A Sledge Carousel in the Courtyard of the Hofburg, Vienna in the reign of Leopold I

A favourite pastime of the Viennese during the Winter months was to sledge-ride at night in the squares and streets of the old city. The long procession of richly ornate sledges in the present picture is accompanied by footmen and cavaliers carrying torches to light this spectacular scene in the Innere Hofburg. The sledges of the aristocrats enter the Hofburg through the archway of the Schweitzer Tor on the right. In the foreground, the Emperor Joseph I (1678-1711) wearing a red coat, drives the sledge drawn by a grey horse with white plumage. The lady on his left might be one of his sisters, rather than his future wife Amelie Wilhelmine von Braunsweig-Lneburg, whom he was to marry in 1699 (see catalogue of the exhibition, Maria Theresia und ihre Zeit, Schloss Schönbrunn, Vienna, 13 May-26 Oct. 1980, p. 577, no. 148,05).

In the eighteenth century, a picture of the 'Entsatz von Wien' by Joris van Bredael was recorded, but no picture by this Antwerp artist remains (Thieme-Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon, etc., Leipzig, 1910, p. 563). The Viennese subject and the signature of the present picture strengthens the hypothesis that Joris, and not his father, Pieter van Breda, is the author of this picture.

We are grateful to Hofrat Dr. Georg Kugler for suggesting the identification of the emperor.