Archduk :: Archduke :: Eros & Thanatos

“If we are to believe Sigmund Freud, our entire lives are governed by two dominant forces, Eros and Thanatos: the principle of pleasure and the principle of death. This vital impulse leads us towards unity, growth, Faustian yearning, effective aerobic energy, and the drive toward suffering, repression, anguish and pain.

Without a doubt, the life of Ludwig Salvator is the discourse of Eros and Thanatos. When he was happy, playing with his sister in the gardens of Pitti Palace, exile came; when he was enjoying the pleasure of youthful love, the death of Archduchess Mathilda sunk him into the deepest despair; when he enthusiastically planned his trip to Dalmatia, the Emperor’s prohibition crushed his dream; when he was about to procure the boat that would make him freer and more independent, his father died, and his hope was transformed into an anxious wait.”

Trias Mercant, S., L’Arxiduc Lluís Salvador, una història de vida, Cort, 1994.