Martino Altomonte

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Susanna and the two elders , 1709, Belvedere , Vienna
Crucifix with Maria Magdalena , 1728, Belvedere , Vienna
Immaculata (1728), Sarleinsbach Upper Austria

Martino Altomonte , actually Martin Hohenberg (born May 8, 1657 in Naples , † September 14, 1745 in Heiligenkreuzerhof , Vienna ) was a Baroque painter . Together with Johann Michael Rottmayr, he is considered to be the founder of independent baroque painting in today's Austrian region.

life and work

Linz, Ursuline Church, high altar, 1738–1740

He was born in Naples as the son of the baker Michael Hohenberg. From 1672 he stayed in Rome for training purposes , where he dealt with the "neoclassical" painting of Annibale Carracci and Guido Reni . Roman and Neapolitan elements were synthesized by him in an original way. 1684 he was by King John III. Sobieski was appointed court painter to Warsaw . On this occasion he Italianized his name, as Italians were preferred as artists at the time.

On December 26, 1690, he married Barbara Dorothea Gerkien in the Church of the Holy Cross in Warsaw.

He has been in Vienna since 1700, and from 1707 he was a member of Peter Strudel’s Imperial Academy there . In addition to some altarpieces (including in the Karlskirche and the Peterskirche ), he is best known for the ceiling frescoes in the Lower Belvedere . He followed the example of Ricci , who preferred the view from below to the shortened perspective.

From 1710 to 1714 he was employed by Prince Archbishop Franz Anton von Harrach in Salzburg to design the state rooms in the residence.

Altomonte probably got his workshop in the Heiligenkreuzer Hof in Vienna in 1729 . In the 1830s he was close to the Heiligenkreuz Abbey , with which he joined in 1738 as "familiaris" .

A new high altar was built in 1736 in the Mönchhof parish church , which belonged to Heiligenkreuz Abbey . This total work of art made of Kaiserstein was built by the Kaisersteinbruch master stonemason Elias Hügel , the sculptures made of Zogelsdorf stone are by Giovanni Giuliani and the altarpiece by Martino Altomonte.

The largest painted nativity scene in Linz is also his work. It is the altar fresco, monogrammed MA 1738, Adoration of the Infant Jesus by the Three Kings in the listed Old Catholic Pruner Abbey Church . The authorship by the master has been suspected for a long time, but the restorer did not definitely confirm it until 2013.

Martino Altomonte was already 80 years old when the abbot of Wilhering Abbey ordered the high altar painting from him in 1737. The order was placed, and all the pictures for the side altars were added. This cycle of altarpieces was Altomonte's last great work.

Altomonte is buried in the cemetery in Heiligenkreuz .

After his death there were still drafts for frescoes, especially in Lower and Upper Austrian monasteries, but these were only executed by his son Bartholomäus .

In 1936 the Altomontegasse in the 12th district of Meidling and the 23rd district of Liesing was named after him.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bundesdenkmalamt (Ed.): Dehio-Handbuch Oberösterreich . 3. Edition. Anton Schroll & Co, Vienna 1958, p. 173-174 .
  2. ↑ Local news. […] Famous dead people in Baden cemeteries .. In:  Badener Zeitung , November 2, 1910, p. 3, center right (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / bzt

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Commons : Martino Altomonte  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Altomonte, Martino
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hohenberg, Martin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Founder of independent Baroque painting in Austria, Familiare of the Heiligenkreuz Abbey
DATE OF BIRTH May 8, 1657
PLACE OF BIRTH Naples
DATE OF DEATH September 14, 1745
Place of death Heiligenkreuz