Footnotes

Provenance:
With Neumeister, 19 September 1975 no. 30, plate 3;
The Sperling Collection, Munich

Literature:
Rainer Rückert, Kurfürst Max Emanuel - Bayern und Europa um 1700 (1976), p. 326.

Exhibited:
Munich, Schloss Schleissheim, 'Kurfürst Max Emanuel - Bayern und Europa um 1700', 2 July - 3 October 1976

Another, less elaborate example of the same scene painted by Georg Michael Tauber is in a German private collection, also illustrated in the above mentioned exhibition catalogue, cat.no. 750.

Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria (1662 – 1726), was a Wittelsbach ruler of Bavaria and a Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire. He was also the last governor of the Spanish Netherlands and Duke of Luxembourg. He inherited the elector's mantle while still a minor in 1679 and remained under regency of his uncle Maximilian Philipp until 1680. 1683 signalled the start of his long military career, fighting in the Siege of Vienna. He returned to marry Maria Antonia, daughter of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor and Margaret Theresa of Spain, on 15 July 1685 in Vienna. The union resulted in several children and successfully produced an heir for both Bavaria and a pretender to the throne of the Spanish monarchy.

In aid of his ambition to become Holy Roman Emperor, Max Emanuel created a union of all lines of the Wittelsbach dynasty to increase the influence of his house in 1724. The Wittelsbach prince-electors Max Emanuel, his son Clemens August of Cologne, Charles III Philip, Elector Palatine and Franz Ludwig of Trier had, at that time, four votes at their disposal for the next imperial election. The Crown of the Holy Roman Empire was sought, but not acquired, for either Max Emanuel or his son Charles Albert.

During his entire reign Maximilian II Emanuel patronised the arts. As Governor of the Spanish Netherlands he acquired numerous Dutch and Flemish paintings for the Wittelsbach collection (now in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich). Architecturally, first half of Max Emanuel's reign was still dominated by Italian court artists like Enrico Zuccalli and Giovanni Antonio Viscardi. Between 1684 and 1688, Zuccalli built Italian style Lustheim Palace (now the home of the Schneider Collection of Meissen porcelain) for Max Emanuel and his first wife Maria Antonia, located on a central island. With the appointment of Joseph Effner serving as chief architect of the court and the young François de Cuvilliés as his assistant, the French influence significantly increased and marked the era of Bavarian Rococo.

In this period Schloss Nymphenburg was enlarged and the new Schleissheim Palace was finally completed. These palaces were connected with a network of canals following a system Max Emanuel had become acquainted with in the Netherlands.