Emperor Francis I (Francis Stephen, Duke of Lorraine) (1708−1765)
Artist: Johann Zoffani (German, 1733 Frankfurt am Main - 1810
Date: 1776-1777
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Austria
Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor
Francis I (8 December 1708 – 18 August 1765) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1745 to 1765, Archduke of Austria from 1740 to 1765, Duke of Lorraine and Bar from 1729 to 1737, and Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1737 to 1765. He became the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, Austria, and Tuscany through his marriage to his second cousin Maria Theresa of Austria, daughter of Emperor Charles VI. Francis was the last non-Habsburg monarch of the Empire. The couple were the founders of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty, and their marriage produced sixteen children.
Emperor Franz I Stephan, husband of Maria Theresa, appears here surrounded by objects that testify to his scientific and artistic interests: a telescope, an armillary sphere, shells, fossils, and sawfish bones. A violin rests on open music on an open coin cabinet, and he holds a coin in his hands. The portrait was created after the death of Franz I Stephan and is based on portraits by the court painter Martin van Meytens. Nevertheless, Zoffani completely reshaped the late Baroque decorative models in the spirit of a new, early neoclassical portrait ideal.