The History of the World in a ‘Wimmelbild’

Stephan Kessler and the Liberation of Vienna in 1683

Abstract

The representation of battle panoramas was a widespread genre in 17th-century painting when skilled artists became sought-after specialists working for many courts in Central Europe. Throughout the 17th century, continual Otto- man aggressions gave a new actuality to the battle genre. Stephan Kessler, a late 17th-century artist from the South Tyrolean town of Brixen, who lived far away from the great artistic centres, but was well informed of developments there, successfully made his way in this field, depicting the liberation of Vienna in 1683 on colourful, multi-figured canvasses in the tradition of 16th-century ‘Wimmelbilder’. As an artist of modest talents, Kessler regularly referred to Rubens, whose compositions came to new life through well-known reproductive prints. A representation of the Vienna battle from 1683 held at the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna, was attributed to Kessler, as well as a stylistically closely related painting of the same motif at Schloss Friedenstein, Gotha. Recent research of the Viennese canvas confirmed this hypothesis when Kessler’s monogram came to light.