Franz Anton von Sporck

Engraving by Count FA Sporck from 1735

Franz Anton Reichsgraf von Sporck (born March 9, 1662 in Lissa on the Elbe or Hermannstädtel , † March 30, 1738 in Lissa on the Elbe ) was an important art patron and publisher .

Life

Medal of the Order of St. Hubert 1723

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Born as the first of four children of the equestrian general and imperial count Johann von Sporck and his second wife Eleonore Maria von Fineke , he would have had the best possible conditions for a peaceful, carefree life. He attended school in Hermannstädtel and at the age of eight he began to take lessons from the Jesuits in Kuttenberg , not far from Sporck's Maleschau estate . In 1675 he attended lectures in philosophy and law at the Karl Ferdinand University in Prague's Clementinum . When his father Johann von Sporck died in 1679, he was not yet of legal age. Only in 1684 could he take over part of his patrimony. This consisted of the dominions Lissa, Maleschau, Konojedy ( Okres Praha-východ ) and Gradlitz . He later built his own residence on the latter property in north-east Bohemia. He also inherited the family palace in Prague and a considerable sum of money.

Before that, in 1680 and 1681, he had made a cavalier tour of Europe, as was the custom for young nobles at the time. He traveled to Italy and stayed in Rome for a long time. He came to Madrid in Spain via Turin and the south of France. He stayed in Paris for a while and then returned to Bohemia via London, The Hague and Brussels. In the spring of 1682 he went to Paris a second time.

In 1687 Sporck married the twenty-year-old Franziska Apollonia Reichsfreiin von Swéerts-Reist, daughter of Baron Franz Johann von Sweerts-Reist (1613–1700), with whom he lived happily for almost forty years, while his brother-in-law Franz Karl Freiherr von Swéerts -Travels the younger sister of the count, Maria Sabina, married. Sporck's older daughter Maria Eleonora (* July 13, 1687; † January 29, 1717) joined the Order of the Poor Clares after an affair with Count Kinsky ; For this purpose her father set up a monastery in Gradlitz Castle , where she died in 1717 at the age of 30. The younger daughter Anna Katharina (1689–1754) married Franz Karl Rudolph von Swéerts-Sporck in 1712, with whom she had two children.

From 1690 the count held the honorary office of chamberlain and from 1692 that of the real secret council. In 1691 the then 29-year-old Count was appointed governor by Emperor Leopold I. As the highest state college, the Lieutenancy led the government “instead of and in the name” of the king. She interrupted her activities for the time the monarch was in the country. However, Sporck did not attach any importance to these things and preferred to turn to other things such as hunting (foundation of the St. Hubertus Order in 1695).

In 1694, the Prague doctor JF Love confirmed the healing properties of the spring, which rose on the left bank of the Elbe in the picturesque valley not far from Gradlitz in the south of the property. Sporck had the Bad Kuks built here; he commissioned the architect Giovanni Battista Alliprandi with the overall concept, design and execution and for the stone carving he engaged Giovanni Pietro della Torre - a typical example of the popularity of Italian builders in the Habsburg monarchy. The bath and a castle were built on the left bank, while on the right bank, on the hill, a hospice with the Church of the Most Holy Trinity was built for war veterans and old servants, for which he set up a foundation. Not to be forgotten is the great sculptor Matthias Bernhard Braun , who created some of his best works here.

Graf von Sporck died shortly after his 76th birthday. He is said to be the founder of Freemasonry in Bohemia. However, this cannot be proven scientifically.

religion

Like few nobles of his time, he published numerous works in his private printing press, possibly around 150 religious and philosophical treatises, in order to spread his views. In part, these were translations of French originals, which u. a. by his daughter Anna Katharina (* 1689). Sporck also had his own engraving workshop; Johann Daniel, the son of the Nuremberg engraver Joseph à Montalegre , and the former apprentice and second husband of the widow Montalegre, Michael Heinrich Rentz, worked here . Visiting several prominent scholars from Germany was part of Spork's rich social life.

