The Interdependency of Literature, Architecture, Theater and Music as an Expression of Baroque Absolutism at the Hapsburg Court in Vienna

Abstract

Art and philosophy are at all times connected with the spiritual life of ruling forces and political systems. Even if they argue with or fight the state power, they still depend on its doctrine. This can be demonstrated with obvious examples of our time, but in most cases we are too personally involved to objectively analyse the different positions, methods and ideas; we may have difficulties in separating messages from the mechanism with which they are presented, in seeing how they serve a specific purpose. We can be made aware of such present-day interdependencies of the arts and politics by looking into the past, into a period which is definitely over and gone forever; a period which is therefore an ideal basis for research in an interdisciplinary context. Seventeenth-century Baroque culture is mostly discussed from the standpoint of fine art or music history. With the following ideas, I will consider some historical facts in a wider context and will therefore offer some theses for a later discussion.