Antonio Maria de Gennaro

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Antonio Maria de Gennaro (* 1679 in Naples ; † October 3, 1744 in Vienna ) is an Italian-Austrian medalist who became an imperial court medalist in Vienna and the founder of the Vienna Engraving Academy.

Life

Antonio Maria de Gennaro was born in 1679 in Naples, which was occupied by the Austrians in 1707 and temporarily fell to Austria in 1713 as part of the War of the Spanish Succession . He had learned the craft of coin cutting at a young age and ended up in Vienna in 1712, where he was already working as a medalist and had gained a reputation and respect.

At that time, Austrian coinage was down due to the numerous Turkish wars , which were also financed with the profits from the constant lowering of the precious metal content of the coins. So the coins in circulation diverged more and more in weight and content. The rise of Antonio Maria de Gennaro began with the accession to the throne of Emperor Charles VI. in 1711, which decided to completely reorganize the coinage. The mints received new facilities. First the two Swedes Richter and Becker and later Antonio Maria de Gennaro were appointed to the Vienna Mint, who, as well-known medalists and coin cutters, had to supply the mother stocks of the coins of that time and who worked with Antonio Maria de Gennaro from 1725 to 1730.

Antonio Maria de Gennaro succeeded Emperor VI. convince them to found their own engraving academy in order to train national medalists. He had to be patient. In 1734 the engraving academy was opened with Antonio Maria de Gennaro as director and teacher and always had four students to train. The first students were Sebastian Donner and the Mattheus brothers. Although Antonio Maria de Gennaro appeared externally as director of the engraving academy, the students were trained by his first student Sebastian Donner. Although Antonio Maria de Gennaro earned attention as an artist, his ability was soon surpassed by his student Sebastian Donner, who also took over the engraving academy as director when Antonio Maria de Gennaro died on October 3, 1744 at the age of 65 in Vienna .

The archive documents of the imperial court chamber cast an unfavorable light on Antonio Maria de Gennaro, who is portrayed as ambitious, selfish and covetous to the highest degree, who always knew how to achieve his goal through deceit.

In 1956 the Gennarogasse in Vienna- Liesing (23rd district) was named after him.

Works

His oeuvre includes around 15 medals

  • Medal on the Peace of Spain
  • Medal on Heraeus
  • Gennaro 1716 Valdštejn.jpg

literature

Web links and sources

personal data
SURNAME Gennaro, Antonio Maria de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian-Austrian court medalist and director of the royal-imperial engraving academy in Vienna
DATE OF BIRTH 1679
PLACE OF BIRTH Naples
DATE OF DEATH October 3, 1744
Place of death Vienna