Very little information about the chair at the ArtefactPorn subreddit post except that it was "made for Holy Roman Empress Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, 1740." Her Wikipedia entry suggests that the wheelchair might have been made necessary by physician-induced obesity:
The marriage of Elisabeth Christine was dominated by the pressure upon her to give birth to a male heir. This she later fulfilled when she gave birth to a male heir named Archduke Leopold John in 1716. However, at age 7 months the infant Leopold died. She reportedly found the situation very stressing and was tormented by the loss of confidence in Charles VI that this caused. Three years after her marriage, court doctors prescribed large doses of liquor to make her more fertile, which gave her face a permanent blush. During her 1725 pregnancy, Charles unsuccessfully had her bedchamber decorated with erotic images of male beauty so as to make her expected baby male by stimulating her fantasy. After this, the court doctors prescribed a rich diet to increase her fertility, which made her so fat that she became unable to walk, experienced breathing problems, insomnia and dropsy and had to be lowered into her chairs by a specially constructed machine.
Addendum: Reader Andrea P found the website of the Möbelmuseum (furniture museum) in Vienna where this wheelchair is located. A quick search of the "Baroque and Rococo" section yielded this photo of the companion commode:
In today's environment, it takes some doing to bring out my inner feminist. But, this story does the trick. (Though I suppose it could still be argued this kind insanity is more about class than gender.)
ReplyDeleteTheir problem with conceiving a healthy son might have been related to Charles VI's inbreeding. His father, Leopold I, had only six grandparents while Charles himself had only twelve great-grandparents.
ReplyDeleteHere's another wheelchair of note which belonged to Michael Faraday: https://wellcomecollection.org/works/zu3f6vxf.
I understand your point, but am puzzled by the details about Leopold's father having "only" six grandparents (most people have four) and Charles with "only twelve" great-grandparents (most people have eight).
ReplyDeleteThanks for querying my comment. Leopold I, Charles V's father, of course, had six great-grand-parents rather than eight, and Charles had twelve great-great-grand-parents rather than sixteen.
ReplyDeleteExcellent. Related: https://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2011/01/genetic-map-of-hapsburg-jaw.html
DeleteAnother 300 years on, they will be talking about our medical knowledge and practices in just such opaquely dismissive terms as these.
ReplyDeleteThat of course assumes that civilization 300 years in the future will be more advanced than we are now...
DeleteDidn't say who "they" were, did I?
DeleteI'm more inclined to think the world will be populated by extremophiles, in 300 years, like that millipede living deep in the Australian crust. We Hapsburg-types having had our day. I see nothing weirder in the Hapsburg behavior than our current obtuse response to environmental realities, the consequence being total--well, save the millipede.
DeleteThe wheelchair is here https://www.moebelmuseumwien.at/en/about-the-museum/the-collections
ReplyDelete