Johann Heinrich Füger 1788:

It has come to such a pass that painters and sculptors are scarce able to earn a crust. The Court commissions nothing, churches and monasteries are not permitted to. The nobility has either no taste or inclination for such works of art or too little money. … It is people’s vanity alone that still feeds the painters with portraits and to some extent the sculptors.

In 1788 the director of the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, Johann Heinrich Füger, expressed his concern over the lack of commissions, and complaint was brought to the notice of State Chancellor Prince Kaunitz.