Die Karkasse, 2025 (gallery view)
oil on Belgian linen
40 x 50 cm (15,8 x 19,7 inches)
Die Karkasse, 2025 (detail)
oil on Belgian linen
40 x 50 cm (15,8 x 19,7 inches)
The painting shows the skeletal frame of a crown — a so-called house crown „Hauskrone“ — once associated with Charles VII, elected Holy Roman Emperor (*1+2) in the mid-18th century.
The image is based on a personal photograph taken in the Treasury of the Munich Residenz, where the object, listed as inventory no. 240 (*3), is labeled “Frankfurter Krone.” Unlike a traditional imperial crown „Reichskrone“, it is stripped of all ornament: no gems, no enamel, no velvet cap — only the bare metal chassis remains.
This absence is not accidental. The stones were removed and repurposed for other regalia after the end of Charles‘s short and politically ambivalent reign. The crown thus functions not as an emblem of continuity or divine right, but as a relic of substitution, contingency, and erasure.
Like Charles VII himself — a Wittelsbach emperor in a structure dominated by Habsburg continuity — the object hovers in a state of representational ambiguity: neither properly imperial nor fully ceremonial.
The painting stages this ambiguity. Unlike a historicist or commemorative depiction, the crown is rendered in close-up, isolated against a dark, neutral ground. The viewer is offered no context — no throne, no portrait, no scene of coronation — only the fragile shell of authority. I do not attempt to restore the object to symbolic wholeness; rather, the depiction foregrounds its incompleteness as its central content.
By doing so, the painting participates in a broader reflection on historical artifice, institutional power, and the fragility of legitimacy — showing an object that was already, from its origin, a placeholder.
Sources:
1 Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor.
In: Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia,
URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_VII,_Holy_Roman_Emperor
2 Holy Roman Empire.
In: Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia,
URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roman_Empire
3 Bayerische Schlösserverwaltung:
Raumbuch der Schatzkammer der Residenz München,
Inventory no. 240, URL: https://www.residenz-muenchen.de/deutsch/service/Raumbuch_Schatzkammer.pdf
4 The Man with the Golden Helmet.
In: Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia, URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_with_the_Golden_Helmet
Technical note:
The painting is stylistically related to The Man with the Golden Helmet (*4), a painting once attributed to Rembrandt but now considered the work of a pupil or follower. The citation reflects a parallel concern with misattribution, aura, and the instability of authorship, while the dimensions of the depicted crown are exact: 25,6 cm x 19,2 cm x 19,2 cm.
Charles VII as Holy Roman Emperor,
1766 by Georges Desmarées
house crown “Hauskrone“in the Treasury
at the Residenz Munich, Germany
Imperial crown “Reichskrone“ in the Imperial Treasury
at the Hofburg in Vienna, Austria
The Man with the Golden Helmet ca. 1650,
circle of Rembrandt, Gemäldegalerie Berlin