his friend’s experience. For example, on Maximilian Speck’s recommendation he purchased, in 1824, the Io painting by Italian artist Natale Schiavoni from an academic exhibition in Vienna. In the same year, Speck helped him acquire the painting The Death of St. John the Evangelist by Hans Veit Schnorr von Carolsfeld, director of the Leipzig Academy that had caught Salm’s attention in the artist’s studio. However, when negotiating the price, there was a dispute between Speck and Schnorr that ended in court, demonstrating the limits of art patronage of the period. Both paintings are now also part of the collections in Rájec nad Svitavou Chateau. The presented correspondence of the two wool entrepreneurs shows that the development of the textile industry in Moravia in the first third of the 19th century was also reflected in art and culture, and that in the period thinking influenced by the reverberations of the Enlightenment these activities were naturally connected. |
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