Welcome to the SchokoCafé
Sheltered by our genuine SchokoVulkan (chocolate volcano) lies the SchokoCafé. Enjoy fine drinking chocolate, coffee and delicious cakes after your tour through the SchokoMuseum.
The tale of the Chocolate Maid
Probably Nandl Baldauf, the fair daughter of a Vienna coachman, would never have dreamt of becoming immortal.
Who would not be familiar with this appealing little picture from the Semper Picture Gallery at the Dresden Zwinger, “The Chocolate Maid”? Time and again we meet Nandl in some charming reproduction.
The Empress Maria Theresia of Austria invited the most famous portrait painter of her time, Jean Etienne Liotard (1702-1789), a French rococo pastel painter, to come to Vienna to paint herself and her children … and there he noticed the lovely chambermaid and thought her so “paintworthy” that he portrayed her, too, when he stayed in Vienna. The picture shows her in her elegant livery, an exquisite silk dress with a white apron and a bonnet made of choice linen, just about to serve frothed chocolate in a Meissen porcelain cup, together with some candied fruit, on a Chinese lacquer tray. There is also a glass of water on the tray to stretch this costly beverage.
This way two little gems were passed on to posterity together: beautiful Miss Nandl and the precious chocolate, the morning beverage served at the bedside, which in those times only the wealthy upper class could afford. The picture soon became famous. Francesco, count Algarotti bought it on February 2nd, 1745 for the picture gallery of the Saxon rulers where it still forms part of the world-renowned collection.
Text: Jürgen P. Riewel
