The significance of the nobility as artistic trendsetters, promotors of new artistic styles, meceneas and patrons has manifested and mostly been generally acknowledged throughout history. However, in historical perspective, the process of their decline as a social class has been in progress ever since the late 16th or early 17th century. What was initially a slow process, which enabled the elites to adjust to their declining influence, and was reflected mildly if at all in their artistic commissions and patronage, intensified in the late 18th century. It first culminated in the 1789 French revolution, continued during Napoleon's invasion and then throughout the 19th century. Revolutions and subsequent invasions resulted in the plunder and looting of aristocratic property, its depositing and subsequent musealisation. While in Russia, the fate of the nobility was determined in the revolution of 1917, in the Habsburg territories, the most significant historical milestones were the abolition of serfdom in 1848 and the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy, with the former resulting in decreasing estates (and consequently sales of residences) and the latter in the abolition of noble titles in the newly- formed successor countries. The radical agrarian and tax reforms in some of the successor states of the Habsburg Monarchy, such as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia), Czechoslovakia and Hungary, highly affected the financial and social position of the nobility, frequently resulting in increasing debts, and the sales and export of properties (including artworks and art collections). During the Second World War, especially in the post-war communist states, the mass appropriation and confiscations of aristocratic heritage occurred.

The main objective of this conference is to address how the social and political circumstances that contributed to and accompanied the nobility's decline influenced their role as trendsetters and patrons and also how they affected the reception of their artistic and architectural legacy. How did the events outlined above affect the nobility's commissions and artistic productivity at the time? The changes in social structure involved the growing influence of the new, systemised nobility from the strata of state officials and the military. How did newly-nobilitated, often highly ambitious individuals, contribute to artistic creativity and production? Did their commissions differ from those of the old and established noble houses, and, if yes, how? How did the nobility respond to the increasing influence of the bourgeoisie as patrons? Revolutions in France and the Napoleonic wars resulted in the emigration of the nobility to the Habsburg Monarchy. How did the newly- settled nobles integrate into their new communities and what legacy did they leave as commissioners, patrons and collectors? What was the role of the new and the established nobility in the adopting of new residential types and styles in architecture, interior design and residential furnishings in the late 18th and long 19th century (such as neo-styles, orientalism, Asian styles)? Moreover, we encourage topics regarding aristocratic collections, such as the adopting of new collecting trends vs. the retaining and adapting of old family collections, questions of the fragmentation of aristocratic collections (often due to inheritance or sales of estates), and topics related to the dispersal of noble collections between the late 18th and the middle of the 20th century. We wish to discuss and compare the aspects of varying, often increasingly negative attitudes towards aristocratic heritage and its fate in the new political regimes (such as mass sales, export, safeguarding, plunder, appropriations and confiscations, degradation). And, finally, we wish to address the ways in which it has been reinterpreted, protected and its new uses.