As usual, political and dynastic tone has very little to do with artistic tone. This was the era of great architects – Prandtauer, Hildebrandt, Fischer von Erlach, father and son; great painters – Rottmayr, Gran and Troger, who between them made Austrian ceiling frescoes into wonderlands; and heroic sculptors including Matielli and Moll. Balthasar Moll was originally employed as a talented maker of public entertainments – floats, zany sledges and so on – but then used his Disney-like talents to make Charles VI and his wife Elisabeth Christine into the absolute star turns once they were down in
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