The painting by Martin van Meytens, court painter to Empress Maria Theresa, and his studio shows the banquet held in the Römer in Frankfurt am Main on the occasion of the coronation of Joseph II as Roman-German king on 3 April 1764.

The monumental work gives an impressive depiction of court dining ceremonial and is frequently used to illustrate the culture of imperial dining during the Baroque age. The placing of the guests attending the banquet and the accoutrements assigned according to rank were subject to a strict hierarchy. Evolving out of the power structure in the Holy Roman Empire, the ceremonial at the coronation banquet remained essentially unchanged down the centuries. Recorded in countless engravings and here in a detailed painting, the transient moment of the coronation banquet was captured for posterity.

The banqueting tables are laid with magnificent silver and gold services from the Silver Collection. A striking feature in the picture are the tall sideboards or racks lining the walls, their height exaggerated for emphasis. It was here that guests at the banquet displayed plate that they had brought for this purpose from their own courts. Three of these sideboards were reserved for the emperor. The sheer amount of gold and silver tableware was a visual attestation of power and influence. The elevated table of Emperor Franz I, who sat next to his son Joseph, was laid with Viennese plate in pure gold. Made by Würth, the leading gold and silversmith in Vienna at the time, the gold service had been a wedding gift to Crown Prince and his bride Isabella of Parma in 1760. In 1797, in order to restore the national finances, Emperor Franz II/I gave orders for this service to be melted down for coin. On being handed over to the Mint, its weight was assessed at around 220 kilograms.