The ‘war of images’ between Louis XIV and Leopold I: Jean-Baptiste Lully’s music and Il pomo d’oro in Vienna in 1667

Abstract

Abstract The current article uncovers a new concordance for an enigmatic dance suite titled Balletti francesi that was copied in Vienna in 1667, showing that all eight dances are arrangements of Lully’s music from Hercule amoureux. This finding has permitted new insights into how and why Lully’s music appeared in Vienna so early. I argue that the unusual titles of the suite, particularly the four dances for animated statues, connect it to the iconography of the opera Il pomo d’oro and to the political rivalry between Austria and France. Statue iconographies in opera and ballet differed between the imperial and French courts as part of complex strategies of monarchical representation. While much remains uncertain about the transmission and performance of the Lully Balletti francesi, the suite opens a new window on how the dominant two states of Europe engaged in strategies of cultural appropriation and political theatre, while mobilizing music within a so-called ‘war of images’.