Franziska Maria Urban

Franziska Maria Urban (MA) has been a Pre-doc Research Fellow at the NOVA University of Lisbon in 2024, collaborating on the IMCS project Imagination and Memory at the Intersection of Culture and Science (led by Dr Fabio Tononi, with participating investigator Professor David Freedberg). She studied Art History and Law at the University of Vienna and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich. Since 2021 she is pursuing her PhD at the University of Vienna (supervised by Professor Sebastian Schütze), focusing on the print collection of Count Karl Joseph von Firmian (1718–1782) at the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples. She previously worked at the research project VCHC – Vienna Centre for the History of Collecting (2020–2022) and at the Dom Museum Vienna (2022).

Research interests: History of Collecting, Prints and Drawings, Art Historiography

Current research project: Studies on the Print Collection of Karl Joseph Graf von Firmian (1718-1782) at the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples and his Circle of Advisors in Milan.

The Museo di Capodimonte in Naples preserves a collection of prints spanning 277 folios, which trace back to the Austrian diplomat and statesman Count Karl Joseph von Firmian (1718–1782). With over 20,000 prints, this largely unexplored collection reflects his career as a collector in Vienna, Naples, and Milan. As a prominent political figure in 18^th-century Austrian Lombardy, Firmian was an active patron of the arts, particularly supporting the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera. He worked closely with individuals like Carlo Bianconi and Venanzio De Pagave, both of whom served as advisors to Firmian and were key members of the intellectual network surrounding Brera. This research project investigates the relationship between Firmian’s private collection and the academic discourses on engraving at Brera, exploring potential connections, interactions and mutual dependencies. In this light, Firmian’s collection and patronage can be seen not just as personal interests but as part of broader cultural diplomacy and efforts to strengthen the Habsburg presence in the region.

Publications:

Tononi, Fabio, and Franziska Maria Urban (in progress), “The Expression of Motions and Emotions in Luca Signorelli’s Fresco Cycle of San Brizio Chapel in Orvieto (1499–1504): Memory, Imagination and Einfühlung”, 2024.
Urban, Franziska Maria (forthcoming), Essays on the Viennese collectors Nikolaus II. Esterházy de Galantha (1765–1833), Josef Lippmann von Lissingen(1827–1900), Friedrich Lippmann (1838–1903), and Eugen von Miller zu Aichholz (1835–1919), in Kunstsammler in Wien, ed. by Sebastian Schütze (Berlin: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2024).
Urban, Franziska Maria (in progress), „Adelskultur und Kulturtransfer. Die Bewahrung der Druckgraphiksammlung von Karl Joseph Graf von Firmian (1718–1782) in Neapel“, in Das Erbe der Adels- und Klosterkultur. Heritage Science aus sammlungswissenschaftlicher Perspektive (4th Heritage Science Austria Meeting, 24-25 Oct 2024), ed. by Landessammlungen Niederösterreich and Zentrum für Museale Sammlungswissenschaften der Universität für Weiterbildung Krems, 2025.

Conference Papers:

„Adelskultur und Kulturtransfer. Die Bewahrung der Druckgraphiksammlung von Karl Joseph Graf von Firmian (1718–1782) in Neapel“, 4th Heritage Science Austria Meeting: Das Erbe der Adels- und Klosterkultur. Heritage Science aus sammlungswissenschaftlicher Perspektive, Universität für Weiterbildung Krems, Austria, 24-25 October 2024.
“Il Gabinetto Firmiano. Count Carlo Firmian (1718–1782) and his collection of drawings at the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples”, International Study Course – Drawings in Theory and Practice: Connoisseurship, Collecting, Curatorial Practice, supported by the Wolfgang Ratjen Foundation, Albertina Vienna and Institute of Art History, University of Vienna, Austria, 25-29 July 2022.

Grants:

2023, University of Vienna, KWA Short-term Grants Abroad (3 months), Host Institution: Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, Naples and Archivio di Stato di Milano