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- BIOGRAPHY
Isabella was born in Brussels on 13 October 1703, the daughter of Comte Jean Philippe Eugène de Merode, marquis de Westerloo, and his first wife Maria Teresa Pignatelli, duchessa di Monteleone. On 12 May 1717 in Brussels she married Graf Frantisek Josef Czernin von Chudenitz, son of Graf Hermann Jakub Czernin von Chudenitz and his first wife Gräfin Maria Josepha Slavata z Chlumu a Kasumberka. They had five children, of whom two daughters and a son would have progeny.
Both Frantisek Josef and Isabella were generous benefactors to the arts. In the Bohemian town of Manetin, linked to Frantisek Josef's cousins the Lazansky von Bukowa family, he commissioned a statue of St. Joseph with baby Jesus in 1733. Isabella had commissioned a statue of St. Anne and the Virgin Mary in 1732.
In 1723 Frantisek Josef had been hit by a major financial crisis; like many other rich noble families, the Czernins had felt compelled to advance considerable credit to the emperor, which forced them to economies in their private initiatives and the operation of their estates. Frantisek Josef died unexpectedly on 4 March 1733 in Vienna. After his death an inventory of the beautiful contents of the still uncompleted Prague palace came to 282 pages. The contents included some 1100 paintings by European masters, as well as furniture, mirrors, silver, porcelain, carpets and Gobelin tapestries. However his estate was insufficient to cover his debts, and his widow Isabella had to ask his friend Franz Anton von Sporck to buy back the estate of Lissa, which he did for 320,000 Gulden.
On 31 May 1735 in Prague, Isabella married Frantisek Josef's younger half-brother Frantisek Antonin, the son of Graf Hermann Jakub Czernin and his second wife Gräfin Antonie Josefa von Küenburg. They had a daughter Maria Ludmilla who would have progeny, marrying August Antonin, Fürst von Lobkowicz. Frantisek Antonin was able to rebuild the Czernin family fortune before he died on 20 December 1739, less than two years after the birth of Maria Ludmilla, who was brought up by her mother.
Isabella died in the Czernin chateau of Jindrichuv Hradec (Neuhaus) on 1 April 1780, over 40 years after the death of her second husband.
The Cleveland Museum of Arts has a Savonnerie factory chair with matching tapestry made in 1717, that formed part of the original suite of tapestries and furniture made for the marriage of Isabella and her first husband Frantisek Josef. The tapestries bear the coats of arms of the Czernin von Chudenitz and Merode-Westerloo families.
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