Antonio Isopi
Antonio von Isopi (born February 5, 1758 in Rome , † October 3, 1833 in Ludwigsburg ) was a Roman sculptor and plasterer of classicism at the Württemberg court.
Antonio Aloysius Petrus Isopi initially lived and worked in his hometown as a sculptor and soon specialized in the restoration of works of art from antiquity, ornamentation and animal representations. The Württemberg heraldic animals deer and lion made of cast iron from Wasseralfingen are his main work. These two colossal figures still stand today as a striking landmark on the Schloßplatz in front of the New Palace in Stuttgart .
origin
Antonio was the third son of the married couple Silvestro and Geltrude Isopi, nee Orlandi. Silvestro Isopi was since 1753 servant of Don Giuseppe Finali, a clergyman in the papal curia. The married couple Geltrude and Silvestro Isopi had eleven children between 1754 and 1772, but only four of them reached adulthood. The family initially lived in the alleyways surrounding the Fontana di Trevi in the center of Rome. From Antonio's tenth birthday until he left for Württemberg at the age of 35, they lived in an attached servants' wing of the Pope's former summer residence, the Palazzo Apostolico Quirinale - today's seat of the Italian President.
Career
Isopi trained with the sculptors Francesco Franzoni (Carrara 1734–1818 Rome) and Lorenzo Cardelli (Rome 1733–1794 Rome). The Roman art business, the rediscovery and restoration of ancient sculptures, the work of Bartolomeo Cavaceppi as a sculptor and restorer influenced the development of Isopi's style just as much as his training with Franzoni and Cardelli. He worked with them in the Villa Borghese (Fontana dei Cavalli marini, Tempietto di Diana) and in the Museo Pio Clementino (Sala dei candelabri, Sala degli animali). Cardelli's workshop was next door to Antonio Canovas , the then rising star in the art sky.
Franzoni, who came from a long-established family of stone carvers from Carrara who owned the marble quarries there, advanced to become the leading restorer of antiquities in the papal collections in the Vatican during this period. Pope Pius VI visited several times . personally the Atelier Franzonis in the Vicolo della Purificazione.
Isopi had had its own workshop and training company in Rome since the 1780s. He now taught the art of sculpture, restoration and ornamentation himself. This was very beneficial for his later work at the Württemberg court.
Courtly obligation in Stuttgart
The resident (ambassador) of Duke Carl Eugen von Württemberg to the Holy See , Gaetano Marini, referred the Roman sculptor as an ornamentist and animal sculptor to the Duke's court in Stuttgart . As a professor at the Hohen Carlsschule, he was supposed to teach “stone cutting” to the Württemberg youth. But nothing came of it, as Duke Carl Eugen, who was called to Stuttgart, died shortly after the Roman's arrival in Württemberg. As a result, the Hohe Carlsschule was dissolved.
From 1795 Isopi belonged to the "Residenz-Bau-Deputation" and worked in the castles in Stuttgart, Hohenheim , Ludwigsburg, Favorite and Monrepos . The quality of the stucco work in the castles even aroused Goethe's interest, who Isopi would have liked to have signed for Weimar . The talent that the Roman specialist showed in the filigree stone processing in the classicist decor on magnificent vases and grave monuments was also appreciated, as well as in the detailed depiction of animals.
From 1810, Isopi built an art school in Ludwigsburg that was attached to the porcelain manufacture .
Artistic freedom
Isopi's specialization in decorative marble leaves him without competition. He achieved great fame with the publication of designs for vases, urns, fountains, tombs and ornamental garden decorations.
Portrait medallions of Schiller's childhood friend Friedrich Wilhelm von Hoven and his wife Heinrike bear witness to the care and precision with which he performed his work in plaster of paris and alabaster as well as in marble.
Weimar: Goethe's commission
After Goethe's visit to Hohenheim Palace in September 1797, he tried to win the Roman sculptor and plasterer over to Weimar. Isopi was supposed to participate in the reconstruction of the Weimar Castle, which burned down in 1774, which was realized in 1798/99.
Artist institute in Ludwigsburg
Antonio Isopi mostly worked in Ludwigsburg from 1809 until his death. His teaching work at the artists' institute, which he founded himself in 1810, is particularly outstanding. This facility was affiliated with the porcelain factory, for which Isopi was to train junior staff. At the same time he supplied models and templates for work in porcelain and metal.
Isopi's teaching institute was very important for artistic training in Württemberg and its trend-setting impulse for the art and trade school, which was not founded in Stuttgart until 1829, can hardly be overestimated, as the Isopic teaching institute was for years the only training facility for artists in the whole of the state. The “ year without a summer ” after the eruption of the Tambora volcano in Indonesia in April 1815 led to shortages in the Württemberg state treasury; The institute was therefore closed in 1817 under King Wilhelm I of Württemberg.
