The Leopold convex mirror is composed of a gilded frame layered with three colors of transparent Venetian glass rods. Embedded in the glass rods are clear prisms of resin that add a new dimension to the frame.
The Leopold convex mirror is 10 inches in diameter. It is currently in my studio pending being shipped to my New York showroom, Profiles. Contact Russell Raiteri at 212-689-6903 if you are interested.
Jewelry for walls!
Archduke Leopold Wilhelm( 1614-1662) was the youngest son of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and Maria Anna of Bavaria.
His elder brother became Emperor Ferdinand III(1608–1657). Leopold Wilhelm served as a general in the Thirty Years War and the Franco-Spanish War. During the latter, the Spanish-Low Countries forces under Leopold Wilhelm lost the Battle of Lens in an attempt to recover the city in 1648. Later in the war, he sallied forth from the Netherlands on two occasions. On the second, he successfully seized a number of northern French forts in February–March 1652, forcing the French to withdraw forces from Catalonia to reinforce their northern frontier. This assisted Spanish forces in Spain in recovering Catalonia from the French-backed Catalan rebellion. Yawn…
He returned to Vienna after the situation in the Spanish Netherlands had deteriorated in 1656. In Vienna he was initially occupied with the administration of his various bishoprics, the Teutonic Order which he led as Grand Master and the family affairs of the imperial house. After the death of his elder brother Emperor Ferdinand III several electors put him forward for the position of Emperor. However, he stalled to allow his nephew to reach the statutory age to ascend the imperial throne, which his nephew did as Leopold II on 22 July 1658 at the age of 18 years. After devoting himself to the affairs of state, Leopold Wilhelm retired in his final years and lived exclusively for the love of art.
Archduke Leopold spent an immense amount of money on a huge collection of art. He even bought many pieces from the collection of Charles I of England after he was beheaded by the Commonwealth. He was the Charles Saatchi of his day.
Archduke Leopold Wilhelm and the artist in the archducal picture gallery in Brussels is a 1651 painting of Archduke Leopold Wihelm’s Italian art collection by the Flemish baroque painter David Teniers the Younger, now held in Vienna.
A Portrait of the Archduke by David Teniers the Younger in 1651.
Archduke Leopold Wilhelm and the artist in the archducal picture gallery in Brussels is a 1651 painting of additional famous paintings in Archduke Leopold Wihelm’s Italian art collection by the Flemish baroque painter David Teniers the Younger, now held in the Prado.
The painting shows the Archduke as a collector with friends admiring a set of paintings. The artist himself holds his hat in his hand and is listening to his patron as the archduke gestures with his cane towards some recent acquisitions. The paintings are arranged in rows on a rear wall, with several others on the side of the vestibule on the left, and a set that are positioned in the foreground leaning against chairs for inspection.
This painting is a copy by the artist and one of the first that David Teniers prepared to document the Archduke’s collection before he employed 12 engravers to publish his Theatrum Pictorium, considered the “first illustrated art catalog”. He published this book of engravings after the Archduke had moved to Austria and taken his collection with him. It was published in Antwerp in 1659 and again in 1673.
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