I really like going to Vienna, and usually when I'm there I go and see an exhibition or two. This time the Wagenburg, part of Schönborn Castle, was the destination.
This place is basically intended to showcase the carriages used by the Habsburg royal family and the court, as well as Sissi's love for horses. This time, visitors were invited with the special feature that the Schönbrunn Imperial Carriage Museum went on the trail of one of the most famous and mysterious dresses in our history and presented Sissi's "Mysterious Dress" - the wedding dress of Empress Elisabeth of Austria.
According to the museum's description:
“The portrait of the Empress, painted in 1857, was rediscovered in 2021 and shows the accompanying dress, which allowed the ensemble to be reconstructed using state-of-the-art technology. The spectacular result is being presented to the public for the first time here, together with the painting.
The largely unknown portrait came to Vienna on loan from the Silesian National Museum in Opava, Czech Republic, and will be on display at the Imperial Carriage Museum until February 25, 2024. Only during this time will it be possible to directly compare the historical display with the preserved horse-drawn carriage. However, the reconstructed dress, together with the carriage, will in future be on permanent display at the Imperial Carriage Museum, as a new highlight of the Sissi route.
The presentation is accompanied by a video documenting the exciting story of the search for traces of the mysterious wedding dress. As its appearance has not yet been documented by a reliable source, it is currently not possible to definitively prove or disprove whether Sissi actually wore the dress shown in the portrait at her wedding on April 24, 1854, at the church of the Augustinians.
In other words, based on the description, there is still no solid evidence that the empress actually wore this dress at her wedding, as several portraits of her were taken during her life in which she is depicted in attire that resembles a bridal gown.
In any case, I went to see the dress and the portrait side by side with great excitement, lingering on the small details. Unfortunately, I had to say that the dress reconstructed with the “most modern technology” far exceeded my expectations. The portrait depicts every tiny lace of the dress in great detail, while the reconstructed dress is not only made with the same material and technique, but unfortunately, it is almost featureless compared to the portrait, and this is easily noticeable even to an uninitiated eye. I don’t understand why the museum didn’t spend the time and money to hire lace makers instead of painting/printing the surface of the material in imitation of the lace pattern, not to mention the quality of the material.
The portrait was originally scheduled to be in the museum until 2023.11.05, but this has been extended until 2024.02.25. Anyone who would like to see the truly magnificent portrait and the dress side by side should go by February, but in my opinion, it will be a waste of time if the dress is not directly next to the portrait, which blatantly shows the shortcomings of the reconstructed dress.
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