Abstract
This article examines the layout, decoration and usages of the state chambers of the Residenz in Munich, in the period when its chief occupant, the Elector Charles Albert was elevated to the rank of Holy Roman Emperor in 1742. It situates these developments within the cultural and artistic exchanges of the eighteenth century between the houses of Bourbon, Habsburg and Wittelsbach, and the position often taken by the latter to straddle the differences between the other two families. Charles VII is shown to distance himself from the conventions of the imperial court in the usages of state chambers, aligning himself more closely with the French practice of being less guarded about his privacy. Not everything was pro-Versailles, however, and the new Bavarian emperor was careful to maintain German and imperial traditions, most notably in the use of mirrors in his decorative schemes, the key concept of the Reiche Zimmer, in part to outshine, not emulate, the Habsburgs in Vienna.
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