Editing Prince Eugene of Savoy (section)

== Patron of the arts ==
[[File:Portrait of Prince Eugene of Savoy Carignano.png|thumb|194x194px|Portrait of Prince Eugene by Jacob van Schuppen.]]

Eugene's rewards for his victories, his share of booty, his revenues from his abbeys in Savoy, and a steady income from his Imperial offices and governorships, enabled him to contribute to the landscape of [[Baroque architecture]]{{sfn | McKay | Baker | von Savoyen | 1977 | p=189|ps=: "Eugene's presidency of the Imperial War Council was probably worth 100,000 [[Guilder|gulden]] a year, while his governorships of Milan and the Netherlands were likely to have brought in 150,000 gulden annually.}} Eugene spent most of his life in Vienna at his Winter Palace, the [[Winter Palace of Prince Eugene|Stadtpalais]], built by [[Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach|Fischer von Erlach]]. The palace acted as his official residence and home, but for reasons that remain speculative the Prince's association with Fischer ended before the building was complete, favouring instead [[Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt]] as his chief architect.<ref>There is no indication of a quarrel with Erlach, just a desired change in style. Hildebrandt had accompanied Eugene in Italy as his siege engineer in 1695–96 and made Imperial court engineer in 1701.</ref> Eugene first employed Hildebrandt to finish the Stadtpalais before commissioning him to prepare plans for a palace on his Danubian island at [[Ráckeve]], the [[Savoy Castle in Ráckeve]]. Begun in 1701 the single-story building took twenty years to complete; yet, probably because of the [[Rákóczi's War of Independence|Rákóczi revolt]], the Prince seems to have visited it only once—after the [[Siege of Belgrade (1717)|siege of Belgrade]] in 1717.{{sfn | McKay | Baker | von Savoyen | 1977 | p=193}}

Of more importance was the grandiose complex of the two [[Belvedere, Vienna|Belvedere]] palaces in Vienna. The single-storey Lower Belvedere, with its exotic gardens and zoo, was completed in 1716. The Upper Belvedere, completed between 1720 and 1722, is a more substantial building; with sparkling white stucco walls and copper roof, it became a wonder of Europe. Eugene and Hildebrandt also converted an existing structure on his Marchfeld estate into a country seat, the [[Schloss Hof]], situated between the Rivers Danube and [[Morava (river)|Morava]].<ref>Eugene had purchased this land in 1726.</ref> The building, completed in 1729, was far less elaborate than his other projects but it was strong enough to serve as a fortress in case of need. Eugene spent much of his spare time there in his last years accommodating large hunting parties.{{sfn | McKay | Baker | von Savoyen | 1977 | p=195|ps=: "Maria Theresa brought the Schlosshof in 1755.}}

[[File:Wien - Schloss Belvedere, oberes (1).JPG|thumb|320x320px|Upper Belvedere, Vienna, the summer residence of Prince Eugene of Savoy|center]]

In the years following the Peace of Rastatt Eugene became acquainted with a large number of scholarly men. Given his position and responsiveness, they were keen to meet him: few could exist without patronage and this was probably the main reason for [[Gottfried Leibniz]]'s association with him in 1714.{{sfn | McKay | Baker | von Savoyen | 1977 | p=199|ps=: "The German philosopher got to know the Prince during his visit to Vienna in 1714, trying to persuade Charles VI to found an Academy of Science.}} Eugene also befriended the French writer [[Jean-Baptiste Rousseau]] who, by 1716, was receiving financial support from Eugene. Rousseau stayed on attached to the Prince's household, probably helping in the library, until he left for the Netherlands in 1722.<ref>Rousseau had not been long in the Netherlands before he joined the conspiracy to remove Eugene from the post of Governor-General.</ref> Another acquaintance, [[Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu|Montesquieu]], already famous for his ''[[Persian Letters]]'' when he arrived in Vienna in 1728, favourably recalled his time spent at the Prince's table. Nevertheless, Eugene had no literary pretensions of his own, and was not tempted like [[Maurice de Saxe]] or Marshal Villars to write his memoirs or books on the art of war. He did, however, become a collector on the grandest scale: his picture galleries were filled with 16th- and 17th-century Italian, Dutch and Flemish art;<ref>Henderson: ''Prince Eugen of Savoy'', p. 256. Amongst the list of artists who worked for Eugene was Italian, [[Giuseppe Crespi|Giuseppe Maria Crespi]].</ref> his library at the Stadtpalais crammed with over 15,000 books, 237 manuscripts as well as a huge collection of prints (of particular interest were books on natural history and geography). "It is hardly believable", wrote Rousseau, "that a man who carries on his shoulders the burden of almost all the affairs of Europe ... should find as much time to read as though he had nothing else to do."{{sfn | Henderson | 1964 | p=259}}

At Eugene's death his possessions and estates, except those in Hungary which the crown reclaimed, went to his niece, Princess Maria Anna Victoria, who at once decided to sell everything. The artwork was bought by [[Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia]]. Eugene's library, prints and drawings were purchased by the Emperor in 1737 and have since passed into Austrian national collections.{{sfn | McKay | Baker | von Savoyen | 1977 | p=243}}