His keen interest in theology and religion should bring the count the darkest hours of his life, caused by censorship , oppression and the rigorous use of force. These were in the hands of the Jesuits in the early 18th century, which was confirmed in 1715 by a government order condemning both the publication and the distribution of any satirical books, tracts and pictures. In 1729 , the Jesuit Antonín Koniáš published a bibliographical index of heretical books, which served as a guideline for searching private libraries. These "heretical" books were confiscated and partially replaced by Catholic titles. Unauthorized offices had to be closed. Printing presses were only allowed to be operated in university towns and places with higher administration. Even so, large quantities of unauthorized titles in Czech and German were smuggled into Bohemia. Most of them were religious publications that were printed in the German border towns of Zittau and Pirna .

Count von Sporck was very interested in Jansenism and the teachings of non-Catholic theologians. In addition to the theological work already mentioned, he also financed the printing of treatises on medicine and physics. Spork's office in Lissa had been closed by the Jesuits in 1712, so he had most of the titles printed outside of Bohemia. These were then smuggled into the country in various ingenious ways - in 1725 he even had an entire non-Catholic library fetched from Silesia, although importing this literature was punishable by death.

On July 26, 1729, Kuks was occupied by a division of the Carafa regiment , and Sporck received an imperial letter authorizing the confiscation of all of his books. Spork was arrested and taken to Prague for questioning. The confiscation and revision of his 30,000-volume library was only the beginning of a long trial that eventually saw Sporck accused of heresy and its proliferation. The punishments included the loss of his property rights and property, a fine of 100,000 gold pieces, the loss of his books and life imprisonment under strict surveillance. He was spared this, however: On March 13, 1733, Sporck was sentenced to a fine of 6,000 gold pieces and the assumption of court costs for disregarding the imperial prohibition of printing while circumventing the censorship.

Cultural interests

Von Sporck was also interested in music. In spring 1682 he got to know the French horn (Cor de Chasse) at court in Versailles and had two of his musicians learn this instrument. Back in Bohemia, they spread their knowledge, and their instruments were soon copied by Nuremberg instrument makers.

After the enthusiastically received world premiere of the Festa teatrale Costanza e Fortezza by Johann Josef Fux as the coronation opera for Emperor Charles VI. On the occasion of the King of Bohemia (August 28, 1723), the aristocrats there became so enthusiastic about Italian opera that they began to perform these works in their private theaters. Sporck also maintained a permanent opera stage for many years, both in Kuks and performed in his Prague palace. This ensemble, which consisted mainly of Italian musicians, led z. B. the premieres of several operas by Antonio Vivaldi . Among others, it is thanks to him that the first public opera house in Bohemia was founded in 1724 in Prague.

The narrowing of his liberal spirit by the process may have been the reason why he turned to Leipzig in his later years - a haven of freedom and, above all, of literature with an exemplary public musical life. The great Picander started his first collection of poems in 1725 with an ode to the count. Given the friendly relationships that developed here, it is quite likely that Sporck was also a guest at Bach's house and that mutual admiration inspired the composer to create a composition that was adapted to the Count's situation. The autograph score of the “Sanctus” of the B minor Mass contains Bach's note that the voices are “in Bohemia by Graff Sporck”. The Kyrie Gloria Masses are also associated with these visits, for which Bach compiled movements from existing cantatas and parodied them on the Latin text .

literature

• Constantin von Wurzbach : Spork, Franz Anton Graf . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 36th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1878, pp. 219–232 ( digitized version ).
• Gustav Edmund Pazaurek: Franz Anton, Reichsgraf von Sporck: a patron of the baroque period and his favorite creation . Kukus. Leipzig, 1901.
• Heinrich Benedikt : Franz Anton Graf von Sporck (1662–1738). On the culture of the Baroque period in Bohemia . Manz-Verlag, Vienna 1923.
• H. Jelínek: Histoire de la Littérature Tchèque . Paris, 1930.
• Eugen Lennhoff, Oskar Posner: Internationales Freemaurer-Lexikon , 1491 f., Amalthea-Verlag, 1932. (Unchanged reprint 1973: ISBN 8-85002-038-X ).
• Daniel E. Freeman : The Opera Theater of Count Franz Anton von Sporck in Prague . Stuyvesant, New York, 1992.

Web links

Commons : František Antonín Špork  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• History of the St. Hubert order
• Sporck importance in the Baroque music (English)
• International Library Directory, Kuks
• Franz Anton von Sporck in the Bavarian Musicians' Lexicon Online (BMLO)