The Funerals of the Habsburg Emperors in the Eighteenth ... - KOPS

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while the couple were still alive, a high-ceilinged crypt with
natural illumination was erected to hold the monumental double
sarcophagus of Maria Theresa and Francis 1. Joseph II, finally,
removed the altar from the crypt. Its anteroom had already been
reduced in size to make space für another sarcophagus. Thus
Joseph II made room for his own sarcophagus and those of his
followers, and dosed the crypt to the public in 1787. His successor,
Leopold II (1790-2), by contrast, admitted the public to the
crypt again. B6
lJnlike the castra doloris, the metal sarcophagi were expected to
last. From the first decade of the eighteenth century on, they were
designed as magnificent monuments to the emperors, detailing
their apotheoses, virtues, and victories. The emblems of vanity
were reduced, whilst the dominant Christian symbol, the crucifix
on top of the sarcophagus, vanished altogether in the eighteenth
century. In the seventeenth century (and earlier), there were few
sarcophagi without a crucifix. As a rule, it was attached to the
head end of the coiEn. In the late seventeenth century, a skull was
frequendy added. In the eighteenth century, the sarcophagus of
Leopold I also had a crown on a cushion, and an eagle bearing
the epigraph;B7 the sarcophagus ofJoseph I still has a crucifix and
the crown on a cushion. However, the sarcophagus is crowned by
two cherubs, one of which holds a victor's wreath and a snake
forrning a circle with its tail in its mouth, the other a trumpet and
a medaIlion bearing the Emperor's portrait. In both cases, the
skulls on the sarcophagus have been moved down to the foot end,
and are somewhat separate. The sarcophagi of Charles VI, and
Francis land Maria Theresa (erected in 1754) do not have a
crucifix. The sarcophagus of J oseph 11 is, consistendy, decorated
not with a crucifix but .vith a simple hammered cross. In the later
eighteenth century, the crucifix in association with crowns is rare,
and appears on the sarcophagi mainly of fernale members of the
dynasty. In the course of the nineteenth-century Restoration
period, however, it makes a comeback. BB
R6 Hawlik-van de Water, Kapuzinergrufi, !ZO. Und er the reign ofLeopold n the crypt
had about fifty visitors daily in the summer and about ten daily in the winter, ibid. 53.
The reduction in size of the room with altar is ilIustrated in Herrgott, Taphographia, ii.
tabulae LXX and LXXXVIII.
87 Ibid.
88 For crucifixes on the sarcophagi of Archduchess Johanna Gabriela (died 1762),
MariaJpsepha (died '767), and Archduke KariJoseph (died 176,) see Hawlik-van de