Alberto Camesina

Alberto Camesina (also Albert Camesina or Camesina ) (* 15. February 1675 in Monticello, municipality of San Vittore ; † 19th October 1756 in Vienna ) was a Graubündner Baroque - plasterer , who in Salzburg worked and Vienna.

Life

His parents were Antonio Camesina and Barbara, née Angelini. He was the nephew of the Baroque master builder Giovanni Battista Camessina from Graubünden . It is not known when Alberto, who had several siblings, came to Vienna. He became court plasterer under Emperor Leopold I , but had to give up his title in 1706 after his death. Since his efforts to regain freedom from court failed, he joined the Viennese stucco guild in 1710. In 1710 he was also granted citizenship. In 1713 he married Maria Elisabeth Carove, with whom he had three sons and a daughter.

In 1714 he was appointed court plasterer together with Santino Bussi from Ticino , the leading plasterer of the time and Alberto's teacher. With Bussi he often stuccoed buildings by the architects Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt in Vienna . In 1719 he bought a house at Schulerstraße 845 (today Domgasse 5) from his father-in-law Andrea Simone Carove , in which Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart lived from 1784 to 1787 (“Figarohaus” or “ Mozarthaus Vienna ”); one of the rooms in it, which was lavishly stuccoed by Alberto around 1730, must have been a model room for potential customers. Mozart wrote some of his most famous works in this apartment, including the opera " Le nozze di Figaro ", which premiered on May 1, 1786 , the setting of the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe poem "Das Veilchen" (June 1785) and the string quartets dedicated to Joseph Haydn ( 1785).

Of Albertos Camesina's descendants, his great-grandson Albert Camesina (1806–1881) became known as a historian and graphic artist.

Stucco

High altar of the Karlskirche with the stucco apotheosis of St. Charles Borromeo

• in Štattenberg Castle above the village of Makole near Slovenska Bistrica (today Slovenia)
• 1710 in Salzburg under Prince-Bishop Franz Anton von Harrach : Mirabell Palace (1818 stucco destroyed by fire)
• 1710 in the Salzburg Residence : Ceilings of the knight's and conference hall, audience hall
• 1710–1756 in Vienna: 1713 coat of arms hall in the old town hall ; around 1713 Hofburg (stucco ceilings no longer exist); 1713–1716 Palais Daun-Kinsky (?); 1714–1723 Lower and Upper Belvedere ; 1716 Hetzendorf Castle , ceiling on the ground floor (attribution); 1716 St. Peter's Church , drum zone of the dome ; after 1719 the Camesinahaus at Schulerstraße 8; 1720–1722 Teutonic Order Church and Teutonic Order House (?); 1724 Mariabrunn parish and pilgrimage church , Eustachius Altar (attribution); 1725 and later Karlskirche , stucco ceiling in the sacristies, oratorios and in the choir dome (on the high altar stucco relief Albertos with the ascension of St. Karl Borromeo on a cloud full of angels); until 1727 court library (now Austrian National Library ), including state hall ; 1730 Peterskirche, choir
• 1712 in Bruck an der Leitha in Harrach Castle (together with Bussi) (today exhibition area)
• 1728 in Schloss Hof an der March (together with Bussi) (original stucco mostly missing); In the chapel, the angels created by Bussi and Alberto Camesina to the side of the red marble wall altar and the medallions with the allegorical representations of the seven main virtues are still preserved.
• 1740 Stucco ceiling in the Bräu am Stain with Christian motifs of charity and allegorical depictions of the four continents (today: Hotel Stein) in Salzburg.

literature

• Michael Kühlenthal (Ed.): Graubündner builders and plasterers. Munich 1997.
• Max Pfister: Master builder from Graubünden - pioneer of the baroque. Bündnermonthsblatt, Chur 1993, pp. 84f., 231.
• Leopold Sailer: The plasterers. (The Artists of Vienna, Volume I). Rohrer, Vienna 1943, p. 76f.
• Cesare Santi: Alberto Camessina. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . April 2, 2003 , accessed April 20, 2020 .
• Arnoldo Marcelliano Zendralli: Emigrazione ed emigrati di Mesolcina. Le maestranze svizzero-italiane nella storia dell'artte dei paesi nordici. Fish doctor è mesolcinese? Alberto Camessina. Giuseppe Giorgio Toscano del Banner. In: Bollettino storico della Svizzera italiana. 1927, pp. 93-106; the same: builders and plasterers from Graubünden in Germany during the Baroque and Rococo periods. Zurich 1930.

Web links

• Camesina's activities in Vienna ( Memento from October 22, 2002 in the Internet Archive )
• Photos of the restored Salzburg residence rooms
• Entry about Alberto Camesina on Artisti Italiani in Austria , a project of the University of Innsbruck
• Biography Alberto Camesina on tessinerkuenstler-ineuropa.ch

Individual evidence

1. ^ Cesare Santi: Giovanni Battista Camessina. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . April 2, 2003 , accessed April 20, 2020 .
2. ↑ Alberto Camesina. In: Sikart
3. ↑ www.stadt-salzburg.at