Book

A central building with an ornamented canopy moulded and surrounded by two pairs of columns on each side, with several mythological and allegorical figures — among them Mars, Mercury, Fides, Religio. These figures, like the other motifs of this sophisticated composition, glorify the magnificent deeds and virtues of the deceased. In the tympanum of the canopy is the coat-of-arms of Eugene, Prince of Savoy, with his idealized equestrian portrait at the top. The castrum doloris reproduced on the engraving was ordered by the Emperor's court and put up in St. Stephan's cathedral (Stephansdom) in Vienna, where his bier lay. Eugene, Prince of Savoy was the best strategist of the Habsburg monarchy, establishing the dominance of the dynasty over a wide area. As to the construction and motifs, the work follows the type of castrum doloris used for the Emperor Leopold I in 1705. It stood at the same place and was also planned by J. L. von Hildebrandt, one of the most famous architects of the baroque period. The engraving exhibited is to be found in the following book: (with the Latin and French text of the inscription of the Prince's tomb on the opposite page) Histoire Militaire du Prince Eugene, du Due de Marlborough, et du Prince d'Orange et de Nassau-Frise. Ed. Rousset, M. Vol. 3., The Hague, 1747. p. 359.