The most successful students of the Isopische Künstlerinstitut were Johann Ludwig Hofer and Ernst Mayer , who both later made their fortune abroad, namely in Munich. Hofer was even granted a career as a court sculptor. Mayer made it to the position of professor at the Polytechnic School in Munich, where he died early at the age of 47.
Wasseralfingen: Deer and Lion, first monumental iron casting in Württemberg
After Württemberg had been elevated to kingdom in 1806, King Friedrich commissioned his now royal and ennobled court sculptor Isopi to create large representative sculptures of the Württemberg heraldic animals deer and lion ; new power relations demanded new forms of representation.
Isopi's assistant Ernst Mayer , “pioneer of iron art casting”, spent 958 working days in the Wasseralfingen ironworks alone creating molds for the two heraldic animals. The technically complex process succeeded after more than five years of experimenting with the production of the sculptures in Wasseralfingen . Isopi, his assistant Mayer, the stucco worker Schmidt and the smeltery administrator Wilhelm von Faber du Faur worked together here. The result of the effort, the two large iron sculptures completed in 1819, were a technical pioneering achievement of their time.
Glyptothek Ludwig I of Bavaria in Munich
In neighboring Bavaria there was interest in Isopi with a view to restoring the antiquities for the Glyptothek, which was under construction from 1816 to 1830 . Ludwig I appointed him, who was considered the only suitable restorer in the entire German-speaking area. Isopi worked in Munich from 1818 to 1820, where he was accompanied by his student Ernst Mayer, who initially restored antiques for the Glyptothek with his teacher and later independently.
legacy
Antonio von Isopi worked as a court sculptor for four decades from 1793 to 1833 in the service of five dukes or kings of Württemberg. Besides Johann Heinrich Dannecker and Philipp Jakob Scheffauer , he was the third important sculptor at the Württemberg court around 1800. Thanks to artists from Italy, humanistic ideals, ancient models and Mediterranean sensual pleasure inspired art in Württemberg.
Duke Carl Eugen had brought Isopi to Stuttgart, but his nephew, who later became King Friedrich I of Württemberg , was his most important client over the years. In 1812 he awarded Isopi the Knight's Cross of the Order of Civil Merit , which was associated with the personal nobility, and placed him at the head of the artists' institute in Ludwigsburg. There, these numerous students imparted the art of sculpture, ornamentation and the representation of animals based on the model of nature.
Outstanding technical perfection, performance skills and aesthetic sensitivity characterize Isopi's work. As a mediator between the Italian classicistic sense of aesthetics and creative power, as well as the South German conception of form and working method, he made a contribution to the diverse art relationships between Italy and Württemberg.
literature
- Ackermann, Frank: How Isopis Hirsch came to Stuttgart. In: Ludwigsburger Kreiszeitung, January 23, 2010, p. 8
- Boccia, Remo: Württemberg and Italy. Artist-Prince-Architects 1380 to 1929. A foray through history. Leinfelden-Echterdingen 2004, ISBN 3-87181-004-5
- Holst, Christian von (ed.): Swabian Classicism, between ideal and reality 1770-1830 . Exhibition catalog, 2 vols. Staatsgalerie Stuttgart 1993
- Köger, Annette: Antonio Isopi (1758-1833) - A Roman sculptor at the Württemberg court . 2 vol., Frankfurt / M. 1996 ISBN 3-631-30007-7
- Mayer, Ernst Theodor: Illustrated catalog raisonné by the sculptor Ernst Mayer (1796-1844), professor at the Munich Polytechnic . Munich 2007
- Oswald, Gabriele: Goethe's plastic collection - a mirror of his understanding of art . Dissertation at the Art History Institute of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg [masch.]. Halle, Weimar 2007, pp. 108–114, fig. 125–131, cat.-no. 338.
- Raible, Catharina: A creative from Rome. Antonio Isopi (1758-1833) - court sculptor and director of the artists' institute . In: Schlösser Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart 1/2008, p. 28 ff.
- Zoratto Bruno: The Italians among the Swabians . Stuttgart 1983
Individual evidence
- ↑ Goethe reports in the diaries on September 2, 1797 about his visit to Stuttgart and Hohenheim and about the impression that Isopi made on him.
- ↑ Royal Württemberg Court and State Manual 1815, page 39
Web links
- Literature by and about Antonio Isopi in the catalog of the German National Library
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Isopi, Antonio |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Isopi, Antonio of |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian-German sculptor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 5, 1758 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Rome |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 3, 1833 |
| Place of death | Ludwigsburg |