Vienna: Religion & Commerce

In his two views of the Freyung square, Bellotto stages Vienna’s religious and commercial life. Before the Schottenkirche unfolds a procession, often interpreted as Corpus Christi, which would have required an ornate monstrance like the one exhibited here. A closer look however suggests that the priest is carrying a relic instead, likely from one of the abbey’s confraternities. Whatever the rite, the choreography of deference—aristocrats, monks, and servants bowing in unison—skillfully focuses attention on the procession. The other view of the square shows teeming market life. Bellotto’s meticulous rendering of street vendors anticipates Johann Christian Brand’s series of etchings, the Wiener Kaufruf (1775). Bellotto shares this almost ethnographic attention to Vienna’s populace.