State Coach, so-called "Mourning-Homage-Carriage"

The originally gold-plated, high-ranking state coach was adapted to a mourning carriage in the early 19th century and was painted and fitted out in black. The allegorical paintings on the coach panels by Michelangelo Unterberger were only rediscovered under the black paint in 1930. This carriage was also drawn by six or eight white horses from the Kladrub imperial stud farm. A painting on show in the Wagenburg shows the carriage being used in its original condition on the occasion of the Frankfurt coronation of Joseph II (1763).
© Monica Kurzel-Runtscheiner: Crane Neck and Gold Crepine. Courtly Splendour and Contemporary art – a confrontation, Exhibition Catalogue, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna 2004