/internal/media/dispatcher/4788/fullWenceslas asks Rudolf von Habsburg for the Body of his Father Premysl Ottokar1826[Anton Petter]Anton PetterOil on canvas It does not take long to explain the historical background to this picture: Rudolf, the first Roman-German king from the House of Habsburg, conquered his adversary, King Ottokar II of Bohemia, in the Battle on the Marchfeld in August 1278. Ottokar was killed and his body was taken to Vienna. Yet the scene definitely did not occur as depicted by Petter. His portrayal quite simply contradicts medieval etiquette: with no entourage and wearing the coronation mantle (the coronation had taken place in Aachen in 1273), Rudolf is stepping out of St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, where the seven-year-old Wenceslas is appealing to him for his father’s dead body. Rudolf was one of the most popular Habsburgs. Legends grew around his life that painted him as a benign, god-fearing ruler. Not only the dynasty itself but also the Pietas Austriaca, the allegedly hereditary “piety of the House of Habsburg,” was traced back to Rudolf. Petter shows both as a spectacle between historic drama with two fingers pointing to Ottokar’s coffin and a sentimental melodrama with Wenceslas falling to his knees in front of Rudolf.Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/2518/rdf