Baldassare Fontana

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Baldassare Fontana (born June 26, 1661 in Chiasso , Ticino ; † October 6, 1733 ibid) was a Ticino sculptor , plasterer and architect of the late Baroque era .

Life

Baldassare Fontana came from a family of artists from Novazzano who u. a. produced the architect Carlo Fontana . He was the son of Pietro Martire Fontana and his wife Anna Maria Girola. He received his training in Rome from Carlo Fontana and the sculptors Ercole Ferrata and Antonio Raggi .

Like many Italian artists who mastered the technique of stuccoing, Fontana went to the countries north of the Alps, where building activity began after the end of the Thirty Years' War . At the age of 21, he made the figurative decorations for the ancestral hall in Hohenaschau Castle in Bavaria . After its completion in 1686, he followed the call of the Archbishop of Olomouc and decorated three halls of his newly built residence in Kremsier . Fontana found numerous other commissions in Olomouc and its surroundings. From 1695 to 1704 he worked in Krakow before he returned to Moravia and ran a prestigious workshop there. Only two years before his death, in 1731, did he return to his homeland in Ticino.

Fontana married in Chiasso in 1689 and had three children. Despite his many years of activity abroad, he always kept in touch with his home country, to which he also regularly returned in the winter months when the construction work had to rest due to the weather.

Ancestral Hall, Hohenaschau Castle
St. Anne's Church, Krakow
Library, Hradisch Monastery

plant

Baldassare Fontana was a very versatile Baroque artist who contributed greatly to the spread of this style in Moravia. It was in great demand and decorated numerous interiors in castles, churches and monasteries in the country. The result was life-size figures, reliefs and ornaments in white stucco. His activity is often related to other artists who came from Ticino, e. B. with architects.

  • 12 larger-than-life knight figures , ancestral hall, Hohenaschau Castle (1682–1683)
  • Stucco decorations in the ballrooms , Hohenaschau Castle (1684–1686)
  • Stucco decorations , Archbishop's Palace, Kremsier (1688)
  • Decoration of the Ottilien Chapel , Wischau parish church (1692)
  • Stucco decoration of the staircase , Hradisch Monastery (1692)
  • Stucco decoration of the refectory , Hradisch Monastery (1694), not preserved
  • Interior , Schebetau Castle (1694)
  • Stucco decorations , Historical Museum, Krakow (1695)
  • Façade, façade figures and stucco decorations , St. Anne's Church , Krakow (1695–1704)
  • Decoration of the choir , St. Klara Church, Alt Sandez (1699)
  • 3 facade figures , Carmelite Church, Krakow (1700)
  • Interior , Poor Clares Church, Krakow (1700–1701)
  • Decoration of the bedroom of Abbot Norbert Želecký , Konitz Castle (1702–1703)
  • Decoration of the library , Hradisch Monastery (1702–1704)
  • Decoration of the refectory , Franciscan monastery, Hungarian Hradisch (1708)
  • Statues and stucco work , St. Michael Church, Olomouc (around 1710)
  • Altar decoration and figures , Basilica of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary, Heiligenberg (1718)
  • Decoration of the monastery church , Hradisch Monastery (1718), not preserved
  • Decoration of the Basilica of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary , Heiligenberg (1722–1731)
  • Decoration of the church , Velehrad Monastery (1724–1730)
  • Interior of the summer residence of the abbots of Velehrad Monastery , Nennowitz (1725–1726)
  • Decoration of the sacristy , Hradisch Monastery (1726), not preserved
  • Decoration of the winter refectory , Hradisch Monastery (1727), not preserved
  • Decoration of the refectory , Augustinian monastery, Mährisch Sternberg (1727–1728)

literature

Web links

Commons : Baldassare Fontana  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Fontana, Baldassare
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss-Italian architect, sculptor and plasterer of the Baroque
DATE OF BIRTH June 26, 1661
PLACE OF BIRTH Chiasso in the canton of Ticino
DATE OF DEATH October 6, 1733
Place of death Chiasso