Set against the pillars of the grand entrance hall, on separate plinths, two life-size statues of imperial commanders from the 18th century are a good example of the combination of realism and academism in sculpture in the second half of the 19th century by a young sculptor who was just beginning his international career.

"From Lviv, C. Godebski went to Vienna; here he found a wider field to develop his artistic ability. Recommended to the Emperor by Count Goluchowski, here he made marble statues of two field marshals (...) for the museum of the Viennese arsenal. The work took a keen interest in Archduchess Sophie, who took special care of the artist," wrote Seweryna Duchińska in 1888.

This almost entirely unknown work of Polish sculpture was created during Godebski's brief Viennese episode, allowing him to raise funds for a trip to Paris. The artist found himself there in 1861, probably recommended by Count Agenor Goluchowski, governor of Galicia, for whom he had worked in Lvov; in Vienna, Godebski made several more less spectacular works for Austrian and Polish clientele. The Arsenal (Waffenmuseum, now the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum im Arsenal) was built between 1849 and 1856 as the first major building in the city's reconstruction, designed by leading architects who were soon to work on the Ring buildings (C. Förster, Th. von Hansen). In the monumental vestibule of the huge Arsenal building (where Gothic and Renaissance echoes mingle with Byzantine splendour), housed in the central risalit of the Austrian "Hall of Glory", typical of the pompous historicism of the time in Vienna, the two statues stand next to a dozen other monuments to the most eminent imperial commanders of various eras, works by Austrian and Hungarian sculptors. Godebski's works stand out among the mostly banal images for the vivid characterisation of the figures.

Count Gideon E. von Laudon (1717-1790), Austrian Field Marshal from 1779, was famous for his battles against the Prussians in Silesia during the Seven Years' War. Count Franz M. von (or de) Lacy (1725-1801), from 1763 Field Marshal of Austria, very influential politician during the Seven Years' War, was also known as a reformer of the Imperial Army.