Joseph Ferdinand Maria of Salern

Who is Joseph Ferdinand Maria of Salern?

Count Ferdinand Joseph Maria of Salern was an illegitimate son of Prince Ferdinand Maria Innocenz of Bavaria and Countess Marie Adelheid Fortunata of Spaur. He was thus a nephew of Emperor Charles VII and his brothers Clemens Augustus, elector and archbishop of Cologne, and Cardinal Johann Theodore, bishop of Freising, Regensburg and Liège.

Salern owned the Lordship of Geltolfing near Straubing. During the Napoleonic Wars, he served as a general of the artillery. From 1804, he had his own infantry regiment "Count Salern", which had been formed from the Royal Bavarian Infantry Regiment No. 4 "King William of Württemberg".

As the General Intendant for music at the Bavarian court, he was a patron of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In 1779, he was elected as a full member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities. In the painting at the top of this article, he is represented as a trusted friend of his cousin Maximilian III Joseph, in the "woodturning" cabinet at Nymphenburg Palace.